Melbourne, Australia

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Day 1 (Saturday) - Arrived at the station and was confused by the signs of what to do. They seemed to say the same thing but point in different directions. I asked a local for help who told me that there were city trains and there were suburb trains, so I had to go to a city train. I thought it was weird that the station didn’t say that but oh well. I found my train with a little bit much more ado and was riding into town. I arrived at the Tourak station at around 8am. The hotel that Nigel and I would be staying at that evening was about 100 meters from the station on the same road. I found it in no time. It was too early to check in so I went for a walk down Tourak Street, which was about a block away looking for a coffee and some wireless internet. Nigel had already been in Melbourne a day and would be meeting up with me later. I found a coffee shop with free wireless, where I had breakfast. I was out of place, being that I had just gotten off an overnight bus and hadn’t showered in 24 hours with stained pants and a plain black t-shirt. The rest of the crowd was made up of well to do thirty somethings. Fortunately, black seemed to be the color of the morning and so I felt that I had found my loophole. After I was partially caught up and tired of sitting, which doesn’t come long after an all night bus ride, I moved on and walked the length of the street and back till it was time to check in. The room was nice with bunk beds. I took a bit of a nap before Nigel knocked on the door. I let him in and he decided to get a little rest after a long night previously. We weren’t showered and ready to go till the early evening. Afterwards, we ate at a restaurant on Tourak. I had a salad as my body was starving for vegetables after all the fish and chips and kebabs. Dinner was followed by a game of pool at a place about two blocks away. We tried to go down the street to a bar we had passed early but it was a private party (or we weren’t on the list). We decided to head from there down to the Saint Kilda area, which was supposedly more laid back. Nigel and I walked there, which wasn’t too bad of a walk. We stopped in at a local pub just to sit outside and enjoy the vibe of the street. Within minutes, we had met some guys from a bachelor party. They had obviously started the party early. At around 11 all the bars have to shut down their patios, so we moved inside. The bachelor party didn’t like the new feel and decided to head elsewhere; we were invited to go. The party evaporated upon trying to take action and we were left with two cousins. We went to another bar that had a $20 cover and the taller cousin had the idea to sneak in. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the idea but he said he did it all the time. Well sure enough there was a door leading from the place next door to the bar. Nigel and the shorter cousin had actually been forced in the bar at this point and I was left with the taller one. He told me to go first while he distracted the bartender. I did so but got kicked out immediately as he used me as a cover to get in himself (first time I have ever been thrown out of a bar, though deservedly so). Nigel and the shorter cousin followed me out and we started walking to another area. Soon enough taller cousin calls shorter cousin laughing and says he will make it right. He takes us to a bar he used to work at and has to spend 20 minutes convincing the door guy to let us in. He worked there for 3 years! We stayed in this bar for a while, which had a nice feel to it but it was getting late so Nigel and I decided to head back to the hostel after getting a kebab. It was a long day and my bed felt amazing.

Day 2 (Sunday) - We grabbed coffee and a little snack for breakfast around the hostel. I wanted to see what the downtown area was like and Nigel wanted to buy a camera, so we went downtown starting in the shopping area. We cruised the streets till the shops started closing around 5. Nigel hadn’t made a decision but had all the necessary info to make one for the next day. We then walked around downtown, coming upon a place next to the river that had live music. The band was very good so we hung out there till their time was up. The sun was going down as we left the glass encased bar. We crossed the river looking for a restaurant. Melbourne has a beautiful downtown with buildings straddling a medium sized river. We were crossing just at sunset and the sight was quite inspiring. It was hard to see any effects of the fires that had swept through just a week or so before. We headed down the river and found an Italian restaurant that was just opening. The service was terrible. We ordered a bottle of wine, which they only told us was not in stock after Nigel’s food came. At that time they brought me a bruschetta, which I thought was a nice gesture. Nope, we found out about 30 minutes later when a second waiter came out to ask us if we would like a different bottle of wine that our waitress had somehow confused risotto with brushetta. They made me my meal and comp’ed the bruschetta but the meal was just under 3 hours in total. Or I should say that the waiting was just over 2 hours. After dinner we walked to a bar we had heard about earlier. We were surprised that there was no list but did find out that there was a $20 cover. For some reason, I have a moral dilemma with paying a business money to let me pay them more money. Nigel has the same dilemma, so we left and went back to our area of town, where we found a nice Irish bar. It got surprisingly cool that night. It is amazing that it can be so warm in the day but make one wanting of a heater at night. After a while, we went upstairs to where there was a good band playing, mixed with a clubby mix in their breaks. We were having a good time and I was dancing in the middle of the floor when a girl turned around and kneed me in the groin. Luckily, I was able to deflect most of the shot so I danced back to let her know I was ok. At which point, she said she had a boyfriend and flicked me off. Up to this point, I had given the benefit of the doubt to Australians but this cemented it. A girl injures me and then flicks me off without me doing anything other than telling her that I was ok. I have some Australian friends so I know they are not all bad but I feel bad for my friends and believe them to be saints to have turned out as good as they have. However, I say Australians but I really mean the people who live on the Gold Coast (below Brisbane to Melbourne). Being frustrated, I decided to call it a night. We walked back and Nigel who had witnessed the event was in more disbelief than I was. Separating myself from the Gold Coast world felt good and I slept well in the solitude of our small, private bunk bed room.

Day 3 (Monday) - I got up just early enough to make it to the included breakfast. I scarfed down the food than went back up to bed. Upon waking up, Nigel went back downtown to get a camera. I took the opportunity to do some laundry as I was running desperately low. I read a little and did a little writing in my blog. Nigel came back and discovered that his camera was not the one he wanted, so he went back downtown to exchange it. He got back just after I had finished folding all of my laundry and packing it. It was actually getting pretty late at this point so we caught the tram down to Saint Kilda, which took a while. Upon arrival, we got some fish and chips then went to a pub with a pool table. There was a trivia game going on during, so we alternated shots between questions then finally joined a team. With our help the team won but they didn’t offer us any of the prize, which I thought was in poor form as without our help, they wouldn’t have been in competition. After the competition, the place cleared out and Nigel and I went further down the street to a pub with a nice outside section. We sat there then called it an early night.

Day 4 (Tuesday) - We had to get up early to catch our flight. I got a little breakfast then went up to find Nigel packing. We left the hotel and took a train to the center of town where there was a very expensive bus to the airport. We arrived with plenty of time and no problems. And we were off…

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