Brunswick and Fitzroy - Meeting the Housemates

On Friday night I took the train over the Brunswick to meet Caitlin and Laura, my soon-to-be housemates. Before coming over to Australia, I was getting stressed about all the things I would have to sort out once I arrived, and so decided that anything I could sort out beforehand would be a bonus. I therefore took the risk of finding somewhere to live without viewing it first, and so met Caitlin and Laura, and viewed their house, after Skype! 

After getting the house and having a quick look around, we got ready to go out for my ‘Australian Initiation’. We went down the road to a Thai ‘BYO’(bring your own bottle) restaurant, something which seems to be a pretty common thing here. We stopped off at the ‘bottle-o’ (it seems I have a lot of Australian lingo to learn in order to eventually understand what everyone is actually talking about!) for a few bottles of vino, and had a nice civilised dinner. Brunswick is often described as the ‘hipster’ area of Melbourne, full of share-houses, with lots of bars, restaurants, and cafes - I’d liken it to Camden. After dinner we went to a pub, where I was very pleased to see that they serve my favourite cider - a little glimpse of home which was much appreciated! The first stumbling block however was the drink sizes; did I want a pot (half-pint) a schooner (between a half and a pint), or a pint? I was then told that in other states of Australia, the sizes would be called something different again. 

After a few civilised drinks, Laura suggested we head over to Fitzroy, which seems to be the place to be if you want to stay out late or go clubbing. We caught an Uber and went to a club called Perseverance - I realised that Australians will abbreviated absolutely anything, when everyone referred to the place as ‘Perso’!

Having all felt pretty sober, the drinks started flowing at ‘Persa’ and before we knew it, it was around 4am. I learned that firstly I have no idea how to use Australian coins, several times trying to pay with the wrong denominations (the coin sizes are all wrong!), and secondly that Australian clubs stay open super late. When I’ve had a drink it seems that everyone is my best pal, and so I got chatting to a lot of people, and everyone had plenty of advice for me about things to see and do in Melbourne. Everyone is so friendly and so willing to help.

After Persa we went to another club until close at 6am (apparently this is a normal time for clubs to close!) before going back to an after-party at an apartment of some people that Caitlin and Laura had met. My camera roll is full of pictures of random people I got talking to, including the one above, and for some reason all of them seemed to have beards. 

I’d like to say that I saw a lot of Brunswick and Fitzroy, and that I have lots of pictures to show for it, but unfortunately none of the pictures are worth sharing! At least my introduction to an Aussie night out was a good one.

Staying awake so late wasn’t a problem for me given that I still haven’t managed to get myself synced up to Australian time, but by 8am I was ready to go to bed. I got a taxi back to the house and spent my first night in the new house. Laura has a cat, Tux, and I couldn’t recall whether she had said whether he is a house cat and allowed to go out or not, so when I opened the front door and he ran straight out, I realised I wasn’t going to be falling straight into bed. Tux decided to run straight under the neighbour’s house, cue me running around after him and trying to entice him out. Given that the cat doesn’t actually know me, this was quite a task! He eventually came home though, and I could get to sleep. Thanks Tux.