Melbourne Madness - Blogabond

After a sad farewell to Sydney, we made our way to Melbourne. All I can say about the trip is don't go out of your way to fly JetStar. Yeah, they are a "discount" airline, but the amount you pay upfront covers very little. We found out when we got to the airport with our normally allotted two bags that we are allowed only 20 kilos each person. With all our climbing gear, Joc and I were approximately 27 kilos over the limit (at $7/kilo, totaling $189 AUS). Luckily we were able to shift some weight to our awesome friends (thanks Maddy & Dave), so we didn't end up paying anything. But this philosophy of paying for everything extra permeated the trip. At one point I thought I would have to pay extra to turn on the air-vent or light above my seat . . .Whatever. I'm over it.

Melbourne is an interesting city. I think two activities largely capture the scene: sports and shopping. The city is chocked full of sports arenas and shopping centers. I thought it was a great city, well worth visiting and appealing in its own ways, but not as inviting as Sydney (it was also 10 - 15 degrees colder than Sydney; 55 vs. 70). Overall, glad to have been there.

A few highlights of our short 1.5 days in Melbourne revolve around food. The first night we went to a great old church (or civic buliding--couldn't really tell) that was transformed into an Irish pub--great setting for a few drinks. The second night we were aggressively courted by a number of restaurant managers to dine in their establishments. We finally settled on a restaraunt that gave us 3 bottles of wine and an appetizer for free, and a song and dance about this woman's mother being the cook in the kitchen who makes fantastic lasagna (we found out later this wasn't even remotely true--still, the wine and app were good!).

Overall, great time in Melbourne!

written by

GoBlue on May 22, 2007 from Melbourne, Australia

from the travel blog: Carl's Circuit

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