Living in Melbourne is amazing; it truly is one of the greatest cities to live in. Melbournians like to brag how it was voted the “Most Livable City in the World”! It is! Trams make it a breeze to get around the city, or to work! There are many events every weekend, from food to comedy festivals. Spring Racing Carnivals (horse racing) are lots of fun. Everyone gets dressed up and wears hats. Melbourne Cup is a public holiday-all for a horse race! Melbourne is known as a café culture, pride is taken in coffee. I think there are only 3 Starbucks coffee chains around, and every time I have been there, I am practically the only person! I feel like it’s all about living, and living the good life here. I love to relax at a café in St. Kilda on the weekend. It doesn’t get busy till after 11 am because everyone enjoys a good sleep in! The waiters don’t mind if you sit there all day and just order drinks. You only get the bill when you ask for it, it feels like you are welcome to relax and sit all day!

One of the best trips I have taken so far has been sailing in the Whitsunday Islands. We took a train (ride from hell) from Sydney to Airlie Beach, Queensland. Two days on a train, economy class. The countryside was nothing to write home about because we were so bored on the train and it turned us into not very fun girls to be around. Thus we weren’t thrilled by the trees out the window. We thought we would be meeting some fun travelers but we didn’t. We only had one sleeper car, one night, to share between 4 girls. Needless to say, the ride took over 19 hours and we all wished we had just paid a little extra to fly, more time to relax on the beach then to sit in a stuffy train car!

When we arrived in Airlie Beach, we got our positive moods back and felt like we were living the good life again! We checked into a small hotel that looked clean. It was clean except for the bed bugs that were in some of the beds. Bed bugs are inside the creases of sheets and pillows. They leave you with a nasty little bite and invade your bags! We didn’t know we would soon be bringing the bed bugs onboard our sailboat! Airlie Beach is backpacker heaven, full of hostels and cheap eats and entertainment. Everyone there is pretty much waiting for their sailing trip to start or just returned from sea. The Whitsunday area is located at the southern part of the Great Barrier Reef. There are many companies that will take you out to the reef. The reef is incredible and the 1 ½ boat ride to it is memorable. It was a rocky ride to the reef and many people forgot to take their seasickness tablets. We only snorkeled at the top of the reef because the diving was a little pricey. 

We went sailing on a 100 year old wooden tall ship. It was a 3 night 4 day trip with an entire crew to cook for you. There were about 50 guests onboard. The crew was fantastic and the food was delicious. We went to the best diving sites and sailed around the beautiful Whitsunday’s. We made a day stop at the famous Whitehaven Beach. This beach has silicon sand that never gets hot from the sun. It is as soft as a cloud would be and the water was an amazing clear blue. The time of year we were there (early January) was the jelly fish season (deadly jelly fish season). We were advised, and provided with wetsuits to wear every time we were in the water. When we were at Whitehaven, we took the wetsuits off to play and swim on the beach. Everyone else only had their bathers on and nobody was running onto the beach screaming, so we decided it was ok. Whitehaven beach is on an uninhabited island. I think you can camp there for about $10. The luxury of it is there is nothing manmade on the island except for toilets! We saw a large goanna (iguana) and no jellyfish! 

Another day on our cruise, found us stopping at an amazing dive spot. There were literally thousands of fish. There was one giant fish, that was known as Elvis. We also saw a giant clam. There were many jellyfish in the water at this dive site so we happily wore our wetsuits!

The crew took us to a desolate beach one night and we had champagne and cheese during the sunset. One night aboard the ship was ship games. It helped everyone to bond a bit more on the trip. On the last day of the trip, we briefly saw a hammerhead shark swimming behind the boat. It was an eerie feeling because it was not far from where we were diving. I will never forget all the bites we had from the bedbugs we innocently brought onboard. One of my friends had them all over her clothes because they were in her bag. She had to wash everything in hot water in order to kill them all!

Another great trip was to Port Arthur in Tasmania. We took a ferry from Melbourne to Devonport, our cars went for free. We drove from the top of Tassie to the bottom and stopped in Port Arthur. There is an old jail there where the British sent the ‘worst’ convicts to Australia. It is very well preserved. We went on a ghost tour that evening. We heard creepy tales of spirits rumored to still be around, but never saw anything unusual. Bruny Island and Hobart were other great stops in Tasmania. There is an amazing Sunday market. The air and water is so pure in Tasmania, it makes the local produce taste incredible. We found a beach in Tasmania that had huge black shells on it. We collected bagfuls to take home.

My friend finally had to go home, but I have decided to stay longer. My job is great and I just can’t give up my beach views yet. I think I have boosted the local economy with the amount of visitors I have had. I don’t put a timeframe on how long I will stay, I figure I will know when it’s time to go home!