Yayy, country number 6 and the beginning of three weeks in Australia.

Our trip to Melbourne was a short but sweet one – 4 nights staying at my friend’s aunt’s house was like luxury after all the hostels we’d been in. Laundry, TV and Tim Tams = heaven.

I’d heard such good things about this city and it really did not disappoint. On our first day we were taken around and pretty much packed everything in: an epic brunch in a cool suburb district (Australia really knows how to do brunch), a quick tour of the city, and then a road trip down to Phillip Island off the south coast to see beautiful Cowes Beach in the evening light, and then to try and spot the Hemsworth brothers (to no avail) and the penguins (to great success.) Let me explain that one: Phillip Island is famous for its Penguin Parade, where every evening the colony of tiny penguins wash up on the shore after sunset and then proceed to waddle up the beach to their burrows in the sand. It was honestly the cutest thing ever, the only sad bit was that we were not allowed to take photos so I have no proof of how amazing the experience was. I mean, you could pay to get yourself photoshopped into a picture of the penguins, but funnily enough, I thought I’d give that one a miss.

We spent the rest of our time exploring some more of the city, including a couple of malls and the cool Degraves Street, going up the Eureka Skydeck for another awesome city view (how many times have we done this now?!),  visiting Queen Victoria Market for some food and many, many koala-shaped souvenirs, and taking a quick trip to the famous St Kilda beach. Unfortunately I also got a bit ill and spent some time feeling sorry for myself and not bothering to take any photos so I have limited pictures, but lots of happy memories and that’s all that counts really.

Bring on the rest of Oz.