Hello all and greeting from Australia. This is the start of my new blog to chronicle our trip “down under”. First off, I’d like to say we made it here in one piece and survived the 15 hour trip in economy class on a huge airplane. Sleeping on a plane has always been difficult for me and it makes it even harder to sleep when there’s a baby crying next to you, people leave their reading light and/or TV screen on while they sleep, and the bright lights displaying the bathroom occupied sign flashing on and off. Luckily, I brought an eye mask and Tylenol PM to help me get some rather uncomfortable sleep on the plane. I can’t wait to sleep in a real bed tonight!
Our first stop was Sydney but it was only a stopover along the way to our final destination of Melbourne. We’ll explore Sydney in about a week. First, off to Melbourne.
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When landing in Sydney, we had less than 2 hours to be processed through immigration, pick up our checked luggage and take it to declaration then to be rechecked in, travel back through security once again, hop on a bus to take us to the domestic terminal and get on another plane. What amazes me is that even with that small amount of time, the airport personnel whip you through the lines so fast, you barely know what hit you and suddenly, you are already boarded and taking off on your next flight.
We flew Qantas Airlines for our trip into Australia. Even though we had no room to move in our tiny seats in economy, they fed us very well. For breakfast on our flight this morning between Sydney and Melbourne, we received granola cereal with milk, a cinnamon roll, OJ, coffee or tea, and a tangerine. It was so good! Surprising? Yes. Airplane food normally sucks. :)
As I’m writing this, I’m finding it increasingly difficult to stay awake. Australia is 17 hours ahead of California and across the International Date Line. For example, it’s currently 7:15pm on Sunday and in California, it’s only 2:15am Sunday morning. Earlier, we were living in different days! Try to wrap your head around that! :) So, I’m a bit jetlagged. We’ve been up since 5am and need to stay up a few more hours to help our bodies adjust. It should take me a few days, maybe a week. :P
Melbourne is an interesting city. The main city is known as the CBD (Central Business District). We’re staying at the Clarion Suites which overlooks the Yarra River.
When I travel to a new place, I find myself comparing it to other places I’ve been, which really isn’t fair to the city you’re currently in because it is its own city. Do you do that too? Maybe I’m just crazy like that. :) Anyway, to me, Melbourne reminds me of a cross between London’s Canary Wharf and downtown San Francisco. There’s a free city tram/trolley that takes you in a circle around the city circle. And the Yarra River weaves itself in between the tall city buildings. Also you can get a pass and take a larger network of trams out of the city.
Our first day in Melbourne, we rode the free tram and took in the city sights. We also walked around most of the city and explored the Queen Victoria Market, Alexandria Gardens, Federation Square, and the Southbank Promenade. We found a Nandos and had to have that for dinner.
We first discovered Nandos in London and instantly fell in love with it. It’s South African cuisine with a hot peri-peri sauce (I usually get the mild version); lots of chicken dishes with a choice of grilled corn on the cob for a side. They also have wraps and pita dishes. Good stuff!
We have a wonderful view from our hotel room balcony. David was able to take some neat night time pics. After it gets dark, the Southbank Promenade has a light show which was pretty neat. I’m heading to bed pretty early tonight since I just can’t keep my eyes open any longer. Let’s see what fun tomorrow brings. :)
7 September 2009
Okay, so since I fell asleep at like 6:30p last night, I woke up at 5:30a this morning. Ugh. I hate jetlag. Leaving David to sleep a few more hours, I caught up with the world on the internet and waited patiently for him to wake up. Once he was wake and ready, we had breakfast downstairs in the hotel restaurant and continued to explore the city. We headed northeast to find Chinatown and the Greek section of town. Both were, to our disappointment, rather small and we did not find any good restaurants. We were hoping to find some Turkish food since we’ve been trying to find a good one since we left London. Unfortunately, our search continues on. To our great surprise, we did find a Target!
It was much different from the ones we are used to, but it was neat to see one in a foreign country. From here, we continued north the Carlton Gardens, the Royal Exhibition Building and the Melbourne Museum.
Upon leaving the museum, it began to rain. Unfortunately for us, we left the umbrella in its proper place: in our hotel room and it was not just a light sprinkle…it began to pour. We found a shop that sold umbrellas and we both tried to fit under it until we found shelter to wait out the rain. By then, we were both pretty wet. But, one thing that is nice about places that do get a lot of rain is that it will only pour for a little bit and then it will stop and not rain for the rest of the day or for at least a few hours. It depends on the weather tho. Lucky for us, it did only pour for a bit and we were able to head to our destination: Old Melbourne Gaol (Jail).
We went on a short tour of the “gaol” and we had a pretty funny guide giving us a history, after which, we went on a short self guided tour of the prison.
We had yet to explore the northwestern part of the CBD, so we headed that way and found a nice pub for lunch. We had walked a far bit of the city already so, after lunch, we retired back to the hotel room and rested.
We decided to do something a little bit extravagant for dinner so we found a restaurant tucked away down an alley, beneath a hotel and behind a catholic church. The restaurant Ezard did not disappoint: the service was amazing and so was the food. We each had the tasting menu: David, the 8 course standard menu and me, the Vegetarian 8 course menu.
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We’re pretty full and tired from dinner so it’s pretty much straight to bed for us. We’re flying out to Kangaroo Island bright and early tomorrow morning…but, I think we’ll pack when we get up in the morning. Night!
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1 comment:
Lovely pictures Corey! Sounds like a great trip!
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