Aussie culture is often described as evolving around three things: footy, beer and barby. As I already experienced and enjoyed beer and barby I wanted to give footy a try as well. Melbourne is the uncontested sports capital of Australia and as such the perfect place to see a live football game. With 11 of the 18 premier league AFL teams based in Melbourne it’s not hard to find a game but rather to choose which one to see.

Now that the road trip has come to an end completely I want to see how much travelling with a car cost me in total. It got way more expensive than expected because of the low price I got for the car. The latter probably being caused by a bad market (for sellers) and a QLD registration that is more difficult and expensive to transfer than those from other states.

During the last two days I got a couple of offers for the car ranging from $100 to $400. Not really convincing but would be better than nothing. This morning I got another call from a guy who works for a TV company (Southern Star) and he offered me $500 and a cab ride if I dropped the car of at their place. No better offers came in and so I drove the car to the studio this afternoon.

Today I was strolling around the CBD and came across a couple of graffiti artists on Swanston St. They were spraying pictures of surreal landscapes and it was very interesting to see which techniques and tools they used to create some really impressive pictures. There is still no good news about the car. Right now I’m trying to auction it off till Thursday hoping to get a halfway decent price. It’s really weird, when I arrived two guys at the hostel had just sold a car like mine for two grand and now… something’s rotten in the state of Melbourne.

So far the car market in Melbourne exceeds my worst expectations. Since Tuesday my ad on gumtree had 500 views and all I got was two replies. Over the weekend I put the price down as far as $500 but still got no offers. I don’t really know what to think about that. The high number of views shows that people are interested in buying cheap cars but for some reason nobody is really interested in mine.

On Monday I left Adelaide, two months after I arrived there. Can’t believe it’s been that long. After a short stop in the Grampians national park I arrived in Melbourne on Tuesday. My goal is to sell the car for basically any price. It’s not a good time to sell a backpacker car as many backpackers already left the city. I’ve put an ad on the message boards of the bigger hostels and put an ad on gumtree as well.

There is something about the Aussie mentality that took me a while to figure out. And I’m not even sure if I did it by now. When comparing Germany and Australia I always have to account for the fact that my lifestyles are completely different as well and that I get in contact with different people in different environments. Some things still stick out and and one of those things are mistakes.

Earlier than expected the vintage came to an end for me. Most of the grapes are harvested and what is left will be taken care of by the base crew on the farm, no need for additional helpers. People say it’s been the worst vintage in decades. Thousands of tons of grapes were destroyed by disease and most of the rest won’t make for a great wine either. While I would have liked to work for a little longer I’m also relieved that the circus is over.

“It isn’t until you stop that you realize how fucked you are.”. These words of Sam quite accurately describe how the long days in the vintage feel. During the work days there aren’t really any breaks. One jobs follows the next and the machines are always moving as they don’t make any money while standing around. After work we usually sit in the shed for a beer or two and because it is the first time my body can relax I feel like I had a whole six-pack afterwards.

The weather has improved over the last days and we got some work done. Some vineyards are hit by diseases like botrytis but most are still ok. The rain also left many blocks as big muddy puddles which is quite a problem when heavy machinery has to get through there. The harvesters got stuck a couple of times but with the help of one or two additional tractors they got pulled out again.