Am I in Melbourne or Birmingham, England?
Trip Start
Aug 30, 2008
1
3
9
Trip End
Sep 11, 2008
Melbourne,
Victoria,
Australia
Monday, September 1, 2008
Customs was a breeze, but of course, a customs guy with a dog caught me whilst waiting for my suitcase at the luggage carosel. I failed to remember that I had chocolates in my suitcase and had taken some cookies from the plane. I also got reprimanded several times for not leaving my Coach bag on the floor for the dog to sniff. Hello? Who leaves their purse on the floor for 30 minutes for a dog to crawl all over? Anyhow, I got a lecture about making sure I claim ALL food items when landing in Australia. Honestly, I barely remember the entire thing because I was so exhausted. Nevermind....
Grabbed a taxi with my boss, and a co-worker from Costa Rica who was also on our flight
Australian Target!
. My initial impression of Australia was...well...bland. Melbourne reminds me of Birmingham, England. Lots of modern buildings mixed with a few relatively decent victorian buildings. Just another big city really. I'm staying on Collins street which is the heart of downtown. But, I'm not really a city girl. There's a Tiffany's and Louis Vuitton across the street. There are tons of 7-Elevens, Lush, The Body Shop, etc. Not very exciting really...Upon checking into the Novotel on Collins, I went for a walk in an effort to find Jimmy Watson's wine bar. After about 3 miles, I kicked it and settled on a little place in Block Arcade right by my hotel. Honestly, I was in a bit of a daze with jet lag and hunger...My exciting moment was realising that there was a TARGET across the road. Who knew they had Target in Australia?! I still haven't had the chance to venture over there yet, but they're open until 9pm each night. So, I'm stoked.
I had leek and potato soup at a little cafe called "Brown Sugar" which was very nice. Although, my bowl of soup was $10AUS - about $9 US. VERY expensive! I'm still a bit stumped about the "fat whites" the waiter kept referring to. Two women walked up to the cafe and sat down, and about 3 minutes later the waiter called to someone else working inside the cafe that he had "two fat whites out front"
Church
. What's that about? At first I thought it was some harsh ethnic insult, but I have a feeling there were talking about cappucinos. Must find out...Came back to my hotel about 4pm and crashed. But, my boss had asked if I wanted to have dinner at 6:30pm. So, we went and got curries at a nearby Indian restaurant last night. The number of Indians, Malaysians, & Indonesians are huge in Melbourne! It makes for a ton of interesting restaurants for sure. I had the best Indian food last night since...well...since I was in India I guess...
Turned in at 9pm after watching a little "Australian Idol" on the tv. Fun times.
I've attached some pics from my walk...Not sure what they actually are, but thought you might like to see a few snaps.
More later.
-HSL
