a rest stop (that wasn't) in Australia

The only sensible flights out of Vanuatu for me were those to Australia, so I decided to visit a friend in Sydney who I hadn't seen for quite a few years.  She'd kindly offered to host me for as long as I wanted, and I envisaged a week of sleeping, editing my photos from the Pacific, and catching up with online stuff.  However, I got there to find that (a) she had a full programme of entertainment mapped out, and (b) she has no wifi in her apartment but relies on data on her phone - which I couldn't even hotspot to as she has only limited data.  Not that I'm complaining, it was great to see her, there was a shopping mall with virtually unlimited wifi only a short bus ride away, and I accepted that I would just have to delay the other stuff until I moved on to my next destination.

So we went out for a number of lovely walks (Sydney is such a well-located city, with so many beautiful bays around the coastline there and lots of greenery - and birds! - inside the city), and had meals and drinks out with some very nice friends of hers.  Plus it was interesting for me to see her lifestyle.  She made a point to me that she can only afford one overseas holiday a year, but clearly she spends a lot of money on little things that make her day-to-day life pretty comfortable.  For example when she goes out to do any shopping she will stop afterwards for a nice coffee in the mall, or even a sushi snack sometimes - when I'm thinking to myself that the price of that one coffee out would pay for a whole jar of coffee to drink at home for weeks!  & she eats little fruit treats with every meal - grapes, strawberries, blueberries, etc - and glasses of wine, even a glass of sparkling wine with breakfast one day.  Whilst I've got used to a lifestyle of, as my Mum would put it, "look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves"!

If she cut back on those things that I think of as luxuries, she could certainly afford a second holiday each year.  But on the other hand, she has a very nice day-to-day life.  Something else for me to think about as I ponder my future.

Whilst booking my flights it had occurred to me that I'd never visited Melbourne, so I booked my onward flight from there rather than from Sydney.  & then it occurred to me that I'd never been to Canberra, which is en-route from Sydney to Melbourne (sort of), so I should also add in a stop there ... so you can see why this quick visit was not the rest stop that I had envisaged.  But Canberra is a lovely city, one where I wish I'd given myself more time.  The hostel was great and I could honestly have spent a day or two just hanging out there, with their superbly-equipped kitcen, their huge TV, their hammocks on an outside terrace ... but as it was I rushed around visiting the Australian War Memorial (caught the weekly 'Last Post' ceremony), Parliament House (with a great free hour-long tour), and the excellent National Gallery, before getting my bus/train combo on to Melbourne.

There I also rushed around seeing as many of the sights as I could - the Shrine of Remembrance (another free tour!), the Royal Exhibition Building, the Melbourne National Gallery, Government House, Melbourne Old Gaol, and a walk along the Yarra River to admire the city views and a few corners of the Botanical Gardens and Victoria Park.  I was amazed at how many monuments I saw to British royalty (Victoria, Edward VII, George V...).  & within Government House, which I was lucky to be able to wander round as I was there on Australia Day when it opens to the public, there was a protrait of Queen Elizabeth II but also a large British coat of arms on the wall.  I suppose much of it is due to the Commonwealth, which I know countries like Australia, New Zealand and Canada take rather more seriously than we do in the UK.

My accommodation in Melbourne was probably the worst I've experienced anywhere.  A 14-bed hostel mixed dorm, but still £21 (some US$26) a night as Australia is an expensive place.  Well-located, and with hot water and a reasonable kitchen (although you had to pay a A$5 deposit to get a set of cutlery to use during your stay!!), but the dirtiest place I've ever stayed, by far.  As I walked into my dorm, towards my bed at the far end, I saw discarded pieces of paper and plastic all over the floor, even a discarded tomato paste sachet, still oozing from the end.  Then one morning I saw them do the cleaning of the room - pushing a wet mop around but with no attempt to pick up any rubbish, so the mop just pushed such items under the beds and around the luggage people were storing on the floor (there were not enough large lockers).  I also saw a pile of vomit all over the bathroom floor when I got up early one morning.  Worst of all though was the behaviour of fellow guests, with frequent arguments between guests and the staff (including one shouting match about their failure to properly treat bedbug infestations!), and a physical fight between two men in the corridor outside my room one night.  & many of the other guests seemed strange ... not your usual backpackers but lots of older, bearded, scruffy men.  Then I discovered why - that with the drop in backpackers during the Covid shutdowns, they'd taken a contract to house homeless people, many of whom were suffering from various mental conditions.  An interesting experience.

But I wasn't there most of the time, as I was busy out exploring the city.  & at the end of my stay, I was lucky to receive an offer by one of the women who'd been on my Pacific Islands tour to drive me along the Great Ocean Road for a day.  A long day, as she picked me up at 07:30 and dropped me off 12 hours later (and we hadn't even stopped for lunch!), but it really was a beautiful scenic drive.  Resisting the temptation to post a picture of the 12 Apostles here - it's certainly the most photogenic spot, but everyone already knows what it looks like - so here another, less visited, spot further south along the road, whose name I've forgotten, unfortunately.