Americans in Melbourne

 After being in Melbourne just two weeks, I ventured back to say my final farewells to Melbourne friends and welcome the arrival of my good friend Thea. Thea is down here on at working-holiday visa for the year with hopes of either staying longer or perhaps switching to a student visa to study .

Of all my friends to say they would come visit or want to travel and get out of the rut known as the ‘United States’, Thea has been the only one to do it so far. After a bit of procrastination I booked my Thursday flight the night before and was stuck with Tiger Airways yet again. While I don’t dislike them, because I feel domestic travel should be at it’s cheapest, the staff are typically rude, they issue receipts NOT actual boarding passes and the Tiger Airways terminal at Melbourne International is a good 10-minute walk from the main airport and another 5 minute walk just to get to the aircraft on the tarmac. Not to mention when booking, they make it seem like you HAVE to choose your seat, but if you do, you pay between $5-$20 for it. Instead, save yourself the money and ask for a window/exit row seat when you check-in. Boom $20 saved So far, my best would have to be Virgin Australia. Richard Branson knows what’s up!

I had Marc drop me off at Gold Coast airport and I arrived in beautiful cloudy and rainy Melbourne at noon. Thea had already landed and passed through customs and quarantine so we called the hostel and they came to pick us up. At first, I was sceptical of Thea’s hostel choice because it was located in St. Kilda but it proved to be an excellent location. Anyone traveling to Melbourne, I encourage you to either stay at the Space Hotel in the CBD area (where Craig and I stayed in January) or at the Habitat HQ (where I stayed with Thea). The trams were located right outside the hostel and was only a 20 minute ride to the city and was also a 5 minute ride to Chapel Street where all the nightlife can be found.

We briefly took a nap before heading out to get her a working phone number and show her the city. Overall, we were in bed about 10ish as she was jet-lagged and I barely got any sleep the night before (I never sleep well the day before a flight). Friday, we headed to China Town to meet up with Claire for some Chinese and bubble tea before saying goodbye to her and heading ANZ to get Thea a bank account. We ended up scratching that idea as the wait time was way too long, so ventured to Big W so she could get some flip flops, the river walk, Crown Casino (where I lost $20 on red, haha) and then finally Max Brenners.

We ended up back at the hostel before relaxing a bit once again (the sun takes it out of you). Ended up getting up around 10pm before heading to Electric Ladyland for a few drinks and to say goodbye to friends there. One of them, being Bridie, I will always love and cherish. There are not many women out there that I can tolerate let alone would not mind dating and Bridie is definitely one of them. Words cannot describe my love for this woman, but I’ll save my lovey-dovey Bridie blog for another day.

After quite a few gin and tonics, headed back to the hostel and up at 0930 for 1000 check-out. I said my goodbyes to Thea and headed back to Melbourne airport to fly to Brisbane in time for Future Music Festival. Overall, I love Melbourne but don’t know if I could ever live there. I think the hipster/’culture’ scene is a bit much for me. But definitely a far better place than Brisbane and of course, the Gold Coast. Next stop is Future Music Festival, final week of work and then wrapping up last minute affairs before my flight to Sydney on March 15^th followed by flight back to Seattle March 17^th.

Until then…

Cheers

-H

Melbourne 2013

 G'day!

After just getting back to the Gold Coast, Craig and I decided to take off again but this time for Melbourne. Flights were still cheap domestically for southern and eastern Australia so it was either fly back to Sydney for $125 return or Melbourne for $200. Having only been to Melbourne once before with friends in July 2011 (when it was freezing cold), I opted to go back and to say hello to some other friends of mine whom lived there. We flew with Tiger Airways once again, not because I wanted too as it’s as discount airline as it gets, but because it was extremely cheap. And for such a short flight, I did not care for snacks, media entertainment devices, etc.

 

We were running a bit behind (that’s what I do best) and so jetted off to Brisbane airport in the monsoon rain we were having. The after effects of Cyclone Oswald were hitting the Gold Coast and the rain was coming in hard. We managed to get there and check-in after being scolded by the Tiger Airways staff for being over our weight limit on carry-on, but she politely let us through. And so started our trip to Melbourne and the video blog ‘Sucobe and Crumpet: Melbourne 2013’.

 

We arrived in Melbourne on Sunday early afternoon and spent the next three hours attempting to get to the hotel. It had been awhile since I had last been and it was a holiday weekend (Australia Day), so many services were not open/running. We managed to get to the hotel around 6ish and all checked in. Luckily for us, it was right in the CBD area and next to the gardens, Melbourne Central Shopping Centre and down the street from Federation Square. Unfortunately for us, it was pretty much a glorified hostel. We then went out for some Mexican food at Amigos on Chapel Street and then to say hello to our friend that works at Electric Ladyland and for a few drinks.

 

Not getting to bed until 4am and up at noon, we decided to head out and tour the city before we ended up spending all day in bed. Monday, although was a holiday (due to Australia day on Saturday), still had many shops open and it seemed to be business as usual for the city. We headed to the SBS building to check out the TV, cinema and film exhibition and then grabbed some dinner at Universal with a friend followed by bowling at Strike. A good clean sober activity I must say so. Oh wait, there was plenty of alcohol. Moving on…

The duration of Tuesday was spent at St. Kilda park  which took roughly 30 mins by tram to get to. We took some pictures, walked around Luna Park and then headed back to the hotel to relax a bit before meeting up with a friend at Crown Casino for buffet and gambling. I went in, threw $20 on red at the roulette table and double my money. That was the extent of my gambling. After gorging for 3 hours to get our $25 worth of food and getting kicked out of the buffet at 9, we headed back to the hotel to let the food (and winnings) digest.

Our full final day in Melbourne, we spent Wednesday visiting Carlton Gardens and the riverwalk followed by going BACK to the casino for Craig to attempt to double his winnings as well. In which not only did he, but he quadrupled. From $5 to $25, what a baller. We neded up eating at the hotel in the bar/restaurant which apparantely were doing jelly wrestling. So the music was extremely loud and the ratio EXTREMELY lacking at 6:1 males to females. So we ate, got out of there and went back to Eletric Ladyland to have farewell drinks and say goodbye to our dear friend.

 

Thursday was an early awakening since we had to check out at 10am and get straight to the airport for a 12:40pm flight. Once again, no actual plane ticket, just a shoddy receipt; typical discount airlines. Overall, the trip was good, expensive and a great 2^nd break away from the Gold Coast. Sadly, this will probably be my last trip for quite some time as I work and save up. Who knows where I will go next, China? New Zealand? Back to the US? Or perhaps somewhere in Europe?...

Until next time.

-H

Public Transportation vs. Walking

For the past six months while working at Griffith University, something was reconfirmed to me that I have always known throughout my two years of being in Australia, public transportation in Australia is HORRIBLE. It may just be Queensland (aka Translink) or even just the Gold Coast, as I have yet to verify this with Sydney (New South Wales), Melbourne (Victoria) or even Brisbane (Queensland).

Not only do Translink services abruptly stop or Translink bus drivers blatantly miss stops or never show up to stops, but the fact that buses start running earlier/later at certain platforms than others is annoying. They don’t sync up! Moreover, with the Gold Coast being a predominantly tourist population, the system overall is always delayed as tourists are continually asking questions to drivers about what stop to get off of, how much the fare is, and what bus they would take to get to such and such destination.

Working at Griffith University in Southport is an easily fun and equally laid back job, getting to and from work though is a whole other story. For my journey to Southport (20 mins by car), it takes roughly 90 mins to get there by bus with one. This means that working 5 days a week, I waste 450mins (7 ½ hours getting TO work) when if I had a vehicle, I would only be wasting 1 hour. Luckily though, I’ve been able to keep busy with PhD readings, GRE studying, etc. On top of that, because of the timing, I can either get to work an hour early, or be late by 10 mins. Therefore, I also waste 5 hours of down time before I actually start my shift. With Queensland security industry standard pay at $24, I waste $120 sitting around at work before starting,

Now, I clock off at 0400hours every night. HOWEVER, the bus from Griffith University does not start running until 0550hours. This means I have to wait almost 2 hours before I can even get on the bus for another hour of travel before getting home; 3 hours total down time and home by 0730hours. Again, 5 days a week, that's 15 hours of garbage time wasted. So I wanted to experiment with taking the 24-hour bus from Australia Fair shopping centre, which is 4km away from Griffith University.

One night, I decided to walk the 4km to Australia Fair after my 0400hrs shift to catch the 0500hrs bus (24-hour running bus to Gold Coast airport) home. Lo and behold, I was home by 0600hrs and typically in bed by 0630hrs. Crazy and annoying that I can either wait for the bus and be home in bed by 0800 or walk 4km (usually takes me 40mins, I walk fast) and be home and in bed by 0630.

But I guess the better question is why I don’t just go out and get a car…

Anyways, just a random observation (and great workout!)

Until then,

Cheers!

-H

Melbourne Video

Melbourne

July 28th, Thomas, Marc and I decided to venture to Melbourne in Victoria (down south) and see what all the hype was about. Needless to say, it's a great place. Hands down. We flew out of Gold Coast Airport via Jetstar for a quick 4 hour flight before checking into our YHA right in the CBD area.

We spent the first night walking around on the water front and checking out the nightlife to see what was out there before we fully tackled it the next few days. We were told there was a lounge bar in the area called the Berlin Wall and that we HAD to check it out. This was also a must as I was traveling with two Germans, lol. The place was pretty dope actually. We had to ring a doorbell to be let in and the place was decked out to the theme of WWII with memorabilia and signs up everywhere in regards to the war. We spent most of our time on the allied side sippin gin and tonics and drinking German beer. It was pretty cold at night and by the time we got back to the hostel we were ready to pass out.

The next day we walked around most of the day checking out museums and hitting up the market and thus meeting up with David and Julia for a bit (they were in Melbourne as well). Followed by going to the casino and gambling to try and double our money and fly back first class (yea right). Granted I'm not much of a gambler, we spent a good 2 hours there. Luckily I spent $20 and walked away with $.10. haha. Thomas losing most of his money he'd spent and Marc coming away with a few dollars. We then went off to the movie theatre to see what was playing only to realise we had just missed all the good shows. Thomas had the brilliant idea of sneaking past the ticket usher and we walked around from theatre to theatre to see if anything worth watching was playing. Sadly, no. So we had snuck in for nothing. Plus Marc had a guilty conscious going on so we ended up leaving. Afterward we headed to the arcade and wasted a couple more hours there before retiring for the night. We had meant to go check out the night clubs but again, after walking around all day we were exhausted.

St. Kilda was on our agenda for the most of our last day in Melbourne. Just a short train ride away, we visited Luna Park, Brooks Jetty and stopped for some food at a place on the beach. There are some markets open, so we stopped to see what the locals were selling, nothing good as usual, but still good to check out.

Overall, a ton of walking and sight seeing, ton of pictures and great memories of the place. Don't think I could ever leave there, but wouldn't mind going there again as I would like to check out the Twelve Apostles and roadtrip to Adelaide if I have the time and money.

Miss you all and hope life is well for you wherever you are located.

Cheers and 再见!

-H