Melbourne - Back to the city

So we returned to Melbourne, after almost a week in Tasmania. Only this time we booked a hostel for the 3 days we planned to be in Melbourne. We wanted to take time off Couch Surfing, and have a bit of quality time together. And to rest a bit. And to plan the second half of our trip.

Couch Surfing sounds easy and free accommodations, but if that's why you're doing it, don't. Couch Surfing is actually a way of knowing people and sharing their lives for a few days. It might not be as living in the country, but it's as close as it gets.

So while you're at their places, you want to know them, talk to them, share experiences and opinions with them. It's very enriching. But as with friends, after going out with them every single night for 2 weeks, you want some time alone, for yourself, and with your girlfriend/boyfriend.

So we booked what appeared to be an awesome hostel, Clairemont Hotel, which is actually a guest house. It's in a great location, South Yarra, just outside Melbourne CBD, near St Kilda Road. There are many shops and restaurants around. The hostel is clean and quite and it was exactly what we needed. Talia went to sleep right away for 3 strait hours! A record for an afternoon nap for her.

Rony went online and started to plan the trip in Japan. We didn't do much that day, beside go to the movies. Apparently, Australian cinemas are made of gold because the tickets are so expensive: 18 Australian dollars for a ticket! It's 12 or 13 euros! And we thought tickets in Paris were expensive! It's twice the price we pay in Israel. At least we enjoyed our movie, "Fair Game," and Talia learned a few things about recent US history.

Sunday was supposed to be market day for Talia and more planning for Rony, but as usual, you probably know what we gonna say, it was raining. Pouring. We wish it would rain half the quantity we witnessed in Israel. It would solve the country's water problem till next year. So we ended up staying in our room and resting for the day.

Well, not quite.

In the evening, we went to see Mary Poppins, the musical. OMIGOODNESS it was so incredible! (That was Rony. Kidding.) Talia had seen the movie about a bazillion times as a kid, but the play was just something else. It was so funny and cute and awesome, and probably only 50% like the movie. There were quite a few times that Rony got to experience what it would be like to take a 6 year old to a play by looking at Talia's face and squeals of delight.

And after a supercalifragalisticexpialidocious time, we went straight to the hostel, partly because of the weather.

On Monday we picked up our rental car named Elsa (the license plate ends with "LZA") and, after visiting the International National Gallery of Victoria for a couple of hours (free entry), we got prepared for our trip to Phillip Island, where we were supposed to see young penguins in the wild coming to shore at sunset.

The drive there is 2.5 hours long, mainly because there is a lot of traffic to get out of Melbourne and because the speed limit is 80 most of the way. But we got there on time.

Well, we had a big surprise when we got there: The penguin parade was actually like a theme park where you have to pay 21 dollars (!!) to watch penguins. Why theme park? Well, you had it all: Restaurants, gift shops, a green screen where you could have your photo added to some penguins in the background...
This country is beautiful, but very expensive (more than Europe) and we should have probably check more about the penguins parade attraction before getting there (brochures don't mention any entry fee or side attractions but only beautiful penguins walking on the beach), but the ticket price is too high for us. We don't mind if they try to regulate the flow of tourists to the place and preserve the penguins' natural habitat. On the contrary. But it doesn't look anything like it.

The evening was not a total loss, though: we went to Cowes to have dinner. Since it was 8, most of the places were closed. By the way, in Australia, in December, there is still day light at 8. But since it's not the touristic season yet, most of the places close early.

So we ended up eating at this nice italian restaurant where one of the waitresses told us she learned a bit hebrew when she was young because one of her friend's mum teaches it. How random is that!

We arrived back to the hostel around midnight and we got ready for our next big step: Great Ocean Road.