So we fiiiiiinally arrived in Melbourne on Friday 2nd October, 2 days later than originally planned but probably a lot more refreshed than if our flights had gone to plan.
The length of the queues for airport security wasn’t the most welcome of sights when we got off the plane. It took us about 45 minutes to reach the self-service machine, and it will be no surprise to learn that the machine didn’t accept my passport so I had to go join another queue to have it seen by a human being. I felt less annoyed when Meryn reached the gates and the face recognition didn’t accept her passport either, and she ended up in the same queue as me a few people down.
The new queue moved a lot quicker than the last so 15 or so minutes later I was being questioned by the security guard. When he learnt that me and Meryn were travelling together he called her up the queue and processed our passports etc at the same time which was nice because it meant we didn’t have to wait even longer than we already had!
Tom had picked up our bags while he was waiting so all we had to do now was hand in our boarding cards and we were free and clear. Meryn and Tom had to go somewhere for additional questioning just because of some of the things they’d ticked on our boarding passes but it only took 5 minutes so it wasn’t too bad!
We had pre-booked Sky Bus tickets, the bus service that runs from the airport into the city. There’s one every 10 minutes so we ended up being able to just hop on one as soon as we got to the bus stand. We had seats and somewhere to put our bags so it let us sit back, relax, and enjoy the free wifi. And y’know, appreciate the fact that we were in Australia and even the views from the motorway were impressive.
We had a free hotel transfer with our Sky Bus tickets and so about 40 minutes after we left the airport, our transfer bus dropped us off a street or so away from our hostel. It felt so weird just walking down the street…. in Australia. There’s no getting used to the fact that we’re actually here!
We couldn’t check in to our rooms until 1pm, but we filled out all the key forms, Meryn and I dumped our bags in the lockers, and we went out in search of coffee and some food. We only had something quick and familiar (Starbucks and Subway, great tourists we know) because we were too tired and grubby to want to do much thinking. All we wanted was the chance to shower and feel normal again so we could do some proper exploring.
We walked back to the hotel and luck was finally on our side: we could get our room keys an hour or so early! Our room is on the 10th floor (1021) and it’s a mixed 4 bed dorm room. We came in to find one of the bottom bunks was occupied, but the occupier wasn’t currently in the room.
We had a lot of fun trying to guess who our room mate was. A German Lonely Planet book on the armchair and a pile of clothes with mens dress shoes on top were our only clues to go by. We imagined a tall, blond, German guy about 20/21 who spoke good English but with some mistakes and who would be super keen to make friends and chat.
We could not have been more wrong.
Our roommate, who we had dubbed “Gary”, turned out to be a 25 year old Australian with dreadlocks from Perth who had come to Melbourne to watch a big football game that was being played on Saturday. Oh and his name isn’t Gary. They don’t even have a single letter in common. Great guesswork from Team Molehead there!
So after showers (they’re communal: 5 showers and 5 toilets per floor), a change of clothes and a dumping of luggage, we were ready to explore Melbourne!
Melbourne is a really pretty city. It has big wide open roads, and a really fun mix of buildings. Some look new, some are really arty, and some are big old-looking buildings that appear unexpectedly as you’re walking along. There are so many different street performances dotted around as well, that you’re almost always within ear shot of music and singing.
The most important information I’ve learnt about Melbourne though? The fact that there are coffee shops everywhere. And not just that - most of them offer soya milk! Some even offer lactose-free milk! It’ unheard of, amazing, and I’m worried it’s spoiling me and I’m going to be really disappointed when I end up in a soya-milk-less New Zealand.
The jet lag struggle became harder and harder as the day went on. We bought ourselves some pasta and bolognese sauce, and cooked ourselves tea in the hostel. It was lucky we chose a simple meal. We didn’t have salt, we didn’t notice there was a specific hot water dispenser, and I’m not sure we would have even been able to figure out something more difficult than cooking pasta.
By 7pm, everyone was about ready to fall asleep. Much to their annoyance, I forced Tom and Meryn to come for a walk with me to stop them from going asleep too early. It worked surprisingly well. We were out for about an hour, wandering the streets and popping into whatever shops took our fancy.
When we came back, Tom putting his bike together and the three of us getting ready took up enough time that it was about 8:30/9pm by the time we were getting into bed. Since our goal had been 9/10pm, we decided it was near enough and all gratefully climbed into bed.
I don’t think 5 minutes had passed before all 3 of us were sound asleep.
Successful first day!
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