Melban

I like it here, but not enough.

It's a very nice city and I'm sure it's a great place to live, but I don't find it offers enough touristic entertainment of the sort I seek. Besides, it's not too backpacker-friendly (compared to Sydney), lacking in facilities and services.

Anyway, most things I would really want to do are not in the city proper, but somewhere else in Victoria. They all require ridiculously long hours on a bus and cost too many hundreds of dollars to allow me the indulgence.

But all of this doesn't mean I don't like Mel. It's a great place, full of huge beautiful parks, full of life and entertainment (and trams! I love trams!)

Of the few things I've seen, the Victoria Market is a great place where to get cheap food, and where to spend some very fun hours ambling among stalls, through the shouts of merchants announcing their wares. The parks are lovely and huge, especially the Botanic Garden. The tourist tram is cool and free. There's nice architecture and a great atmosphere. And I'm told you can't beat the restaurants, but I'm not one to waste money on food.

Actually, I wanted to stay here a couple days more. The problem is, I kinda screwed up my schedule.

Consequences of not planning more thoroughly and of taking important decisions on-the-spot, heavy-lided and pressed by the passing of time.

Actually, not all of it is my fault. It helps that the Aussie train services are run in a thirldworldishly chaotic fashion, and that public transport over any significant number of km is much overpriced, more so in the case of flights.

But yes, I screwed up. So goodbye Melbourne, it didn't last long.

Tomorrow, I'm hopping to... Tasmania!