I am notorious for not blogging about long trips. I'm just too verbose and I want the posts to feel like you were there with me!
To make sure I get them done, I'll be doing them in parts. Because lezbeonist, y'all won't want to read this post if it's 2 miles long. I'll try to keep it at about 1.5 ;)
Before we start, this is Australia:
Cairns is the place to fly if you want to see the Great Barrier Reef. Not labeled here is Alice Springs, which is where you fly to see Ayers Rock / Uluru. If it were on this map, it would be a bit above the "L" in the word Australia (aka Nebraska territory if we're talking US terms). Hobart and that island is Tasmania.
May 14th
Night before the trip, Emily and I packed all of our clothes and toiletries into my carry on, and then had individual backpacks. On this day, the flight left from Brisbane airport at 8:15 am. The earliest bus to Roma Street train station was at 6:03am, and then the train to the airport would get us to the airport at around 7:15.
We leave the house with all of our junk, into the pouring rain, it's still dark out, and we go down to the bus stop.
The bus is late.
Like, 15 minutes late.
Then we finally get to Roma Street, and have to wait 28 minutes for the next airport train.
Good thing I checked in on line and had our boarding passes printed!
Then we get to the airport, run to Jetstar and they announce that the flight to Melbourne's check in is closing in 3 minutes. So we run on up to security. Emily gets through security, they just tell her to take our her laptop next time. They ask me if I have any computer or aerosol and I say no, and when my bag goes through an alarm goes off. Turns out I DO have an aerosol can - Emily packed hairspray.
So then they had to do a whole sweep of the can and all the liquids and the whole suitcase.
Then we get done with that, and this lady walks over and picks up my carry-on and says no no no, you need to check this. the limit is 10kg (22 lbs) of baggage per person (comprising of your carry-on and personal item) - this bag is heavy and you have your backpack as well so youll need to check it. Go back down to the front desk.
So we go back down to the entrance, walk up to checkin which they had to keep open just for us. The bag is 11.2kg, so the super nice woman just tells me to take out some liquids, put them in my backpack, and have Emily carry both backpacks, since a person can have an overhead bag and an under seat bag.
That loophole and that kind woman saved me $70.
We run back up to go through security again, and I tell Emily to take my backpack. The woman who stopped us earlier totally sees me hand Emily my backpack, and I totally looked at her and she had a knowing smile. I hope that the check-in counter woman didn't get fired or anything if she has a penchant for sharing the loophole.
We went through two separate lines on security just to make sure we didn't get stopped, and we both got stopped anyway for a "random screening" with a bomb detector wand. Hurg.
We finally get to board the plane. We're on the plane. I pop my bonine.
We take off, we're in the air, we land. We walk around Melbourne airport looking for the exit, looking for the Skybus shuttle to Southern Cross Train Station which I had booked and printed the tickets for.
We find it, but the first one is full so we have to stand on line. It's really sunny in Melbourne, but it's FREEZING! It was like, 55 degrees but very windy, so we were standing there shivering waiting for the bus.
The bus would take us to Southern Cross train station, and then I had printed out a google maps map of the walk from the station to our hotel (which according to google would take less than 10 minutes)(HAHAHAHA SURE GOOGLE. SURE.)
The CBD of Melbourne is set up a lot like NYC.
In this map, circled in red are all of the places we went to - which I shall post pics - and the blue rectangle is the route of the City Circle Tram line that we rode to get around (it was free).
Walking to the circled Hotel from the circled Southern Cross was tough, because it was so cold, because the wind kept blowing my cardigan open, and dragging the bag up hills, and finding the whole city larger than expected, it took us about 35 minutes just to get there. I led us the wrong direction for 2 blocks, but then made our way back finally. (By the middle of the second day, we were semi-pros at navigating the CBD tho)
We check in to the hotel, which is ranked the 3rd best hostel / backpacker accomodation in Australia. I initially looked at it because it was on Qantas, and I thought that staying there would earn me more frequent flyer points (but it turns out not to be true - oh well, still enjoyed the place). Every door was key card access only, so it felt very secure, which is always a plus. Emily and I had a private double, which looking at pictures while booking I thought was going to be a room with a bunk bed, but it turned out to be a room with two separate twin beds so that was a pleasant surprise. We had our own room, but were sharing bathrooms with the whole floor (and sometimes other floors - more on that later).
After getting a bit settled, I said we should walk to the Queen Victoria Markets, because they weren't open on Wednesdays (the only full day we would have in Melb) and closed that day at 2pm (so if we didnt go then - we wouldnt be able to). So we found our way there eventually, then walked around inside there for an hour.
The whole market is HUGE. Only a portion of it was inside a building, the rest was just roofs built over parking lots. Each aisle was labeled clearly, and there were so many and they were each very very long. We got separated in the first few minutes, but somehow kept finding each other until we decided to split up to search for different things we might want to buy. I was looking to buy a sweatshirt and maybe some souvenirs, but I didn't find anything. She was filming a lot of it for our group of friends' Youtube channel. The market has general merchandise, souvenirs, craftspeople, and then a full on farmers market. It was classy though somehow, like, not one of the stalls gave the impression that they were selling stolen goods lol (not like Sydney - but thats another blog post *wink*)
We both found ourselves to be STARVING and after briefly being unable to find each other - we were reunited and decided to look for food. Right down one of the alleyways was a cute little Japanese place. I got sushi and miso soup, and she got sushi and a beef stir fry (maybe teriyaki? idr but it was good). Sushi rolls here are cool because they're like $2 or $2.50 each, and are basically uncut maki, so you eat them like a corndog with no stick. $2 for what would turn out to be 5 pieces of maki if it were cut is really not bad for sushi. It's actually a bargain. I also don't eat tuna sushi because of the absurd mercury content, but the tuna rolls available here are all tuna salad with miniscule amounts of mayonnaise and it doesn't sound like it would work but its great. Anyway. I'm rambling. Sushi lovers out there?
Props also to Amanda for getting me addicted to seaweed salad, and props to myself for passing it along to Bethany.
Okay, so during our lunch it started raining HARD. We were freezing and exhausted, so we hauled our bums back to the hotel (may or may not have gotten lost too).
It was about 3:30pm when we arrived back at the hostel, cold and tired and drenched. Both of us had been awake since about 4am running on only a few hours of sleep to begin with, we crashed. I explored a bit more of the hotel first, going up to the rooftop lounge to see the view. This is the view:
When Emily woke up and we were both competent, we made a game plan for the next day, and looked up some places that were open 24 hours and would deliver us food.
Emily finally found an italian joint called Pepperoni's that was open 24 hours, so we ordered from there and waited the hour for it to be delivered, then I went to the lobby to meet the delivery guy.
I got lasagna but it was really just spaghetti with meat sauce.
Emily ordered chicken strips and french fries which she said tasted like pancakes and sadness.
But I did get a nice TimTam cheesecake (2 slices!) which ended up being the highlight of the whole day lol.
May 15th
The word Melbourne is not pronounced like the Melbourne in Florida.
It isn't Mel-born. It's not Mel-burn. It is pronounced Mel-bun.
Melbun.
Almost "Mail-bun" but subtle on the "ail".
There now you know some australian ;)
Anyway - May 15th. We napped again, and left around noon. Picked up a quick lunch at 7-11 and the liquid Godsend that is COFFEE. You would not BELIEVE how expensive coffee grounds are here! An equivalent can of folgers here is on SALE for $18. SALE. Emily is a coffee addict where I just crave it every once in a while, so the fact that we could get a $2 medium at 7-11 (and the fancy machine even did lattes) was just tops. My breakfast/lunch that day was a coffee and doritos. Not my proudest meal but def reflecting how broke I've become. Also a medium sized bag of doritos here costs $3.29.
$5.29 in america would get me a combo at taco bell. anyway.
We walked down to Latrobe street, which is one of the busier streets, parked ourselves on a bench outside RMIT (university) and had our little meal before catching the City Circle tram. The City Circle tram is free, and stops every two or three blocks in a big circle around the whole CBD north of the river. It was super convenient, and one comes every 12 minutes. We hopped on one and got off whenever the mood struck us or something on the map coming up was of interest.
Our first stop off was Flagstaff Gardens.
It is here that Emily took a candid of me that I think it perhaps one of, if not the best pic ever taken of myself...here are some pics:
There we went near the water, we saw this weird cow sculpture, and walked along a bit before stopping for another tram. Emily was content to just walk to where we were going because "you wanted to see Melbourne and the best way is to walk" but I explained that it would take too long to walk and the free tram stopped at 6pm and I didn't want to be stranded to get back to the hotel.
Then we got on the tram again, and got off at Flinders Station. Flinders station is probably the most iconic building in Melbourne. I didn't realize this until I went into the souvenir store and everything with Melbourne on it had either a tram or Flinders station on it (or the tower thing that I don't know the name of...)
We walked under Flinders station to get to the footbridge. It was the plan from the start to cross the footbridge and walk through the Botanic gardens, but once we crossed the bridge it started raining. Hard. so we took shelter under the awning of a swanky riverside mall, and tried to wait it out but it was clearly not going to stop.
We spent an hour or two inside there, because there were some exhibits we were interested in, and because it was raining anyway. The one exhibit that was in the brochure that I really wanted to see, we couldn't find, so I just resigned that maybe it was temporary and we missed it. Oh well. We did see a nice collection of authentic ballet costumes, including one worn by the black swan in Swan Lake, which was pretty cool. We also walked through the Japanese, Chinese, and European galleries. We also went into one full of contemporary / modern interior design and furniture that I could not get out of fast enough. I HATE modern art and contemporary furniture. It just makes me gag. Modern art would only ever interest me if I was on psychotropic drugs because that is the only thing that could make a single line on a 50 foot canvas interesting. At least on drugs the single line on the white canvas would turn into something and dance for me.
The modern art gallery was literally a room with two huge fans blowing a continuous blank film strip in circles. Like.....LOL WUT???
When we left, we tried to catch the free skybus back to the tram stop, but the free bus wasn't running anymore. So we crossed a larger bridge on foot and go back to the other side of the river and walked through Federation Square and went inside a film museum. Federation Square is below:
The coolest part of that was the wing about Australian filmmakers and actors, and there were costumes and set pieces from Moulin Rouge! which is one of my favorite movies. The white dress that Nicole Kidman wears during the first/only performance of Spectacular Spectacular was there, along with a 6-foot tall miniature of the literal moulin rouge (red windmill), presumably for the rendered "fly-over" shots of the moulin rouge complex that they used as the set.
We were kicked back out of the film museum after closing time into the rain. I went inside St Pauls Cathedral (another one, I know) which was stunning on the inside and the outside, but taking pictures inside cost $5 so I just said a quick prayer and left. I love churches, and I could've happily gotten lost in the rafters of this one had people been able to explore a bit. St Pauls:
Then we waited for the tram back to our neck of the woods.
We went into a mall on Latrobe street (right back where we started) because Emily wanted to look for her own carry on suitcase, so we wouldn't have to worry about the weight restrictions anymore. While we were walking around, I started getting really light headed. I felt like I had to sit down, but I also was aware that I had to keep walking because if I locked my knees then I would faint. So I was just in a fog. I went to go down the escalator and Emily kept walking, so I had a nice trip running up the escalator. I got laughed at but I got up and kept going.
I realized that I hadn't eaten anything since the coffee and doritos, even though I had a sandwich in my backpack we just hadn't stopped anywhere. We'd been walking for a long time and I hadn't drank any water either. So when Emily went into a store to buy shampoo, I sat on the steps of a card store and ate my sandwich while the commuters judged me. No bothers were given on my part.
Then Emily and I poked around inside the card store, but I started feeling weird again so I sat back on the steps, then was told to move by security who hadn't noticed me before. Then we got bubble tea because we both have an addiction to bubble tea and also I figured sugar would help. I got Earl Grey and it was interesting. She loved hers though.
Then we went back to the hotel, and I proceeded to inhale my leftover spaghetti from that morning.
I then went up to the Rooftop lounge for the last time, hoping to get a pic of the city lights.
Mission accomplished.Then a bit later it was still only like 8pm, I asked Emily to look up some locations of souvenir stores that I could run to just to get a few things. (shot glass....dont judge).
So she tells me where a few are, and I head off down Russell street, crossing over Latrobe and Lonsdale to get to Little Bourke Street. didn't realize just on the address that this was Chinatown - so all of the little junk stores were not Melbourne or licensed Australia junk, just imported goods and imported food. So I went in a few just to look around, but didn't find a souvenir store until I was walking back to the hotel.
I bought a few things :) Got some really nice shot glasses and a patch and a pin.
One day I'll have a cool canvas bag covered in patches from my travels. I have tons (not quite so many now after college...a few of them fell off my senior robe and I am unsure of their locations until I fully unpack from undergrad...which will prob be only when I move out....which will be when I'm done with grad school and have a job....which will be never...)
Anyway. I've been favoring parentheses in this post.....
My review of the city of Melbourne.
Here it is.
Love it.
Love it. Love it.
Let it not be said that I hate Brisbane. I don't hate it, there's just not much to do. There's stuff to do, plenty that I haven't done, but when looking up the "must dos" in Brisbane I've done most of them.
Melbourne CBD has buildings to see, and historic sites and gardens, Brisbane CBD is just shops and offices really.
Emily and I agreed after only like an hour of this day that we would love to move to Melbourne. She still might, even after I leave. I wish we'd gone to Melbourne or even Sydney earlier than now because I would have considered moving there. She looked at some real estate and a 2-bedroom apartment there fully furnished is only $150 a week, so split in half is cheaper than our current rent in Brisbane.
Plus Melbourne is a larger city, and I noticed a lot of foreigners there, both working and just living. According to Emmilly who is from that area, its a lot easier for a non-Australian to be hired there. So that's my one regret that came out of this trip - not doing it soon enough.
A review of the Space Hotel:
Definitely worth it! For it only being $30 a night for a really nice room with two separate beds, it was a steal.
There were 9 floors, G and then 1-8. The 8th floor was only the rooftop lounge - so I guess the 8th floor would be the roof then....anyway.
So the first floor had a lounge area, 2nd floor (where our room was) had a cinema, third floor had an exercise gym, fourth floor had another lounge area, and the 5th floor had a HUGE kitchen and dining room. The kitchen was incredible, it looked like a restaurant with all the appliances and stainless steel. 6th and 7th floors were strictly dorms.
Every room and every door was key card access, even the bathrooms. The bathrooms did fill up at a certain time during the day, so it was hard to find an open one from 8-10pm. Like I said, sharing bathrooms with the whole floor gets a little weird, particularly in these because it was just a room with a toilet and a sink. The shower room was the same room with toilet and sink but then had one wall sticking out and a showerhead. It wasn't tiled off or anything, just the same flooring, with a wall sticking out. While taking a shower, the whole room filled with water - and when you were just brushing your teeth and forced to use a shower room for it bc all of the plain toilets were occupied - you had to wear shoes because the water was all on the floor.
The place also had a "no noise" policy but there were absolutely no people enforcing that. Our biggest complaint was our neighbor who liked to throw rave parties and play his music over speakers instead of headphones like a normal person. I could have been a rat and run down to the front desk and asked them to come up and say something, but I was fine with earplugs.
I learned the hard way to always bring earplugs to hostels lol.
But either way - the whole stay in Melbourne was great. Loved it!!!
Coming up soon : our final day in the state of Victoria - the Great Ocean Road day tour!
Stay tuned my lovelies.
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