life in melbourne
02/08/24
Live view counter
setting up things and being alone in a huge city
I was more worried about my pan card which was left at the currency exchange office a day before my flight in delhi. It was a bit overwhelming journey for me, as it was my first time boarding an international flight, but nonetheless I was worried about the pan card haha. A Bangladeshi women was sitting beside me in the flight and she was preparing me for the house hunting nightmare in melbourne, because it's more easier to find an indigenous person in melbourne rather than finding a house to live.
had a nice glass of bailey's with the view, because the infotainment screens never work in air india flights.
Just arrived in Melbourne during the height of summer after leaving Delhi during the peak of winter, and dealing with jet lag on top of that, since Melbourne is 5 hours ahead of India's time.
The moment I landed I went to the optus (biggest telecom network provider in melbourne) and got the sim card which was faulty and had to struggle for the next 5 days with only Airbnb's wifi.
Somehow reached to my Airbnb which was in one of the south eastern suburbs of melbourne (too far 40kms) through the public transport. My Airbnb was this huge house owned by a Chinese woman and I had booked it back in india itself.
Where I had to extend my stay for a week (initially booked for a week) and it costed A$420 (₹23000), it was alot like ALOT.
a collage from my first few days in the airbnb
Now that I understood the culture and a bit of area where i was living, I had to make friends or at least someone I know incase of anything because I didn't have any relatives or family friends. It was an horrible experience for the first few weeks, but then i took the matter in my hands and started to physically reach out to people and talk with them. At the university, parks, random bus stops whoever looked a bit indian I used to go to them and just say "hi hello where are you from what do you study" and then pitch that I'm currently living in an airbnb and it's too expensive so i'm looking for shared houses nearby, and it was truly scary for me as an introvert to get out of my space and talk to random people.
But that's how you know I got to meet Job, who was an accountant from kerala, IN working in the city and used to live nearby across the street and for my surprise he had a room in his house empty. It was like a blessing in disguise for me and the rent was cheap too, so I paid the bond money and rent money and settled in over there. There were 3 people living in the house (2 Sri-lankan students and Job).
175 highbury road
Now that I wasn't hesitant to reach out to people, I met Sahil (he played a very important role in my life while i was in melbourne) on a crossing where I randomly striked a hello and i'll never regret that. Sahil has been a really supportive friend who I used to bond with alot like ALOT. We have a lot in common be it pop culture, music taste, anything. Sahil used to study at the university where I was interning and he also used to work part-time as a social media manager at a company. And he was the one who motivated me to start working and helped me out with getting a car on rent.
getting used to the vibe
Now that I was settled in, it was time to earn money as I didn't want to burden my parents because the INR to AUD is a lot and I used to get bored at home as there was not much work to do in the uni.
So I chose to do uber eats because the barrier to entry was literally nothing and it was pretty hard to get a part time job because my visa was getting expired in 6 months and nobody wants to hire for such a short time. Will write about the uber driver experience in another blog because it deserves to a separate another blog.
food
It wasn't a huge struggle for me to be honest because I love to cook and I had spent time back in my uni too where I used to cook frequently. The quality of grocery food in melbourne was the best like literally everything be it the milk, meat, chocolates, fruits felt like in india we used to get the worst quality basic staples.
But yeah basically I used to cook all my meals and most of the times it was kebabs and mcdonalds. Now kebabs (HSP mainly) in melbourne are considered to be one of their staple food like for eg. vadapav in bombay or cholle in delhi. I would still give up everything to have the KebabYeah's HSP (called Halal Snack Pack) it's like the shawarma meat with veggies and fries on top in a box, fully packed meal.
my staple food
places in melbourne i've been to
Melbourne has a lot to offer the beautiful beaches, theme parks, view points and etc. I've only been to few places which I regret and this is port melbourne beach (one of my favourite).
one of the most beautiful sunset i've ever witnessed.
if you've made it this far, damn i appreciate it. I don't know what else to talk about melbourne I mean i've had the best three months of my life it tested me in all the directions be it mentally, physically, emotionally and taught me a lot of things on living alone and managing all the things be it work, part time job, food, physical health, mental health.
Shout out to living alone gotta be my fav thing, haha if you get the meme.
Cheers, see y'all in the next one then.
peace,
aditya kolte.