Finally got back to Melbourne on Tuesday, it’s nice to be back!
The return trip was bit of an experience, though. I left Sydney late on Monday evening with three British girls and we drove through the night to cover the almost 1000 km distance between the two cities. We finally arrived to Melbourne just before dawn. As usual I had no luck sleeping in a car. Besides, it would have been rather difficult anyway in a crowded car with my arm in a cast.
The girls dropped me in the city center and drove on to their place in St Kilda. After spending couple of hours in the city library I headed out to check out a potential room to rent in the Eastern Suburbs. Not the easiest trip either, I was forced to carry all my luggage with a broken arm and I didn’t exactly travel light back from Sydney.
Still, with lifts on the stations the trip wasn’t too bad. Unfortunately, the room wasn’t quite as advertised. The place was quite run-down and to make matters worse, the floor of the room was covered in dead and dying wasps. I was told that there was a wasp nest right outside the window! Even though the landlord promised that he had blocked off the holes the wasp had used to get inside I still felt that this was enough of a warning sign to look for accommodation elsewhere. Especially since I felt the rent was little on the high side, too.
After spending few more hours in the city one of my friends from the diving club picked me up and I have spent the rest of the week in their place. On Thursday I also had a chance to meet most of the other club regulars during the weekly club meeting. Next in the plans is to check out a couple of potential rooms over the weekend and hopefully get back to bit more normal life soon.
To keep things interesting I have also had some issues with my mobile phone. I didn’t find a suitable phone to replace my lost iPhone in Sydney, so I ended up bringing over an older phone I had borrowed from my Sydney housemate (I promised to mail it back, which I did it on Friday). I didn’t bring the charger over as I was planning to pick up my own spare phone from my former housemate’s place in Melbourne in a day or two. Big mistake!
Unfortunately, this plan didn’t quite work out. She has been away pretty much all week so I have been unable to pick up the phone. In addition, the phone I had borrowed ran out of battery on Thursday. And to make matters worse a couple of people who promised to sell me an used iPhone bailed out at the last minute. I was finally able to find a reliable seller on Friday. The used iPhone 4S (64GB model) I bought was frankly more expensive than what I was looking for, but I did get it for really reasonable price and at that point I was getting slightly desperate anyway. And I don’t frankly mind having a really fancy phone for a change!