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A very talkative post about my time in Melbourne

Posted on 07/03/2010 by John

 

Thursday 4th March started early for my girlfriend and I. We had to be up at 5 am for an early flight. I have the problem when I know I have to be up early, that I constantly wake up every few hours thinking its time to be up. So I was incredibly tired.
We caught a cab at 5:30 am and arrived at the airport in time for our flight. The airport was a lot more busy than I had seen other times but luckily we only needed to do a bag drop rather than check in.
It was the 2nd VirginBlue flight of the morning ( 7:05am ) and it was already running late. It ended up only being 15mins late and they gave us free Foxtel during the flight for the inconvenience.
The cab ride from Melbourne Airport to Melbourne CBD was insanely expensive. I think the cab driver screwed me over.
The meter said $53.00. I went to pay for that, but then he said no its $63.00 including the toll road fees.
I said fair enough and handed him two $50 notes. He said he didn’t have change. I said just round it to even notes then. He said that I had to pay by card. So I said fine. He swiped my card on one box, then put it down, then swiped my card on another box which seemed dodgie.
He handed the POS system to me where it was waiting for my pin. I put it in and asked for a receipt.
He was reluctant to give me a receipt but he finally gave me one. It said $73.00. I asked why its more he said for the tolls. So suddenly its gone up from $53 on the meter, to$63 with tolls, then to $73 with what ever else. I gave up arguing with him and got out as I had already been sitting there for about 10 minutes with hotel staff holding the door open for me.
Interestingly enough the cab ride back to the airport was only about $55 including tolls.
But anyway the hotel was insanely fancy. We stayed at the Hyatt Grand overlooking Federation Square.
We had access to the Grand Club Lounge. This was really nice with awesome views over the city.
I was in Melbourne to setup a ticketing system for an event on Friday night so I had Thurs and Friday morning to do touristy things.
My girlfriend had never been to Melbourne before so I tried to fit in as much as possible.
The first place I took her to was the Bourke Street Mall. Its a nice mall, but I feel that it does not have the same atmosphere as other open air malls around Australia, Rundle Mall in particular.
I think it could be because of the tram tracks in the middle, which in other malls would have stalls there instead. Also it seems to split the mall in two.
But, it gets the job done. Lots of up market shops.
On Thursday night we wanted to just get something cheap but good for tea like a Schnitzel. Another thing I find about Melbourne is that you have to know where anything is to find it. Adelaide has cafe’s and clubs in plain view for everyone to see. Where as Melbourne they are all hidden down little side streets.
I went to find an ATM one day, I found an ANZ bank, walked around a narrow alley way for the ATM and found lots of cafes.
For tea we ended up going to a place recommended by the hotel staff, Mrs Parma’s ( http://www.mrsparmas.com.au/ ). The meal was good and not bad for Melbourne prices. The number one thing I have to say though is finally a place that DOESN’T put the schnitzel on top of the chips!!
The schnitzel takes up the entire plate, then they bring out two separate bowls with chips and salad.
Restaurant owners, take notice!
We also visited Federation square and the Melbourne casino.
The best thing was the Eureka tower. Rialto observation deck is now closed, I hear they are turning it into a restaurant. But now I have seen both I think Eureka is better.
We went with a Day and Night pass. $4 extra to get two trips in one day.
There wasn’t enough time to travel out anywhere to far so we kept within walking distance of the hotel for everything which kept us busy anyway.
Friday night my work project went well which helped me sleep a bit better :D
Saturday we had a lazy day around the hotel before we headed to the airport. It was nice, sunny, warm, bit humid, on the drive to the airport. We checked in at 2pm and got some food.
While we were eating the sky started getting dark. By the time we finished eating the rain had started and the airport had started leaking. One place was actually like a waterfall. I had never seen so much water running inside of a building.
We made our way to our gate waiting for our 4pm flight. As we were waiting airport sirens were sounding. An announcement said sirens mean that there is lightning within 8kms of the airport so all airport ground staff are required to stay indoors. This grounded all flights leaving.
About 30mins later flights started getting cancelled. Planes that were supposed to come into Melbourne were being diverted to Canberra and Sydney, which ment that those planes would not be available to take people from Melbourne to other destinations.
Then it was our call, flight was cancelled.
I let my boss know and he got onto the phone to Virgin. I don’t know how he did it, but he managed to get us onto the last flight of the day, but there was still an 80% chance this flight would be cancelled also.
A guy I know just happened to be on the same flight as me, he called Virgin after, the earliest he could get was 4pm the next day.
7:55pm came and our flight was delayed but only by 5 minutes. We boarded and took off 15mins late.
Flight out from Melbourne was actually pretty smooth. I was expecting it to be crazy bumpy.
The guy that was on the same cancelled flight as me had a cousin that was on a flight that boarded just as the storm hit. They boarded, but were not able to take off for about 2 hours. There was a short break in the storm when two planes took off, his and another. Apparently it was the scariest thing he had ever done in his life. It was so bumpy, up and down all over the place. After hearing this I was expecting the worst.  Lucky for me though it was fine :)
After we arrived we had to make it home to pick up tickets for a Fringe event, then to the fringe event. We arrived to the Fringe event 10minutes late. Couldn’t have timed it better though, as the event started 10minutes late :D
We then got home at about 1:30am and crashed out.

Thursday 4th March started early for my girlfriend and I. We had to be up at 5 am for an early flight. I have the problem when I know I have to be up early, that I constantly wake up every few hours thinking its time to be up. So I was incredibly tired. We caught a cab at 5:30 am and arrived at the airport in time for our flight. The airport was a lot more busy than I had seen other times but luckily we only needed to do a bag drop rather than check in.It was the 2nd VirginBlue flight of the morning ( 7:05am ) and it was already running late. It ended up only being 15mins late and they gave us free Foxtel during the flight for the inconvenience. The cab ride from Melbourne Airport to Melbourne CBD was insanely expensive. I think the cab driver screwed me over. The meter said $53.00. I went to pay for that, but then he said no its $63.00 including the toll road fees.I said fair enough and handed him two $50 notes. He said he didn’t have change. I said just round it to even notes then. He said that I had to pay by card. So I said fine. He swiped my card on one box, then put it down, then swiped my card on another box which seemed dodgie. He handed the POS system to me where it was waiting for my pin. I put it in and asked for a receipt. He was reluctant to give me a receipt but he finally gave me one. It said $73.00. I asked why its more he said for the tolls. So suddenly its gone up from $53 on the meter, to$63 with tolls, then to $73 with what ever else. I gave up arguing with him and got out as I had already been sitting there for about 10 minutes with hotel staff holding the door open for me.Interestingly enough the cab ride back to the airport was only about $55 including tolls.
But anyway the hotel was insanely fancy. We stayed at the Hyatt Grand overlooking Federation Square.We had access to the Grand Club Lounge. This was really nice with awesome views over the city.
I was in Melbourne to setup a ticketing system for an event on Friday night so I had Thurs and Friday morning to do touristy things.My girlfriend had never been to Melbourne before so I tried to fit in as much as possible.
The first place I took her to was the Bourke Street Mall. Its a nice mall, but I feel that it does not have the same atmosphere as other open air malls around Australia, Rundle Mall in particular. I think it could be because of the tram tracks in the middle, which in other malls would have stalls there instead. Also it seems to split the mall in two. But, it gets the job done. Lots of up market shops.
On Thursday night we wanted to just get something cheap but good for tea like a Schnitzel. Another thing I find about Melbourne is that you have to know where anything is to find it. Adelaide has cafe’s and clubs in plain view for everyone to see. Where as Melbourne they are all hidden down little side streets.I went to find an ATM one day, I found an ANZ bank, walked around a narrow alley way for the ATM and found lots of cafes. For tea we ended up going to a place recommended by the hotel staff, Mrs Parma’s ( http://www.mrsparmas.com.au/ ). The meal was good and not bad for Melbourne prices. The number one thing I have to say though is finally a place that DOESN’T put the schnitzel on top of the chips!!The schnitzel takes up the entire plate, then they bring out two separate bowls with chips and salad. Restaurant owners, take notice!
We also visited Federation square and the Melbourne casino.
The best thing was the Eureka tower. Rialto observation deck is now closed, I hear they are turning it into a restaurant. But now I have seen both I think Eureka is better. We went with a Day and Night pass. $4 extra to get two trips in one day.
There wasn’t enough time to travel out anywhere to far so we kept within walking distance of the hotel for everything which kept us busy anyway.
Friday night my work project went well which helped me sleep a bit better :D
Saturday we had a lazy day around the hotel before we headed to the airport. It was nice, sunny, warm, bit humid, on the drive to the airport. We checked in at 2pm and got some food.While we were eating the sky started getting dark. By the time we finished eating the rain had started and the airport had started leaking. One place was actually like a waterfall. I had never seen so much water running inside of a building. We made our way to our gate waiting for our 4pm flight. As we were waiting airport sirens were sounding. An announcement said sirens mean that there is lightning within 8kms of the airport so all airport ground staff are required to stay indoors. This grounded all flights leaving. About 30mins later flights started getting cancelled. Planes that were supposed to come into Melbourne were being diverted to Canberra and Sydney, which ment that those planes would not be available to take people from Melbourne to other destinations. Then it was our call, flight was cancelled. I let my boss know and he got onto the phone to Virgin. I don’t know how he did it, but he managed to get us onto the last flight of the day, but there was still an 80% chance this flight would be cancelled also.A guy I know just happened to be on the same flight as me, he called Virgin after, the earliest he could get was 4pm the next day. 7:55pm came and our flight was delayed but only by 5 minutes. We boarded and took off 15mins late. Flight out from Melbourne was actually pretty smooth. I was expecting it to be crazy bumpy. The guy that was on the same cancelled flight as me had a cousin that was on a flight that boarded just as the storm hit. They boarded, but were not able to take off for about 2 hours. There was a short break in the storm when two planes took off, his and another. Apparently it was the scariest thing he had ever done in his life. It was so bumpy, up and down all over the place. After hearing this I was expecting the worst.  Lucky for me though it was fine :)
After we arrived we had to make it home to pick up tickets for a Fringe event, then to the fringe event. We arrived to the Fringe event 10minutes late. Couldn’t have timed it better though, as the event started 10minutes late :D
We then got home at about 1:30am and crashed out.

 

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