Advertisement
Published: February 6th 2011
Edit Blog Post
We touched down in Melbourne airport in the afternoon and went through immigration - which I must say was not a very pleasant experience - the guy who put me through obviously enjoyed his job and the small piece of power he had way too much and was quite abrupt. I quote "Do you check your e-mails regularly?" to which I replied "Yes" and then he was like "Well make sure you do!" not really quite sure what was up with him, then because I hadn't written down the address we were staying at, as we hadn't booked any accommodation at that point, he was a bit funny about that! And THEN apparently I hadn't put my middle names on my e-visitor which really irritated him, so much so he called "immigration" over. So yeah that wasn't great fun after a night flight from Bangkok which I thought wasn't going to make it!! Had really bad turbulence and I was quite close to tears, I got chatting to a couple next to us and then grabbed on to Hannah at one point waking her up which they found quite amusing, but we survived...just!
The airport had a tourist desk which
had a freephone which put you through to lots of different hostels. The couple on the plane recommended that we stayed in St. Kilda as there are lots of backpackers places there and cheap places to eat, so we found one called the Oslo hostel and booked in two nights there. Didn't really do much the next two days as Hannah was still feeling unwell. Got a tram into the city the following morning to validate our Greyhound passes and book our trip to Canberra. Met up with Samantha (Geoff's niece) and she took us to the shops and showed us where the places to go which was nice. Jumped on the tram home and bumped in to two of the boys that we met in Thailand who live about twenty minutes outside of Melbourne which was really weird!! It really is a small world. I had managed to hunt down a loaf of bread and some Heinz Baked Beans which I had been craving since being in Thailand, so thats what I had for dinner that night.
Wednesday 26th, AUSTRALIA DAY - Packed up our bags and left the hostel to go and stay a bit further in
town at another one called "Urban Central". We caught the tram there and then ended up walking about a mile in a big circle in really hot weather with our heavy bags so that irritating but never mind! We were staying in our first shared dorm, only with two other people though. We were sharing with an English guy called Rob who was travelling on his own and he was an "interesting" character. He kept popping up in different places around the hostel telling us different things. We also had another guy join us in the day who reminded me of that guy from "Friends" who has the massive beard and Rachel keeps trying to get his attention. Anyway, we knew him as the bearded dragon as we never got his name and he had a big bushy beard. So that night we went out to watch the Australia day fireworks which were really nice. Melbourne is a lovely city - I could easily see myself living there!! Then we went down to Federation square which is where everyone goes to watch big events (i.e the tennis - which I will talk more about later) as they have a big screen that they show things on.
Got back to the hostel and true to form I got the giggles straight away as I walked in our room and had to run back out again. Not quite sure why, but I think it was that nervous thing when you know you are not supposed to laugh so I did! Next morning Han and I decided to go and get some ground passes to watch the Australia Open, it was a lovely day and we ended up catching a little too much sun! We needed to seek some shade so we figured the only thing we could do was go shopping, so inconvenient! I would say that the clothes in Oz are the only things that don't seem to be too expensive. We were very shocked after to coming from Thailand at the prices we have to pay for dinner, probably a little bit more expensive than at home (due to the pound being so weak at the moment) but having to pay more than two pounds for your dinner was hard to get used to! Han was finally starting to feel better now which we were both really pleased about. Got back to the hostel and cooked some dinner in the kitchen, then had some drinks in the bar - by drinks I mean a cup of tea - then we went to bed. Had two German guys in our room this night (I've made it my New Years resolution to learn German by the way!).
Decided to stay in Melbourne for three more nights as we hadn't got to see much and weren't ready to leave this beautiful city yet. Samantha very kindly let us stay with her for three nights which was a great help. She lives in Carlton which is about 10 minutes from the city by tram, so perfect location. We went to the Immigration Museum in the morning which was really interesting and then got the tram to Carlton to take our stuff to Sam's. Sam works nights so Han and I cooked some dinner, watched a film and just relaxed which was such a treat! Obviously being in a hostel with a shared space you can't really do stuff like that!
Sam dropped us to the Queen Victoria Market Saturday morning as she was heading out that way. We were only there for a short while as it was just the same old stuff everywhere you looked. It was a VERY hot day. We got the tram to St, Kilda beach and caught some rays. We ordered a pizza and then watched another film, followed by some trashy UK tv which we secretly enjoyed!
We went to the pool on Sunday as again it was a scorcher, it reached 39 on the Sunday. It was the final of the tennis so Han and I headed to Federation square where they were showing it on the big screen to support Murray! There were hundreds of people there and it was a lovely evening, the sun was still warm. There was a great atmosphere but unfortunately Murray lost. Never mind! It was fairly late by the time it was over so we went and used the free WiFi at McDonalds and then caught the tram home.
Monday 31st January - Time to leave Melbourne 😞 Sam kindly dropped us to the station to catch our Greyhound bus to Canberra at around seven o'clock. Han and I had a great time in Melbourne and it was really nice to see Samantha and we were very grateful to her for putting us up and showing us around! Will definitely have to come back here again.
I will upload the photos when I am next on, just wanted to catch up with some of my blogs as its a lot harder to get on the internet in Australia.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.089s; Tpl: 0.018s; cc: 11; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0418s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb