Welcome to Travel Tour
My first week in Melbourne I booked onto a tour called Welcome to Travel. It was an absolutely fantastic week and so helpful for my start to my Australian adventure.
The view from Federation Square on the walking tour
Bratwurst and fries at HopHaus
Cheeeeeeeese
Salami sub in the laneways
Thank you Celeste for raising $50m for the bushfire relief
I arrived at the hostel a few days early, so had some time to get my barings and get a bit used to the city. Over the next tour days, people from the tour trickled in, so by the time it began I knew some of them quite well. The day before the tour was also FOMO Fest, so this was a fantastic opportunity to get to know my new friends before the tour even began.
Monday- City Tour
The first day of the week, our group was finally whole and we had a meet and greet and intro talk. We all know how hard it can be to make group warm ups fun, but with the relaxed atmosphere and two truths and a lie, Clauds and Adam achieved it. That proved to me that we had a good group- everyone was excited to get the week going and have a laugh.
We then jumped straight into it with the lovely Clauds giving us a walking tour of the city. It was a baking hot day with the sun shining bright so it was great to see the city at it's best. This is where the (not so) little history nerd in me comes out. She showed us the State Library Victoria, the Old Treasury Building, and told us all about how Melbourne was built on the wealth of gold stumbled upon by the European settlers which grew to become the second largest city behind London in the 1880s. One of the most interesting things I found was the story with Flinders Street Station- it was supposed to be built in Mumbai but they got the designs mixed up.
After a long day of learning and walking in the heat, we all showered and headed back out for dinner at HopHaus. This was a lovely German restaurant with great views overlooking the river.
Tuesday- Food Tour
I was very much looking forward to this day. We started off by going to Queen Victoria Market, which also had a lot more history surrounding it than I had realised. It's been there since the 1870s and many of the places are family-owned and have been for generations.
After successfully eating our way around the market with cheese, meats, stuffed peppers and any other deli delights you can dream of, we ventured out into the city again. We had a delicious lunch in one of Melbourne's famous laneways, which I absolutely love- they are so unique and independent.
On the Tuesday we also saw some incredible street art in the city. I was really excited to see Hozier Lane and it surpassed my expectations- the murals I wanted to see of Lizzo and Celeste Barber were right next to each other! These street art spots are just some examples of how instagram-worthy Melbourne is.
My fav Lizzo mural
The crowning glory of this day was dinner, the food everyone was looking forward to... dumplings!! Right in the heart of Chinatown, we had plates upon plates of delicious dumplings with bring-your-own drinks.
Wednesday- Phillip Island
I didn't really know what to expect from this day, mainly because I was pretty exhausted and didn't check the itinerary. (Side note: that is a nice thing about being on a tour, they organise it all so you can just go along for the ride.)
We all piled into a big minivan and took the hour and a half journey to Phillip Island. It didn't seem so long as we had our big playlist with everyone's music on- a good jam sesh always makes the time go faster.
When we arrived, our first stop was the beach. It was a slightly smokey day but still more than hot enough to lay on the beach. It was a lovely bay with calm, clear waters and white sand. My favourite part of this was some of us playing volleyball in the sea.
We then got fish and chips and went for a walk to see some views over the island- unfortunately due to the smoke we didn't get much of a view but still saw some Australian wildlife.
The wildlife continued as we went for a scenic drive, where I saw my first wallaby!
Wednesday evening brought one of the things everyone was most excited for... penguins!! Every evening on Philip island there is a 'penguin parade', where the penguins come home to their families after a hard day's fishing. They were unbelievably cute to watch running down the beach and in and out of the water, eventually coming back in groups to their own little homes on land for the evening. We even saw wallabies and a possum! Unfortunately photos of the penguins were not permitted because the flash can blind the penguins for two weeks.
Thursday- Surfing and Kangaroos
This was my absolute favourite day of the trip. Honestly, I was a bit nervous for surfing. I'm not the fittest person and I have rubbish balance so I thought I'd be terrible and maybe hate it.
It was chilly and windy (apparently not very good conditions for surfing) so getting into the wetsuits was not fun, albeit quite funny. The warm up and intro lesson on the beach actually made me feel a bit more comfortable with it. Once we got in the water, it was sooo fun. I was, of course, rubbish at it, but it wasn't completely hopeless as I did manage to get on my knees a few times. One of the most fun parts for me was seeing my friends do well and occasionally stand up, and I loved cheering them on! And, lo and behold, I did stand up twice! Only for a second, but it still counts.
The other big plan for Thursday was the wildlife sanctuary. I'd only just seen my first wallaby the day before, and next thing I knew I was feeding one! It was so incredible to get up close and personal with the animals; they were so gentle. We even fed kangaroos who were also super cute. And I saw my first koala! He didn't really want to chat so much though.
Thursday was a proper stereotypically Australian day and a lot of bucket-list items were ticked off.
Friday- St Kilda
After a really busy couple of days in Melbourne and Phillip Island (as well as being hungover), it was nice to get back to the city whilst still having a chill day. St Kilda is my favourite place in Melbourne- it's got a really chilled vibe and it's right by the beach. The trams run slowly through the centre in between rows of cute little independent shops and palm trees. It gives me San Diego vibes.
It was a beautiful sunny day to do some sunbathing on the beach, but not before a bit of paddleboarding. It turns out that's a lot harder than it looks. Even though I fell in a couple of times and got washed away by the wind, it was really fun.
After a drink at a very cool St Kilda bar, we headed back for a chilled evening at the hostel.
Saturday- Life planning and Bar Crawl
A lie-in was well overdue at this point, so I was pleased that my appointment with Clauds was at 11am. This was to plan what I wanted to do next, look at plans for my next travels, and think about work opportunities. I was really impressed with the thorough and personalised advice given by the Welcome to Travel team. I decided I'm going to stay in Melbourne for the next 2 months or so, because there is so much I still want to do here and it's supposed to be very good for job opportunities and living in the city.
In the evening, we had the big bar crawl that we were all looking forward to for the whole week. Safe to say we had an awesome but rowdy time, and it was amazing to have so much fun with the people I had been getting to know for the past week.
Sunday- Check Out and BBQ
After checking out hungover, all of us met on the roof of the hostel and had a nice Australian BBQ. Our time together as one big group was over, and it was actually a bit emotional saying goodbye to everyone!
I'm amazed to say that even with this gigantic post, this wasn't even everything we did on the tour. There were a lot of extras and secret inclusions involved. It was such a great week, packed full with the sights of Melbourne and invaluable advice. I'd 100% recommend the tour for anyone arriving in Australia for their working holiday visa or even just anyone visiting Melbourne. The best part was our incredible group of people and the amazing friends I made on the way.
Shepp x
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