Upon arriving at Melbourne Tullamarine Airport, Daniel and I made our way to the SkyBus (how come Melbourne can get airport transfers right and Sydney still can’t?). Saying our farewells – Dan was continuing on home to Sydney while I was meeting Justin at the end of the SkyBus, I boarded the transfer and arrived in Southern Cross station (aka Spencer St station) just like the ads had said: 20mins!
Justin in town, we decided to walk to 20mins to the hostel (yup…Alex sometimes roughs it in budget accommodation and isn’t always staying in a Holiday Inn!). Checked in to our private room, we walked towards North Melbourne and explored the restaurants/cafes looking for somewhere budget and appealing to have dinner, eventually finding the comedy lounge where tonight Jimoin was performing, but unfortunately for us, it was bookings only! So we settled for Malaysian, which turned out to be more a mixture of Thai and Chinese. Our first night done in Melbourne, we capped it off with a viewing of Slumdog Millionaire – an awesome but eye-opening movie.
Our main full day in Melbourne, we woke up fairly late and wandered down to the city through the Victoria markets, down through Lonsdale, Collins and Bourke Streets before arriving at Federation Square and down along the Yarra to walk to Rod Laver Arena (home of the Australian Open for those of you playing at home). We were mucking around the arena when the gorgeous Alicia Molik walked pass us on her Blackberry…HOT. From there it was a hop skip and jump away from the MCG where we bought our tour ticket and was guided through the members area and areas that are usually off limits by a Melbourne Cricket Club member. The MCG is simply amazing – it's a beautiful sports arena that definitely deserves being treasured by the Victorians (only they could fill it to the brim like they do every couple of months for the AFL!).
To round off the day, we caught the free City Circle tram over to Docklands out of curiosity to see what all the fuss was about the Southern Star, which is now effectively a giant non-moving wheel, all for a measly $100million. Seeing all the Collingwood and Richmond supporters around the Docklands precinct notified us that there would be a game on in the city tonight, so we strolled to the newly named Etihad Stadium (it was previously named the Telstra Dome) and purchased 2 $10 tickets – cheap good quality and Melbourne specific entertainment! The game was fairly exciting and the pies eventually downed the tigers (i.e.: Collingwood beat Richmond) 1.13.10.97 to 2.3.15.51 (that's: Super-goal [9]. Goal [6]. Behind [1]. Total). Satisfied with a sporty and truly Melbourne day out, we made our way back to the hostel and rested for a scorcher or a day, and our last day in Melbourne!
Checking out on Friday at 10am, we dropped our bags off in the lockers provided by YHA and again walked down to the city towards Bourke St, down along La Trobe St, passing by RMIT University and other Melbourne icons. We wandered past Flinders St station and down along the Yarra on to crown casino. Trying our luck on the pokies, we won a couple of dollars, but kept playing away in hope for that big jackpot but alas, ended up losing it all again! After lunch, there was a prize giveaway version of The Price Is Right which sounded in theory interesting, but oh how disappointed we were if you can imagine an overly enthusiastic host who screamed down the microphone to a slightly more than disinterested crowd, add to the mixture not one but 2 dumb assistance and you have half an hour drivel (yet we stupidly stayed…).
Having completed most of what we wanted to do in Melbourne, we did what everyone else does when they come to Melbourne and we shopped! Myer was slightly disappointing, but DJs ended up being a bad decision – 2 Marcs shirts and $200 on the credit card later, I had reached my limit. A relaxing drink back at the hostel before the collection of our luggage and we headed off to Tullamarine to check in for our flight home. As we had arrived about an hour early or so, we tried our luck and was fortunate enough to get bumped onto an earlier flight, getting home earlier and thus reducing the amount of time we needed to wait at the airport.
An uneventful hour later (save for the 2 dumb blondes behind us talking non-stop for the full hour and spraying deodorant when we landed before we got off the plane, and the head flight attendant telling everyone off for chatting during the safety demonstration – she waited for the plane to fall silent…), the all female Virgin Blue crew had us touching down in Sydney just past 9pm. I’m home for the weekend – just enough time to do the washing, work a couple of hours to top up cash and to pack again for the US on Monday!
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