Time to make a friend.

So yesterday.

I woke up at silly o clock again.

I started having all these weird ideas about the hostel. It's blatently the type of place that'd have two way mirrors, people that steal from you, and a high probability of being drugged in the night and carted off to the basement to be butchered by some rich Japanese man in a suit.
After getting ready yesterday in hair shower, the nice Canadian girls left. I used this opportunity to have a nice uninterrupted nap. But then, bored, I decided I'd set off on a little walking mission. I walked the entirety of Bourke Street, took a left and wandered the streets down as far as Flinders Station and the Yarra (I know this means nothing to you, but it'll serve as a reminder when I get home and all of this is a distant memory!). Bourke Street is a long wide street that stretches on forever, and the trams run down the middle. There's lots of clothing shops and departments stores and arcades (sort of, mini malls that you walk through with shops inside). I went into Quiksilver and purchased myself a handbag (I need it to carry all of excess weight in on the plane! You're allowed a carry on and a hand bag you see). Of course it had to be Roxy. I had a couple of people ask me for directions which felt good. I don't want to be seen as a tourist because that makes you vulnerable. I walked past Gucci and Louis Vuitton and down towards the river and through this amazing street, I think called the Living Wall. The Living Wall was just a long alley way with beautiful intricate murals all the way down (I don't want to call it graffiti, it was far too artistic and thought out for that) and there was a door open to a grotty building that had some persons art studio inside. I visited a couple of vintage boutiquey clothing stores too, but they were far too overpriced and quite frankly, ugly too.

By the time I got back to the hostel in the evening, my new roomies had moved in, Johnny Foreigner and Mrs Sleep. They were sleeping to I had to teeter about with a torch in the bloody day time. (This annoyed me. I understand you have to be respectful to the other people in the room, but it works both ways and I shouldn't have to feel like my things are restricted during the day because people are sleeping). After this, I decided to try the unthinkable and make a friend, because it was my first Saturday night in Melbourne and I wanted to go out that night and I'm far too fearful to do such a thing on my own. There were a few people hanging out in the kitchen on the patio furniture so I thought I'd try my luck there and sat reading. I tried watching whatever stupid skiing video everyone found so damn funny but still, nobody would engage me at all. This got disheartening very quickly, so I nipped across the road to an exceptionally overpriced liquor store and got myself some a bottle of white to help take the edge off such a crappy circumstance. Another girl appeared in the room, with a floral dress just like mine, a forlorn look just like mine, and started reading too. Once she began talking to another girl I quickly just butted in the conversation and that was how I made some friends. Unfortunately they both had separate plans for the late evening, but I'd managed to get talking to a couple of guys taking a break from university in Perth and I went for a quick drink with them.

Melbourne on a Saturday night is just like every other place in the world ever on a Saturday night. The streets were teaming with people, all drunk and lairy with far too much aftershave wafting down the streets and skirts pulled up just a little too high. We walked around for a bit until we found an Irish pub, which again, might as well have been the Globe (okay I exaggerate for effect, but it's still a pub). At around midnight I headed back to the hostel and into my room to see Johnny Foreigner and Mrs Sleep. Who were sleeping.

I don't feel as unsafe here as I thought I might. In the city that is. Maybe it's because the areas I frequent aren't 'rough' so to speak, but I don't feel like I stick out by being on my own, my greatest fear. The streets are all grid like with just a few alleyways and I'm finding it easy enough to navigate my way back to the hostel like a homing backpacker. One thing I'm really missing is the sun. I need to get my tan on and there's just no sun! It's not even that warm today. I'm going to dump my netbook back in my locked suitcase under my bed (God, they're taking up the entire room, another thing that's annoying me. Whilst I was having a shower this morning they decided to hang a load of clothes off my bed. As soon as they left the room, my response was "nope" and I put them all on their beds). Locked suitcase under my bed and then go for a walkies to find a tram map. There is a circle line (I think) that's a free tram that just takes you around the city. Not a lot will be open today but I want to venture a little further afield tomorrow. My mom's contact in Melbourne who emailed me with some ideas of things to do said that Fitzroy and Collingwood are very bohemian suburbs so I need to check them out. I also need to get to St Kilda. I've been here for four  days and not even seen the sea yet. Kim needs to get her beach on.