Reasons I went to Melbourne and did not continue from Adelaide to Sydney:

• There is only 1 train per week from Perth to Sydney and it was full between Adelaide and Sydney on the day I was taking it. This meant that I needed to get off in Adelaide, which I did, but I couldn’t continue on the same train for another week. This meant finding another form of transport and the only other alternative from Adelaide to Sydney was a bus. This would take 24h however, which was far too long.
• Something I did find out about in Adelaide was a car share from Adelaide to Sydney. On the last night in Adelaide, a girl asked me if I wanted to go to Sydney tomorrow. The answer would have been yes, had I not already booked a bus to Melbourne.
• The trains to Melbourne left from Adelaide on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. As I go in to Adelaide on Tuesday, the options were to either get the train the next day (which I wasn’t going to do) or to wait until Friday (which was far too long). Therefore, the best option was to fill the gap with a bus. This I did and 12 hours later I was in Melbourne.

I arrived in Melbourne fairly late and proceeded to the hostel that someone on the Indian Pacific railway had recommended. His recommendation for Adelaide had not been bad, so I decided to go with his choice for Melbourne too, as it was very close to the bus station. It wasn’t hard to find and not long after I was sat in a restaurant, having got my accommodation sorted.

Whilst in Melbourne I spent 2 days exploring the city. Day 1 was spent riding the Free City Circle tram route, which took you on a loop around the city. Once I knew where I was going, I got off and wandered roughly in the direction of the Australian Centre for Moving Image, where I spent most of the afternoon. Day 2 was spent organising transport for the next step to Canberra and exploring Brunswick and Fitzroy, the two ‘bohemian’ areas of the city. This I enjoyed, eating vegan food for lunch AND dinner and being back at the hostel in time for a decent night’s sleep.