Australia Holiday - Melbourne – settling in

A pair of tourists in Melbourne - 1st November 

View from the YHA rooftop

Some things have not changed - Railway Station

The bus service into Melbourne City is excellent. A fast bendy-bus whisked us to Southern Cross Station where we picked up an included shuttle bus to our accommodation. It cost $17 but was very easy and efficient. The YHA Metro in North Melbourne was clean and our private room spartan but comfortable enough. The YHA Manager was a witch, luckily it was Halloween and she liked a bit of fun. The receptionist who checked us in was surrounded by cobwebs and was wearing a big hairy spider. There was not one under our toilet seat so maybe it came from there? Not sure that's very hygienic luv!

As it was a warm evening in Melbourne we sat out in Errol Street and had a Pizza and a beer. It all seemed strangely foreign after NZ and we both felt pretty disorientated and we were horrified by the prices.

Messing about on the River Yarra

Anyway we made a few calls to lost baggage at the Airport, most of which went unanswered but eventually the bag arrived. It took 24 hours by which time the temperature had plummeted and TW had pinched half the clothes from my case, included my thermals which were sorely missed. A cold wind swirled around the concrete canyons of Melbourne as we set out for a tour. We decided that we deserved a good breakfast and stopped at a Cafe. Healthy leaf spinach counter-balanced the eggs and bacon. It was lovely, probably one of my best cooked breakfasts ever, but accounted for about £30 of our budget for the day. Hmmm, need to tighten our belts.

Getting dizzy on the Free Circular Tram

We went to the tourist office in Federation Square and told the nice Lady we only wanted to know about things that were free. She gave us a list which included riding around on a free circular tram until we were dizzy, going to the Botanical Gardens and smelling the flowers. Many Australians we have met have told us about the wonderful restaurants and wines in Melbourne. Hope they enjoy them. We had lunch in a Subway. We did a lot of walking. The walk along the Yarra was very familiar with joggers and rowers making good use of the open space. Lots of people seemed to be doing outdoor gym sessions in the Park, very exhausting just watching. We struggled to find a place for dinner in the City. We did not want oriental food and eventually, after another long walk, settled for salads in a Pancake House

Melbourne has changed massively since my last visit 30 years ago. The skyline has been lifted by massive skyscrapers and the demographic has changed.

We enjoyed our day very much but we were looking forward to getting out into the country where we would see the animals, the beaches, the buildings on a more human scale and of course meet the dinkum Aussies. We also needed to be able to carry food with us for breakfast and find self-catering accommodation. We dropped our plan to take the train to Adelaide and opted to rent a car and head for the seaside instead.