Back in Melbourne

This afternoon I got a lift from the ashram back into Melbourne. I was sad to leave the ashram, as it had been a great experience and I met lots of wonderful people there, many who were staying to do a 3 month course, that just had started. But it was nice too to get back to Melbourne. I'm staying at Georgia's house, a girl who stayed at the ashram the first week. She lives in Richmond, which lies close to the CBD. It's a nice little place with a garden. Her friend is living in the same building and we had a nice dinner together. And I'm quite happy that I can sleep in tomorrow after 2 weeks of getting up at 5am.
And I'll try to do my best to take some pictures this week...

Deze namiddag heb ik een lift gekregen van de ashram naar Melbourne. Ik vond 't toch wel spijtig om de ashram te verlaten want 't was een hele goede ervaring en ik heb er een hoop leuke mensen, waarvan er velen langer bleven om een 3 maanden cursus te doen. Maar 't was ook fijn om weer terug in Melbourne te zijn. Ik logeer nu bij Georgia, een meisje dat de eerste week in de ashram was. Ze woont in Richmond, en dat ligt niet ver van 't centrum. 't Is een leuke studio met een tuintje. Een vriendin woont in 't zelfde gebouw en we hebben vanavond samen lekker gegeten. En ik ben ook wel blij dat ik morgen nog eens lekker kan uitslapen na 2 weken op te staan om 5 uur 's morgens.
En ik zal deze week ook mijn best doen nog wat foto's te trekken...

More yoga and plans

I'm still at the Living Consciously yoga retreat in the Satyananda Ashram in Rocklyn. The second week here is a bit different from the first. A lot of the people who where here last week left in the weekend and a lot of new people arrived. I also had to change rooms. But other than that it's very similar. Today is my day off, which means I don't have to do karma yoga (working in the garden or kitchen), but unfortunately it started raining this morning and it's getting colder too. The weather has been really nice over the weekend, but I think it will be cold and rainy for the rest of the retreat.
The weather was actually one of the main reasons for my decision to move to Brisbane, where it should be warm and sunny almost all the time. I booked my flight there yesterday, and I will fly on the 1st of march. Which means I have 5 full days in Melbourne after the retreat finishes to visit some museums and parks and to go on a Great Ocean Road day trip. And this time I will not have to stay in an awful hostel, I can stay at Georgia (a girl who was doing the retreat last week) 's place.

Ik ben nog steeds op het Living Consciously Retreat in de Satyananda Ashram in Rocklyn. De tweede week hier is een beetje anders de eerste. Een hoop mensen die hier vorige week waren zijn tijdens het weekend vertrokken en een hoop nieuwe mensen zijn er bij gekomen. En ik ben ook van kamer veranderd. Maar voor de rest is het nogal gelijkaardig. Vandaag is mijn vrije dag, dit wil zeggen dat geen karma yoga moet doen (in de keuken of tuin werken), maar helaas is 't vanochtend beginnen te regenen en 't is ook een stuk frisser geworden, en ik vrees dat 't weer zo gaat blijven voor de rest van de week.
En 't weer is een van de hoofdredenen waarom ik toch besloten heb om naar Brisbane te gaan, daar zou 't voor 't grootste deel van 't jaar toch warm en zonnig moeten zijn. Ik heb gisteren mijn vlucht naar Brisbane geboekt, ik vlieg de 1ste maart. En dat betekent dat ik nog 5 volle dagen in Melbourne heb na mijn yoga retreat, om musea en parken te bezoeken en een trip naar de Great Ocean Road te maken. En deze keer zal ik niet opnieuw in zo'n vreselijke hostel moeten blijven want ik mag bij Geogia, een meisje dat ik hier vorige week heb leren kennen, logeren.

Leaving Melbourne

After a few days of wondering around in Melbourne I have decided to leave Melbourne, temporarely, to do a yoga retreat about an hour from Melbourne.
I was having trouble meeting interesting people here in Melbourne and decided this would probably be nice way to meet some nice people. I'll go to the retreat tomorrow and stay one or two weeks. And while doing the retreat I'll decide whether I really want to stay in Melbourne.
Melbourne itself is a really nice city, I especially like the CBD. It's obvious that they like good food here with hundreds of eateries and restaurants. They sell cheap sushi on every street corner. And there lots of cultural stuff going on. But it would be very hard to find a place to live in the CBD and at first I thought of living in St-Kilda, but after walking around there I'm not so sure whether I would like to live there, and it seems pretty far from the centre anyway.
And I've also been thinking that maybe I would like it much more in a small place, maybe Byron Bay, which is known to be quite an alternative place. The only problem about moving there would be that it's probably much harder to find a job there, because it is so small...
Anyway nothing has been decided yet, everything is still possible, maybe I'll decide to stay in Melbourne after all, we'll see...

Arrived!

I can finally say that I have arrived in Australia! I arrived this morning in Melbourne after a 9 hour flight from Bangkok. My very first impressions of Melbourne were not that great. The weather was grey and not that warm and the views from the bus into the city centre were not that great. And the hostel were I'm staying is huge, and the kind of people staying here are not exactly my type...
But after a very nice shower and a walk down Clarendon street I'm happy to say that my impressions are improving. I don't think that this hostel is in the nicest area of Melbourne, but even so, there seem to be a lot of nice cafe's in the neighbourhood.
My plan for the next week is to find a room in a shared house, hopefully as soon as possible, to get to know the different area's in Melbourne and to start job hunting...