Melbourne
I have been somewhat harsh on Melbourne. I have spent the last four years convinced that Melbourne is a rubbish city just because it spoilt our Christmas BBQ with chilly, rainy and haily weather in the middle of its summer. Deep down I think I always knew that Melbourne is a great city. It just has terrible weather. Maybe that's only in mid- to late-December - I'll have to go one day at a different time to confirm.
Getting to Melbourne was an adventure in itself. Vanessa and I had booked on Tiger Airways, the least frilly of the no frills airlines which did the Sydney to Melbourne run. However, after we'd paid for all the hidden extras, like seats, it wasn't that cheap. To save some money, we only took one bag of hold luggage between us. This meant that I had to check in online, but Vanessa had to wait and check in in person, which meant that we couldn't sit together. Vanessa was jammed in next to a sizeable Indian couple, and I was across the aisle from her. We landed in the laughably named 'Terminal 4' at Melbourne Airport. The plane landed on the tarmac and the moveable stairs came over. We were in the back row on the plane so were the first out. We followed two men in orange tabards along a covered walkway into an aircraft hangar. The hold baggage was dumped on the floor in this hangar. We made our way out through a turnstile into the airport car park. We then had to walk to the proper terminals to catch a bus into town.
Despite the underdeveloped nature of its airport, the city was great. I found myself remembering all kinds of little things which I'd done the first time I was there, like the food court we often ate in, the animatronic Christmas story in the Casino, the Christmas window display in Myers, the bowling alley, the street of restaurants, the free city circle tram, Yum Cha in Chairman Mao's in Chinatown. Then there were the bigger things - Federation Square, the walk along the Yarra to the Botanic Gardens on one side, and to the MCG on the other side, the Southbank. I did find myself reminiscing a lot about the previous visit, like our BBQ across the Yarra from 'the G'.
We spent a lot of time wandering around the city, occasionally catching trams, popping into shops whenever it rained (quite often). As well as rainy, it was fairly cold. Vanessa didn't take her fleece off for five days. On the final full day we were there (as last time I'd been), the sun did come out and we went to St Kilda to see the beach there. I rather enjoyed the 'Solar System' model on the St Kilda foreshore too - I spotted Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars and Jupiter, but we didn't walk any further than that. Apparently Pluto was 5.9km from the sun. The day was, astonishingly, too hot for walking that far!
The other advantage of Melbourne is its proximity to some beautiful coastal areas. We weren't able to see the famous Great Ocean Road, but did make it down to Philip Island to see some wallabies, koalas and, most interestingly, thousands upon thousands of little Little Penguins as they ran from the sea to their burrows on land as the sun set. They were so cute! They were surprisingly quick too, as they zipped along. As the sun went down, the first intrepid penguins emerged from the sea, but were spooked by the noises of birds and humans so they rushed back into the sea. Eventually they plucked up courage to leave the safety of the sea and ran out onto the beach again. Looking around fearfully, they decided to run the gauntlet and zoom! they were off! A few minutes later, there were penguins everywhere, on the beach, in the bushes, under all the wooden walkways, in the car park, even in very rare cases in their burrows. The whole Penguin Parade was an amazing experience!
The time went so quickly and it was soon time to go back. On our way to the bus stop for the airport, we walked past a marketing event where some of the English and Aussie cricketers were signing autographs and playing cricket with the kids. We stopped for long enough to see Alistair Cook bowling a few of his trademark(!) right-(!) arm tweakers and Mitchell 'He bowls to the left, he bowls to the right' Johnson being hit out of the crowd by a ten-year old. We soon carried on to the bus stop at the Southern Cross station. So all that was left was to endure another Tiger Airways flight. I wasn't allowed to sit in the spare seat next to Vanessa as the plane had been 'carefully weighted'. So we were back in Sydney for Christmas and New Year.
Getting to Melbourne was an adventure in itself. Vanessa and I had booked on Tiger Airways, the least frilly of the no frills airlines which did the Sydney to Melbourne run. However, after we'd paid for all the hidden extras, like seats, it wasn't that cheap. To save some money, we only took one bag of hold luggage between us. This meant that I had to check in online, but Vanessa had to wait and check in in person, which meant that we couldn't sit together. Vanessa was jammed in next to a sizeable Indian couple, and I was across the aisle from her. We landed in the laughably named 'Terminal 4' at Melbourne Airport. The plane landed on the tarmac and the moveable stairs came over. We were in the back row on the plane so were the first out. We followed two men in orange tabards along a covered walkway into an aircraft hangar. The hold baggage was dumped on the floor in this hangar. We made our way out through a turnstile into the airport car park. We then had to walk to the proper terminals to catch a bus into town.
Despite the underdeveloped nature of its airport, the city was great. I found myself remembering all kinds of little things which I'd done the first time I was there, like the food court we often ate in, the animatronic Christmas story in the Casino, the Christmas window display in Myers, the bowling alley, the street of restaurants, the free city circle tram, Yum Cha in Chairman Mao's in Chinatown. Then there were the bigger things - Federation Square, the walk along the Yarra to the Botanic Gardens on one side, and to the MCG on the other side, the Southbank. I did find myself reminiscing a lot about the previous visit, like our BBQ across the Yarra from 'the G'.
We spent a lot of time wandering around the city, occasionally catching trams, popping into shops whenever it rained (quite often). As well as rainy, it was fairly cold. Vanessa didn't take her fleece off for five days. On the final full day we were there (as last time I'd been), the sun did come out and we went to St Kilda to see the beach there. I rather enjoyed the 'Solar System' model on the St Kilda foreshore too - I spotted Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars and Jupiter, but we didn't walk any further than that. Apparently Pluto was 5.9km from the sun. The day was, astonishingly, too hot for walking that far!
The other advantage of Melbourne is its proximity to some beautiful coastal areas. We weren't able to see the famous Great Ocean Road, but did make it down to Philip Island to see some wallabies, koalas and, most interestingly, thousands upon thousands of little Little Penguins as they ran from the sea to their burrows on land as the sun set. They were so cute! They were surprisingly quick too, as they zipped along. As the sun went down, the first intrepid penguins emerged from the sea, but were spooked by the noises of birds and humans so they rushed back into the sea. Eventually they plucked up courage to leave the safety of the sea and ran out onto the beach again. Looking around fearfully, they decided to run the gauntlet and zoom! they were off! A few minutes later, there were penguins everywhere, on the beach, in the bushes, under all the wooden walkways, in the car park, even in very rare cases in their burrows. The whole Penguin Parade was an amazing experience!
The time went so quickly and it was soon time to go back. On our way to the bus stop for the airport, we walked past a marketing event where some of the English and Aussie cricketers were signing autographs and playing cricket with the kids. We stopped for long enough to see Alistair Cook bowling a few of his trademark(!) right-(!) arm tweakers and Mitchell 'He bowls to the left, he bowls to the right' Johnson being hit out of the crowd by a ten-year old. We soon carried on to the bus stop at the Southern Cross station. So all that was left was to endure another Tiger Airways flight. I wasn't allowed to sit in the spare seat next to Vanessa as the plane had been 'carefully weighted'. So we were back in Sydney for Christmas and New Year.
posted by Gaz man at 10:34 pm
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