A long way to Melbourne
Trip Start
Sep 05, 2004
1
20
Trip End
Sep 24, 2004
Melbourne,
Victoria,
Australia
Monday, September 6, 2004
The LA airport sucks. It is pretty much the worst place you can be stuck for a four hour layover. The layover isn't quite long enough to leave the airport. When we got to LA we had to pick up our bags and take them through security again, even though we went through US customs in the Vancouver airport. Once we got that over with, we had a lot of time to kill and absolutely nothing to do. There are no shops in the airport and the only place to eat is one lousy fast food restaurant.
When our boarding gate was finally staffed, we decided to see what it would cost to upgrade to first class
Federation Square
. We approached the attendant and asked. She told us our tickets weren't actually upgradeable to first class, but we could upgrade to business. And the cost would be $5,000USD. One way. We quickly decided against it and sat back down again to wait out our stopover.Our very long flight to Sydney was about eleven hours and uneventful. I somehow managed to sleep on the plane quite a bit. This doesn't happen for me often so I was glad to get the rest.
Ally and I were seated in the exit row between coach and business class. We thought this was great when we sat in our seats and stretched out our legs as far as they would go. Once the plane was up and in the air we discovered these seats had their disadvantages. The biggest being that it was also right next to the washrooms. So not only did we have to deal with the smell occasionally escaping the closet-like restroom, but we also had people lining up in front of us, standing in our ample legroom. But other than that it was a good flight.
I really enjoyed landing in Sydney. We came in from over the ocean, obviously, and it seemed like the airplane was heading for the water as we were descending
Arts Centre
. I couldn't quite see the landing strip jutting out into the ocean from where I was sitting on the plane and it was a bit unsettling. But then I caught a glimpse of blacktop and enjoyed the view the rest of the way down.We had a short layover in Sydney before boarding our flight to Melbourne. Mandy and Tasha greeted us at the airport in Melbourne and took us back to Adam and Tasha's apartment. Driving through Melbourne I was very excited and enjoyed the pretty city flashing past me. It kind of reminds me of Vancouver in a way.
Once we got ourselves settled in, Tasha took off as it was Father's Day and she had plans with her dad. Adam stepped in as our super tour guide and took us down to the Yarra River. We walked along the river bank and checked out Federation Square, which has a really unique architecture. Outside the building in the square there was a band living in a glass cube. People were standing around watching them live in their glass cube. It was pretty weird. And no, you can't see in the bathroom.
Across the street is the beautiful Flinders Street railway station. It is a very traditional British looking building and stands out amongst all the new dazzling architecture around it.
We walked across the river to the other side to check out the South Bank. It was nice walking around and checking out the market stalls. We stopped for lunch and relaxed while looking out over the river, and then continued on shopping in Southgate.
Once we had exhausted the Yarra River sights, Adam took us back to regroup with Tash at her family's place where we met their very adorable dog that I got to play with before we headed back to their apartment. Ally and I were pretty exhausted by then so we were happy to relax for the evening.
