Day 14 – Friday, November 20 – Leave For Melbourne
Melbourne was our final destination in Australia. It was way too short of a trip to see such a large city. We stayed in a hostel called Habitat HQ in St. Kilda. St. Kilda is set right outside the city and is a very hip town, full of things to do, and is set along the water.
The main draw for this area is their small habitat of Little Penguins. As the sun sets the little baby penguins crawl out of their dens and start crying for mom and dad to feed them. The mom and dad go out every day to hunt for their babies.
Many tourists do not know about this secret spot and are told to spend a couple hundred dollars to go to Phillip Island. So if you want to save some money consider going to St. Kilda to see penguins for free.
St. Kilda
St. Kilda is also home to the famous Luna Park, a historic amusement park. It is a very small park but it is worth it to stop by and take a picture with the laughing face.
Acland Street is one of the main streets that are full of shops, cafes, bars, and bakeries. Walking on one side of the street there are several bakeries next door to each other that have all of their desserts displayed in the front windows. We had to stop for something sweet. The Chocolateria San Churro caught our eye and we stopped in for a rich Spanish hot chocolate.
We were feeling adventurous and wanted to try something different for dinner. We sat down to eat at Chinta Ria Soul, a Malaysian restaurant. For being the first time I had Malaysian food it turned out to be excellent, somewhat similar to Chinese food but with a little more creativity in the fusion of flavors that were warming to the soul.
We then did some bar hopping and went to Abbey Road Cafe, a Beatles themed bar, where they had live jazz and swing music that made for a very atmospheric evening. We relaxed at the bar and sipped our cocktails as we mesmerized the people around us.
After we had a couple of drinks we walked down the street and entered a busy bar called the Vineyard. A little hole in the wall, that had very expensive drinks, I paid $9 USD for a can of Guinness. But it was a good time there, halfway through the night they had a funky hip-hop group pick up a mic and got everyone dancing.
Day 15 – Saturday, November 21 –
With only one full day in Melbourne, we explored the city by foot. We walked around the fashion streets full of shops and stopped by the graffiti alley. After that we went to the art museum then we took an hour-long river cruise through the Docklands to historic Williamstown.
We partied with some Australians that my friend Katlyn had met during her travels. Naturally, we held a US v AUS beer pong tournament, AUS cheated by blowing the balls out of the cups and won the game…
Day 16 – Sunday, November 22 – Leave AUS
But we were having such a good time at the party that we lost track of time. We only managed to get a few hours of sleep before our big day of traveling back home. I had to repack my suitcase in the dark while the rest of our suite mates were sleeping at the hostel.
The flight from Melbourne back to Sydney and I waited restlessly most of the day in the airport to get on my flight home. I was so tired that I slept the entire time on the flight to Hawaii. I spent another day in the Honolulu airport if I would have been more rested I could have taken advantage of a half day in Hawaii. But I sat in the airport until I got on my flight to LAX and then DEN. It was a rough trip back but I gave myself another week to sleep off the jetlag.
Where To Go Next Time in Australia:
Take the train to the three sisters in Sydney.
Go to the Daintree Rainforest and Darwin
Do the Great Ocean Road
Go Camping
Go to Yarra Valley and Wineries
Do a road trip from Sydney to Brisbane
Whitsundays
Go to Tasmania
Go to Phillip Island
Find more Australia travel guides here.
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