Melbourne home from home

whoops its March and I should probably update my whereabouts in the world to anyone thats still interested in my adventures (sorry Nan) so i'm currently living out in the wilderness for my 88 days farmwork and thought while i'm on my day off I can reminisce about being part of city civilisation and living in the most liveable city in the world (several years running) MELBOURNE!

Where do I even start, first things first; for backpackers/young professionals the wage is awesome compared to home (UK) I earnt triple (even after the exchange rate) of what I did back home in hospitality, making working in a bar a job you can actually survive on. Also the rent is lower than what i would pay back home but again receiving more.

Brunswick

I lived in suburb Brunswick north of the CBD which was one of the more hipster neighbourhoods, think vegan cafes, op shops, vintage clothing and tons of cool bars lining the main road through it (Sydney Road) which is like the less pretentious sister to Fitzroy (another hipster neighbourhood with a higher rent price) in Brunswick you had your easy boozers, such as 'the Retreat' which often has live music, a chill vibe and an eclectic mix of people that frequent it. You've also got Edinburgh Castle, which has great food deals and a great quiz night. If your into all styles of music Bar Oussou was my favourite Brunswick haunt, home to the most incredible Jazz musicians on thursdays, guaranteed good open mic performers on mondays and awesome world music day parties on sundays. for great takeaway pizza the more expensive but delicious 400 gradi lives on Sydney Road, and for Brunch Lux Foundry is pretty great.

Fitzroy

If you can afford it Fitzroy is also a great place to live right in the centre of another creative hub, the main streets Brunswick St and Lygon St are home to some of the greatest independent design shops i've come across travelling, so many amazing young fashion designers it's also home to some great bars and eateries, Naked for Satan being my personal favourite brunch stop, they also have a rooftop bar with a decent view of Melbourne, and during the week 12-4 its 9$ for each platter. Alimentari is another great brunch place.

CBD

The CBD is home to my favourite bar in the whole world which i safely can say i spent nearly every night of my 6 months there with my work gang, Heartbreaker on Russell st, which is an american style rock and roller dive bar, great music, jukebox, pool table and great whisky selection, the bar tenders are all great humans and its open till 3am every night, perfect for hospitality workers!

not too sure on eateries in the city but Affogato down Hardware Lane, is a cheap brunch spot, and Hardware Lane itself is a cute boutique street filled with lunch and brunch places.

Another great after hours spot is Loch and Key another late night hospitality haunt open till 5am every night, cute snug rooms to keep at those early morning drinks and a balcony for the chain smokers, plus friendly bartenders even past 4am

St Kilda

Don't know heaps about St Kilda, but from what I've seen the night life and bar scene is pretty good down there, 29th Apartment being a great small bar with a good vibe, La Roche is good for food deals, and their chicken parma is the size of me. The sunsets down there are great, especially along the pier where you can also see fairy penguins .

Other spots - 

NGV Friday nights ( CBD; Dj's booze and art exhibitions

Buck Mulligans (Northcote; Whisky and books) 

Royal Botanical Gardens (CBD) Moonlit Cinema

Ceres Environmental park (Brunswick) 

Queen Victoria Summer night markets (Food and Music) 

Amazing street art (CBD & Fitzroy, Hosier lane) 

Great Ocean Road - Victoria, Australia

So i've been very lazy in posting since I got to Australia, simply because I am having the best time. But i have done some things worthy of note which could be useful to anyone travelling over here. In terms of getting out of Melbourne I have only escaped the once so far between working and playing and that was to do the Great Ocean Road in one day a pretty hefty task especially when you don't drive, luckily one of my friends volunteered as driver and we set off on my first Australian road trip. It is one of the most beautiful routes i've ever driven down and there was so many stops to see but this is the route we did if your interested in taking a day and doing it yourself, The time to drive the whole route and back including stopping time and wandering around took roughly 15 hours and my poor friend had to drive all of it as i've been too lazy to get my drivers license.

First of all we missed out Torquey somewhere I definitely want to go see but we thought it would be better to get the first stretch of road out of the way, the first 'landmark' was the gate of the Great Ocean Road a memorial to the workers that built the road itself and of course I had to get a super cheesy picture under it.

after we went past Lorne where we went to Erskine Falls, it took around 20 minutes to walk down to the falls from where you could park and it was beautiful, pictures do not do it justice.

After Erskine falls we travelled on through down to Wye River, where we walked up Grey River road a popular place to spot Koalas (which we did) and also the birds there red and green lorikeets were super friendly and would come and sit on you. As you can probably tell by the pictures I was super happy by seeing some Australian wildlife after being in the city for so long.

After this we drove through more of the national park (Ottway) in the hope of spying some kangaroos but no luck although we saw more koalas in the trees which was pretty cute, and a kookaburra. We then drove through to Cape Ottway where we stopped for a break and walked to the lighthouse, but it was 20$ just to go look at it so we skipped and walked to the view point instead which was great. After a few more walks and minor waterfalls along the way the sun started to get pretty low so we decided to drive through to the 12 apostles.

while it was great to see something so famous, I thought the 12 apostles weren't that mindblowing, pretty sure there also isn't 12 anymore, for something that is built up so much it was a little disappointing but the coast line of the cliffs is still impressive to look at. After this it got dark so we started the journey home along the quicker route towards Geelong, we had such good weather all day which was lucky as I don't think the journey would be worth it unless you had blue skies and a bit of sun.