The Melbourne Adventure and South Morang - Part 1

Australia... the first five days

Friday, Day 1

On June 14 at 9.15am, the wheels of our Jetstar Dreamliner touched down on Australian soil. We made it? Wait, that would be too early to say. Ok, we arrived but would they let us into the country? Would anything in our luggage be a problem? Oh god, I took this one cigar with me, would the border patrol take it away from me? We wanted to celebrate our beginning adventure with it!

Clearly, we watched some episodes from the TV show "Border Patrol" and we kind of knew already that they are super strict with everything you would bring into the country. Including yourself. Surprisingly, everything went very smooth. From the aeroplane to passport control, letting the doggy sniff our luggage and to the exit, it took us only about one hour. We made it! After 2 weeks of travel, we arrived in Down Under.

First pic from Down Under

One word about the Jetstar airline: it is cheap and they have a big network and we were flying with a brand new aeroplane, the Boeing 787 "Dreamliner". However, the economy class remains economy class and everyone who has tried to sleep in an aeroplane or bus seat knows, it is kind of impossible to find a good sleeping position. Everything costs extra too. As you can imagine, we were starving and freaking tired when we hopped off the plane, finished all the immigration procedure and we needed to get to our place where we would stay for the next 2 1/2 weeks. So we had to come up with a plan:

• Step ONE: Food! I mean, thinking works better with a full belly.

• Step TWO: Changing money into Aussie Dollars. 

(One advice: Don't do it at the exchange service at the airport. They offered us a good rate but you pay also a fee. So, whatever you think you would save by a good exchange rate, you lose it with the service fee again.)

• Step THREE: Figuring out how to get to our host.

Luckily, there is UBER and Taxify/Bolt in Australia. So, via airport wifi, an UBER ride was found, booked and 4 min later our driver was there and 20 min later he dropped us off in the suburb South Morang, in the north of Melbourne.

We got to the house and after a little geocaching-like search for the keys, we could get in and were promptly greeted by two lovely dogs named Lola and Issac. Our host Catherine left us a note with a package of "TimTam". An Aussie speciality with a fun way to enjoy it. But this, we had to research ourselves first.

"I am so freaking tired, let's just take a power nap..."

Yeah, that ended up well... Instead of a power nap, we slept for almost 4 hours. Remember what you shouldn't do when you have jetlag? Well, we just did it wrong. However, Catherine and her husband Geoff greeted us after they got home and showed us also the "Plenty Valley" shopping centre, which was nearby and so we were able to buy some stuff for our first dinner. Later on, we watched Australian Football (AFL) together. At first, it looked kind of strange to me but somehow, I liked it!

Saturday, Day 2

Nothing special happened, besides that, I haven't slept for so long (14h) since quite some time. Nevertheless, we went shopping once more and checked out what else the shopping centre has to offer. Found a cinema with horrendous prices, but figured also out that with signing up, the prices do not look too bad anymore. We also saw the Southern Cross in the sky. A moment I was waiting for, especially since the night sky looks totally different from this perspective. In the evening, we watched another AFL game.

Beware of kangaroos!

Sunday, Day 3

Sunday = Sunny Day! I had to use the chance and pulled out my jogging shoes and went for the nearest hill, the "Granite Hill Park". I wasn't jogging for too long when I saw my first kangaroo. What a moment, I was looking at it and it was looking at me. Me, who has never seen a free kangaroo before and the kangaroo who has probably never seen a German before. A breathtaking moment.

Granite Hill Park with view on Melbourne

From the top of the hill, this picture was taken. In front, a rock, a bit more behind, South Morang and at the horizon, the skyline of Melbourne! Behind me, some birds were making funny noises. Many times I thought, I am hearing a ringtone but no phone in sight only birds. I haven't seen yet which bird it is, but from now on, I call it "Ringtone Bird" whenever I hear it.

When I went up and down the hill, I just realized a few things. We have a saying in German:
"Im Osten geht die Sonne auf, im Sueden nimmt sie ihren Lauf, im Westen will sie untergehn', im Norden ist sie nie zu sehn'." It is meant for everyone to remember that the sun rises east, goes along the south and sets in the west and is never ever visible in the north. This does not exactly apply here. It wanders in the north!

Little banal things that suddenly made me realise where the flip I am right now.

I was looking north-west, towards Europe which is now more than 16.000km away! At that moment I really started to feel how far from home I am. For some reason, I felt a bit homesick for a sec but at the same time, I was so proud of Kadri, of me, of us that we really made it! We are in Australia, we are on the other side of the globe and this is happening now! It is not just a dream or thought anymore!

On my way back through the town, I saw more kangaroos. Most of them even in the middle of town. I was just about to take a picture of one, which was really close to me when I heard somebody saying "Hey mate!", I turned around, a man came out of his house.

Man: "Nay, wasn't talkin to ya. I was talkin to tha roo"

Me: "Ok!"

Man: "Would ya please be so kind to tell him to f**k off and go back to the peak!?"

I couldn't take it anymore, I so had to laugh :D Eventually, I let the roo do its stuff and I moved on. Later that day, I went up to the hill again with Kadri to enjoy the sunset from there and the view on Melbourne.

Monday, Day 4

Thinking the jetlag was over, was kind of naive. That night it really hit me. I went to bed at 11pm, woke up and was awake at 2am for about an hour or two. Luckily, I fell asleep again. Kadri had to struggle too. Besides doing some organisational things, we got our "myki"-cards from PTV (Public Transport Victoria) to get into the city and around with less effort.

The biggest achievement of the day, we learned how to eat TimTams. Stay tuned!

Tuesday, Day 5

The jetlag again. I try to adjust my daily routine but some things just don't feel right yet. However, I needed to get some slippers or something. What I heard about Australian houses is definitely true, they are freaking cold in winter! Even the doggies seem to freeze and where constantly trying to cuddle with us, especially Issac. On my afternoon walk, I could see a lot more kangaroos. Almost 40 - 50!

Bunch of kangaroos

The first 5 days are over now. So many new impressions and many more will wait for us. Tomorrow we want to discover Melbourne Downtown. Next tasks for us are finding jobs, another place where we can stay and I plan to get a translation of my drivers-licence here in Melbourne at the German consulate. 

Thanks for reading so far and I hope you stay with us!