Melbourne

Trip Start Sep 11, 2008
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29
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Trip End Jun 05, 2009


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Flag of Australia  , Victoria,
Saturday, December 13, 2008

We arrived in Melbourne after a 6 hour night flight with Qantas on which the Captain Les Arse as he introduced himself asked everyone not to sleep in the aisles which I thought was funny as Graham who we met in Singapore said they were a dodgy airline (apparently it means Queers And Nymphomaniacs Training as Stewards).  One of the stewards was clearly pissed and gave me a good informative talk on Aussie beers when I asked for some. We got dinner at midnight then breakfast at 2 Singapore time and landed shortly after, I'd had a few beers and Lucy had a few mini bottles of wine and we both didn't sleep, so arriving half cut 6am Melbourne time 3am Singapore time was a bit wierd. We finally got out of the airport after declaring we had gin, crisps and chocolate and Customs checking our muddy shoes and deciding we weren't a quarantine risk. It was a bright sunny morning, but when we stepped out of the aircon airport, it was bloody freezing. We got the only warm clothes we had out the rucksacks asap and sat shivering while we waited for the shuttle bus to St Kilda to leave. We got there about half 8 hoping our dorm room was ready but it wouldn't be til 12 and we were shattered. We met up with Sarah Mason who had already been there for a night in with some crazy Irish kids. It was great to see her after so long, we sat in the sun out front of the hotel, still freezing though. Vicki arrived about lunchtime, still a bit jetlagged after flying in from London the night before. We went for great Malaysian food and told them all our stories.
Then we went to the beach which was pretty brave. We found a spot sheltered from the strong wind by a jetty which made it pretty warm. Warm enough for us to go swimming but I expected the sea to be warm too. It wasn't. It certainly woke me up a bit. I was getting pretty culture shocked now, cold winds, cold seas and everyone sounding like they were from Neighbours. So the next day we went on the Neighbours tour! In the bus we watched old classic episodes, most of which I hadn't seen but the ones from Uni days brought back memories! Ramsay Street or whatever it's really called was wierd, smaller than we thought. We went to the studios but weren't allowed to see anything and met some kid we had never heard of from the show and pretended to be impressed. They reckoned Dr Karl Kennedy usually does them, I'd have liked to have met him, or rather the fit assistant he had an affair with. Classic Brookdale moments those, 129 you guys know. Apart from that we had a few quiet beers, ate some great food which seemed like a weeks food budget to me and Lucy. It rained hard the second day, and all of the third day too. Apparently theres been a drought for ages in Victoria and everyone was excited about rain. I'm considering writing to governments of dry countries to ask for money in return for us visiting as it almost guarantees a freak period of rainfall.
We dropped Vicki at Flinders St Station on the morning of the third day as she headed off to visit her family for Xmas. Sarah took us to the huge Queen Victoria market and to the National Gallery of Victoria where they had a few good paintings, I particularly liked the ones of Suffolk (including a Constable). When we came out it was still raining after 24 hours and walking back to the hotel we had moved to in the centre we were almost knocked over by the wind. Its all propoganda what you see on TV about Australia, its cold and miserable too. So we booked a cheapo flight up to Queensland to go dive the Barrier Reef. And bring rain to a dry state.
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