Melbourne

I have once again allowed myself to get several weeks behind on my blog. With all the traveling I've been doing combined with finals rapidly approaching, I have found very limited time to sit down and write for fun. Today, I have decided to procrastinate on my studying and researching so I can fill you all in on what I've been doing for the past month.

On May 22-25, I took a weekend vacation to Melbourne. Obviously I traveled with Gabi since she is my little travel buddy and great friend, but we also met her two sisters who came to visit her. We stayed in a hotel near the middle of the city, which was very convenient since we didn't have to spend a ton of money on transportation.

The first day we were in Melbourne was a little bit of a hassle. Our flight left Sydney at 9:00 in the morning, so we had to be at the airport pretty early. Neither Gabi nor I slept very much, we averaged about 3 hours of sleep that night. Gabi had to hand in a paper before we left, so she woke up at 4 am to finish it, print it off, and hand it in. I was a slacker who didn't pack the night before because I was doing a lot of research for a paper, so I had to wake up extra early to make sure I was all packed up. So needless to say, Gabi and I were pretty exhausted before we even left Sydney. Ben was nice and woke up early to give Gabi and I a ride to the airport so that we didn't have to pay for a taxi, but on the way to the airport, Ben took a wrong turn and got lost. I never pay attention to where we're going whenever we take a cab to the airport and so I had no clue where to go and Gabi was passed out in the backseat. Luckily, Ben figured out where he was and we still made it to the airport with plenty of time. We checked in, dropped our luggage off, and headed toward our gate to wait until we boarded. While we were waiting, both Gabi and I fell asleep in the airport chairs and woke up right before our boarding time due to very noisy men sitting directly across from us. We were both a little annoyed and a little thankful that they were there. There were plenty of other seats at the gate that these guys could have sat in, but they chose to sit directly across from us and talk very loudly, which made it a little awkward when we woke up. But if they hadn't sat there, I wonder if we would have even woken up to board the plane, so I suppose we couldn't get too mad at them. Once we were on the plane, Gabi and I fell asleep before the plane even took off. I woke up one time throughout the flight when we hit turbulence, thinking that we were taking off. I was pretty surprised when I looked out the window to see that we were already flying and realized that I had been sleeping for an hour, then fell back asleep (I'm telling you, we were very tired) and finally woke up right when the plane landed.

Gabi and I get off the plane and go into the smallest airport we have ever seen in our entire life. It had one baggage claim area and two booths - one for information and another for car rentals. So we grab our luggage, go up to information and ask them how much it would be to take a taxi to our hotel. They inform us that we are at the airport that is 55 kilometers outside of Melbourne, so it will be a $100 cab ride. Gabi and I were quick to veto this option and asked what other options there were. They told us that we could take a bus for $20 a person, but it would be an hour until the bus got to the airport or we could rent a car for $90. We thought about renting a car, but then realized that neither of us knew how to drive manual, especially on the opposite side of the car. So Gabi and I were stuck at this tiny airport for an hour and we were starving! I walked outside to see if there was many a McDonald's or something nearby and realized that we were quite literally in the middle of nowhere. I saw no buildings, houses, or any other form of civilization and was stuck buying a $3 bag of potato chips from the vending machine. After I bought the world's most expensive mini bag of chips, the lady at information informs us that there is a cafe in the departure section of the airport, which is down the block. So Gabi and I take our luggage with us and head down the block toward the cafe. Once we get there, we see that we are the only two people there and that we have to walk through security to get to the cafe. We tell the security guards that we are just going to get a cup of coffee, but they make us stuff our giant suitcase through the x-ray and walk through the security gate. After we get our bag back (which barely fit through the x-ray), I get pulled aside to be "randomly searched." It was seriously the biggest hassle to get this one cup of coffee, particularly since we were the only two people in the entire airport.

Our bus finally arrives and 45 minutes later we are in the actual city of Melbourne. We asked our driver for directions to get to our hotel and he tells us to jump on the free tram that goes around the city. Gabi and I are unaware that there is more than one tram and that only one of these trams is the free one, so we just jump on the first tram we see. The driver on this tram is very nice, lifts our suitcase on the tram for us, asks us where we are going, and told us that he would let us know when we need to get off. Suddenly, two stops later, security gets on the tram to check everyone's ticket. As it turns out, Gabi and I were not on the free tram nor did we buy a ticket for the one we are on. Gabi and I exchange worried looks, trying to figure out what we should do. The security guy comes up to us and asks us for our ticket. Gabi whips out her Australian tourist book to a map of Melbourne and quickly explains that we were told the tram was free. The officer just looks at us, laughs, and says "obviously you guys are not from here, so I'll let it slide this one time. You're pretty lucky though, because I'm supposed to be charging each of you $175." He then tells us which stop we need to get off at and gives us directions to our hotel. He was a very nice guy and we were pretty lucky that we didn't get charged for not buying a ticket for the tram.

So after being stuck at the airport for an hour, taking an hour long bus ride to the city, and getting on the wrong tram, we finally make it to our beautiful hotel. We had a few hours until Gabi's sisters arrived, so we turned on the TV to see what was on. As we flipped through the channels, we came across the American Idol season finale and were very excited. It was the first time since we've been here that American Idol has been on any of the channels. After we watched the finale (and after I decided that Adam is a much better singer/performer than Kris), Gabi's sisters arrive. We decide to walk around the city to get a feel of the atmosphere and then went out to dinner. We went out for Indian cuisine, which I was a little hesitant about due to my dislike of spicy food. I ordered a very basic meal - chicken in rice - and asked for it to be as mild as possible, which apparently wasn't mild enough for me. I could only eat a quarter of it and then I could no longer eat it because my mouth was on fire and it just wasn't enjoyable anymore. Everyone else was making fun of me because they couldn't even taste the spice, I must just have very sensitive taste buds. So after dinner, I decided that I was going to get some ice cream to cool down my mouth and to fill me up, which was one of the best ideas I had all day. Gabi's sisters were pretty tired from all their traveling, so we just went back to the hotel once we were done eating and watched Sleeping Beauty (it was on the Disney Channel).

The next day we got up relatively early to get a full day of shopping in. Melbourne is a very trendy, artsy city filled with wonderful shopping, cute boutiques, and cute cafes. We essentially just walked around all weekend to soak up the ambiance and to see as much as we could. I sadly could not afford anything in the shops, nor could I imagine to afford anything in the shops. Everything was super expensive, but a lot of fun to try on! We also went to a place called "Little Cupcakes" which had the tastiest and cutest cupcakes I have ever seen! My favorite one was the coconut cupcake, but then again, I love coconut everything.

Saturday night we went to an AFL game. You may remember me telling you about AFL in my last blog post and how confusing it was. This time, however, we were smart enough to ask the guy sitting behind us to explain the rules to us so that we could actually understand what was going on. Once we learned the rules and what the game was all about, it made much more sense and it was much more exciting. We all got pretty into the game - cheering, hollering...just trying to fit in with the crazy Aussie crowd. Melbourne ended up loosing, but we really weren't too concerned; it was still a lot of fun.

Our weekend was filled with shopping, eating at cute cafes, going to the AFL game, and watching random Disney movies late at night in our hotel. I was a little sad we didn't go to Great Ocean Road because it's apparently the thing to see when you go to Melbourne, but we for some reason never made it over there (I can't remember the reason. I actually don't think there was a reason...oh well). But I did really enjoy Melbourne and would definitely like to go back someday when I can actually afford to go on a shopping spree.

Now onto the next adventure!