Day 90 - Sydney to Melbourne

  Melbourne, Australia
Saturday, December 1, 2007

There was bad news upon awakening this morning: Katie was as sick as a dog.

I won't go into specifics, but we think she had food poisoning, which is never much fun, spending precious little time away from the bathroom.

It was really weird to get food poisoning from such a lovely restaurant, but it must have been the trout that Katie had last night.

I took all my gear out of the room and packed, letting Katie try to sleep it off a bit, because we had our flight to Melbourne today at just after midday. At least it wasn't an early flight, we'd have never made it.

Aftere a while Katie was able to get out of bed to pack her stuff, and then crumpled back on the bed, the poor thing. It's horrible when you can't do anything to help, I felt pretty useless.

Eric felt awful and kindly offered to drive us to the airport, which gave Katie a bit more recovery time, and she was ok in the car until we got to the check-in area.

We were flying Virgin Blue, an Australian low-cost carrier who are pretty good. I explained that Katie wasn't well to the check-in girl, who was really understanding and arranged for Katie to be in an aisle seat on the exit row, so she could be more comfortable and close to the toilets.

The flight was about an hour and a half, which went quickly, and there was nothing to see because it was another pretty awful day in the Sydney area.

We perked up when the captain told us that the weather in Melbourne was fine and warm, and sure enough when we landed it was a much nicer day in the state of Victoria.

For once we decided to get a taxi from the airport to our 'flashbacker' (flash backpacker) hostel, but our double room didn't have an ensuite toilet, we had to share one with other people, which understandably Katie didn't really fancy in her condition.

Unfortunately the girl on reception was thick as a plank and about as much use as a chocolate teapot, so it proved impossible to move rooms or even pay more to upgrade.

As soon as we got to our room (which was a 4 person dorm with a double mattress at the bottom of one of the bunk beds), Katie just got into bed and tried to go to sleep. I popped out to get her some water, magazines etc, and again felt pretty useless.

Katie told me there was no point us both being cooped up in the room when it was such a nice day in a new city, so she told me to go and have a walk around Melbourne.

So I spent the next few hours walking around the city, which was beautiful in the sunlight.
 




This is Flinders Street station, the main rail station in the city, and the only yellow building I can think of anywhere in the world?!



The Yarra River cuts through Melbourne, and some of the views walking down beside it are quite something, looking back over the business area.



Melbourne also has a few lovely parks, some great shopping, and excellent restaurants, but the riverside area is the crowning glory. 



I walked along the river to an observation platform at the top of the Rialto building, Melbourne's tallest, where you have 360 degree views around the area.





I remembered the observation deck from the last time I was here; it's a must-do on a clear day, you can see for miles, all the way over to St Kilda on the coast, and to the Mornington Peninsula due south.



I really love being at the top of tall buildings, it's one of my favourite things. I've always felt very at home high up, on planes, on mountains, in high buildings, not sure why. Maybe I was a condor in a previous life or something.

After the great views I walked across town to get to the MCG, the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The MCG is an Aussie institution, a 100,000 seater sports stadium which houses both cricket & Aussie rules football.



It's a big stadium, one of the world's most famous, and I really wanted to do a tour of it, but I didn't have enough time as I had to be back before 7pm because I'd promised Katie.

Right next to the MCG is the Rod Laver arena, venue of the Australian Open tennis tournament, which was home today to about 20,000 young goths because My Chemical Romance were playing tonight!



I needed to get back to Katie, so I just had enough time to cross the river...
 




...and cut through one of the parks back to the hostel.



On the way back to the hostel I called Blakey, my main partner in crime from my year in Texas, and arranged to meet him at 7pm in the pub opposite Flinders St station.

When I got back Katie was bored but feeling a bit better, but definitely not up to going out. Again she encouraged me to go out rather than staying here, so I made sure she was ok and then set off to meet Kieren.

Blakey took me to a few local pubs, and Melbourne already seems to be a much easier place to find somewhere to drink compared to Sydney, which was really disjointed. 

It was really good to see Blakey again, we had some great nights out in Texas, and it was he that introduced me to one of my very favourite words: RAY!

 

I think I actually prefer Melbourne to Sydney as a city; it's attractive, has great restaurants & pubs/bars, is easy to get around, has older/nicer buildings, and is seems to have more culture.

It's got a buzzing south bank area like Brisbane, has some fantastic sports stadiums, loads of theatres, cinemas, concert venues etc. Love it.

Anyway, we had a few beers in a number of pubs spread across the city, before settling in a great little pub which served James Squire beers, who make the excellent Porter beer that I'd bought for Eric's barbie!

Needless to say they were going down quite nicely thank you very much!



Pints of beer do seem expensive over here, 9 Aussie dollars, which is about 4 quid. Most people seem to drink "pots" here instead of pints, but it was good to be back on the pints after 3 months!

We ended the night by watching the Chelsea game live, which was obviously a highly entertaining affair as Blakey fell asleep on the couch!

 

The bouncers were remarkably friendly compared to London, letting us finish off our beers in our own time and unlocking the doors for us because we were the last out. As the ad goes, what a refreshing change!

I walked/staggered back to the hostel, and don't remember much else, although Katie is trying to tell me that I woke her up when I got back and stole all the sheets! Heinous slander...

Anyway, it was a top night with a top bloke, it's a shame we only see each other every 5 years or so, but it's always good to catch up. Kieren's wife is pregnant and is due to give birth the day we arrive back in the UK at the end of our trip, which is a nice coincidence.

Hope all is well with you, lots of love,


Al & Katie xx