Turning tides

I had told Paul, my house mate, that I probably wasn’t coming home before 11 pm or something. As much adversity I had last week with finding a place to stay, so much prosperity I had since yesterday. It started when I received I message trough a website for share houses. I had subscribed to this website back at home, but it hadn’t given me any real desirable rooms.

Now all of a sudden it seems to get me the best room I could ever wish for. Some guy Paul had responded on my ad, saying that he was looking for a roommate. I called him and arranged to even have a look the same day. Within 15 minutes after I had entered the almost brand new house it was settled, I had found myself a room. Tomorrow, I would be moving, goodbye crumbling hostel, hello nice house!

Today Jacqueline and I would have dinner in the city and then go to the observation deck together. I called Jacqueline from RMIT and arranged to meet her at Flinders street station at 6.10 pm. Eventually she turned up at 6:45 after sending me a dozen of messages that she wasn’t going to make it.

She wanted to go to Gopals, a vegetarian restaurant that I had discovered just a few days before. The restaurant provides very good meals for little money (about €5) and is run by Hara Krishna.

Observation deck
Around half past 9 we entered the elevator of the Rialto Towers which took us to the observation deck on the 55th floor in only 40 seconds. It was more than worth the money. Raised a 234 meters above ground level a see of millions of lights stretched out before our eyes.

Just as I mentioned that at the Eifel tower you can also go outside (so you are not bothered by the glass when taking photos), we discovered that there were two outside terraces, one on the north and one on the south side of the observation deck. This was a nice opportunity to make some awesome panoramic pictures!

It was not possible to walk all the way around, because a part of the observation deck had been marked out for special guests only. Just before we had entered the lift we already wondered about the formally dressed girls that passed us and it now started to make sense. Some spoiled rich kid clearly spent a lot of money to hire a part of the observation deck to throw a birthday party. That’s something to remember for my next birthday; mum, dad, I want to celebrate my 25th birthday here, can I? :-)

Insignia
On the first night in Melbourne I discovered this fantastic bar at the corner of Flinders and King street, called Insignia. Most of the times it is not very crowded, which is one of the reasons that it is such a fantastic bar to chill out. The interior consists mainly out of wood and is decorated with luxurious sofas and lounge chairs. The ceiling is relatively high, but somehow it creates a pleasant spacious environment without losing the warm atmosphere due to the wooden interior and the subtle lighting.

Jacqueline and I decided to order a bottle of red wine and have some anti paste dish. It was only a few hours since we ate, but I felt a bit hungry again. We had spent more than half an hour on the observation deck, gazing at whole greater Melbourne. Back on solid ground we got to see an impressive promotional video about Melbourne and the Great Ocean road and after that we had found our way to Insignia.

I could see this was getting late. It was already past 10 and we had still half a bottle of wine to finish. I wasn’t in the mood of hurrying and also didn’t feel like lugging all my baggage too my house at this time of the day. I called Paul and told him the move was postponed to next day. I felt it was a better idea to spent one more night in the hostel. If only I had known…