The Most Livable City in the World

So once we were in the air, a guy stood up in the

front of the plane and introduced himself as the President of Jetstar Airways. We thought that was cool he flew regular class like a regular guy. The flight was ok, nothing special. We played cards a lot, and a little girl behind me was having way too much fun kicking my seat.

Once in Melbourne it was already dark (1030 pm) and we had no idea how to get to our hostel, Travellers Trax, without a taxi. So we talked to an info lady at the airport to figure out the most confusing bus system that included trains, trams and buses, and various prices for each depending on 'zones'. Upon figuring out which buses worked, it was too late and most stopped going! So we took an airport bus downtown, hoping to get to the station in time to make almost the last bus to our hostel. Then we had to purchase little re-loadable cards 'MyKi's' to ride buses & public transportation. Let me tell you, midnight in a huge new city downtown feels sketchy! So I pretended to feel tough as we walked from the station in the dark to our hostel, where we had to find the back door in the darker. Finally we made it our 8-bed dorm to find only 1 set of sheets left for us for 2 bunk beds. Lucky for us we were good at sleeping in small spaces after living in our mini-van campervan for a month so we managed.

Before heading downtown the next morning, we chilled in the hostel using internet & visiting a few other travellers (mainly British and other Europeans) and then walked up the road to a little

market for some food- deciding on a giant fresh loaf of bread. Just like Aladdin, I broke it in half and we shared it plain :) but I didn't steal it. Somehow after that we trained our way into Melbourne Central Business District (CBD, or downtown area). Much more fun in the daytime!

The downtown of Melbourne was very pretty, it felt a little bit like Vancouver. Lots of little coffee places, very unique architecture, many large gardens and some museums. Unfortunately we had to spend time making phone calls dealing with our campervan insurance as it had to be

reported within 48 hours, making for quite the runaround.

But we did manage to see much of the downtown & a park by renting 2 bikes ($5 each for an hour!). We were able to see the Rod Laver arena and other tennis stadiums and the whole area where the Australian Open is played so that was very cool. The info lady that helped us and told us what to do loved Melbourne so much it cracked us up. Her love for Melbourne may have been more extreme than Tyler Gauthier's love for Winnipeg. "It's way better than Sydney because... It's been rated The Most Livable City in the World a million times...

It's an amazing planned city, not like Sydney which just happened... It's got great culture and vibe... The Arcades [little walking alleys through the building everywhere, with shops, etc- which are very cool] are the most unique and incredible things ever!" She was hilarious! And very right, it was a cool city.

Afterwards, I celebrated being in Melbourne with a much needed Slurpee from 7/11! There seemed to be one at nearly every street corner in Melbourne!

After that we managed to find our way back to the hostel fairly easily to our surprise, this time each havin
g our own bunks to ourselves!

We were up very early at 4:45 to make sure we got to the airport in time. We attempted to take local buses instead of the airport service like everyone told us to. It worked well, only taking us just over an hour. Once there, we had some re-organizing to do. I'd read that Virgin Australia only allowed 7.5 kg carry-ons. So, I put on every article of clothing I had! All 4 socks, underwears, shorts, 2 pants, 2 undershirts, 4 t-shirts, long sleeve, hoodie, rain jacket. Milessa wasn't quite as hardcore. Long story short, we didn't have to weigh our bags anyways. So I sweated and over-heated for nothing in an attempt to save 50$! Next bathroom, I changed very quickly before getting on our flight to Cairns!

Unique tree

Train Staion downtown Melbourne