This has been one of the best weekends we have had in Australia!! The weekend started on Thursday with Sarah, Jo, and I flying to Melbourne. First off, the domestic side of the Sydney International Airport is the biggest joke I have ever seen! We had checked in for our flight online and used a kiosk to print our boarding passes. I had my passport out to get through security and I kid you not, the security agent asked me why I had it out!! Never once was our IDs checked or our boarding passes looked at! We arrived at the Melbourne Avalon Airport around 8pm on Thursday. We knew there was two airports for Melbourne, but we didn’t know we had chosen the airport that was out in the middle of NOWHERE!! I feel like JetStar purchased a farm, put up a tin building, and called it an Airport. The arrival section consisted of a “baggage claim” (the looked like a treadmill) and a counter where you would either rent a car or buy a bus ticket (for the 50 minute drive to Melbourne). We arrived in downtown and called Tatiana and Sam (from the Imaging group) to get directions to our hostel. We had booked out a 4 person hostel room with the intentions of making it sleep 5 (lucky Sarah and I!). Jo said she felt like an illegal immigrant all weekend (she was the one that never “checked-in”). By this time, we were all starving and decided to head to the casino to find some dinner. Thursday night was pretty low-key since I had been up so late the night (see the excitement in my 2nd week of Sydney blog) and Sam had the worst pink eye I’ve ever seen!
We woke up Friday with the intention of picking up our rental car. Plans changed when we saw how bad Sam’s eye looked!! The girls decided we were going to spend the day shopping while Sam went back to the doctor to make sure he wasn’t having an allergic reaction to his eye medicine. The first shopping center we found was an outlet mall connected to the Southern Cross Train Station. We shopped around there, grabbed lunch, and headed to the Docklands District to shop some more. Stores close early in Australia (usually everything is closed by 6), so we decided to get mani/pedi’s after our shopping had to come to an end. We hopped into a cab and headed back to the hostel to check on Sam and get ready to go out. We had found a pretty cheap deal at the casino the night before and planned on going back again Friday night. We found a pub that had $12 dinners and $12 for 3 drink tickets. I’m just going to say Friday night was one of the most random and fun nights I’ve had in Australia! The group that went to Melbourne is way too similar to travel together like we did!! We still laugh when we talk about the casino night!
Intelligently, after our big night out, we decided we wanted to pick up our rental car and drive the Great Ocean Road on Saturday. The original plan was for Sam to drive then rental car (remember, they drive on the opposite side of the road in Australia!), but that didn’t end up working out since his eyes were virtually swollen shut. I volunteered to take the job instead. It actually wasn’t that hard: driving is more or less driving, no matter which side of the road you are on! I had to stop and think about it slightly when I was turning on a road with no other cars around. The only thing I couldn’t get the hang of is the fact that the windshield wipers and turn signal was also switched. Every time I went to flip on my blinker, the windshield wipers would start going crazy!! The views we drove by were simply amazing. There was rocky cliff/beach to our left and thick, dense rainforest on our right. It was nice driving the road at our own pace, stopping only where we wished. We got bad news about 2 hours into the road (after an hour drive to the road!). We learned that 12 Apostles (famous rock figures) was another 2 hours away. We decided since we were already so far and had the car, we might as well keep driving. Low and behold, we got to the famous landmark… right when it got dark!!! We were able to see the closest three rocks, but weren’t successful in getting any photos or seeing the entire landmark. We decided to call it the end of our trip when we discovered we were 4 hours away from Melbourne… taking the direct route instead of the Great Ocean Road. As Sam put it “It was the Best Worst Roadtrip I’ve ever been on!”. I will say as beautiful as it was and how glad I am we drove it, parts of the road was the windiest road I’ve ever driven!! I’d also like to point out how weird and random the Australian road signs are!! I might have slightly ran part way off the road at one point checking out the “No potatoes passed this point” sign.. and that’s only the beginning!!
By the time we got back to Melbourne, we were all exhausted and went straight to bed. Sarah and I had purchased tickets to an Australian Rules Football (AFL) game for Sunday afternoon. We arrived at the MCG stadium and discovered our front row tickets we were so excited about were actually some of the worst tickets sold. Like everything else, it’s backwards here: the higher the seat, the better. We decided we would cheer for Port Adelaide because we liked their colors better than the Melbourne team. Although we didn’t fully understand what was going on, it was still an exciting and intense game. As Sarah put it “AFL is like Rugby on crack”… too bad we had been to a rugby game and didn’t understand it either!! After the game, we went out in search of more shopping (naturally!!). As it started to get dark, we met up with Jo (who had been checking out the city) and headed to the Eureka Tower, the Tallest Residential Building in the Southern Hemisphere. Floor 88 had been dedicated to a public observation deck. We went up, took some city view photos, and then went in “The Edge,” which was a glass cube that shoots out the side of the building, giving you a 360 view (including roof and floor). I loved it and Sarah was terrified- but then again I love heights! After grabbing a quick dinner, we headed back to the hostel to pack up. Our flight left Melbourne at 6AM, which didn’t sound too bad until we realized our bus left at 4AM and we were a 20 minute walk from the bus stop!! It was a long, busy weekend, but my favorite weekend in Australia yet!!
I’ve decided if I ever move to Australia, I’ll reside in Melbourne. The city is really clean, the people helpful and friendly, and the buildings modern. It might help that the Largest Shopping Mall in the Southern Hemisphere is located just outside of Melbourne (457 stores… yes please!!). I kind of wish we had spent 3 weeks in Melbourne instead of Sydney. Hmmmm, becoming a Melbourne resident and opening a resort in Fiji doesn’t sound like too bad of an idea… J
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