I am staying in the Greenhouse Backpackers hostel in Melbourne. The location is ideal and the hostel is quite satisfactory. At $70 for a private room it is half the price of a budget hotel. I use the communal bath (locker room/ dormitory style) but have my own room, with wifi. The kitchen and dining area, shown, offers free breakfast – I just finished 2 peanut butter and jam sandwiches with coffee (instant, with powdered whitener).

I am not ready to embrace Vegemite sandwiches in the morning. I did have a tiny taste on a piece of toast, but it was truly disgusting. Tasted like the waste materials of a brewery. It should come as no surprise that it IS the waste material from breweries. Vegemite is a taste acquired in childhood. Somewhere I read that the use of a “Best Before” stamp on the jars is something of a euphemism.

Now I am off, down 6 flights of stairs because the elevators in hostels are never speedy, to find some proper coffee.