Melbourne Day 1 - Part do

Melbourne, Day 1, Tuesday 6/6/2006 Part II

Ok, the plane has just landed in Melbourne and it's now 11.50pm Australian Eastern standard time, ( 2 1/2 hours ahead of WA) after quickly trooping off the plane we all head off into the great unknown - Melbourne City.

For a girl who has lived in a small country town 2 1/2 hrs drive from the most isolated capital city in the entire world, Melbourne really is huge -but only in one way - population. Here I was, about to step outside the airport into a city with a population of around 4 million, when my town and surrounds combined is a population of 50,000.

Anyway, back to the airport, we quickly find out baggage and head outside - my very first impressions are ' yuck! it's cold, people are smoking, it's cold, it's grey, it's cold' (notice the thought of 'it's cold' hit me at lot). After Pop quickly purchased Skybus tickets for the 6 of us, we hurried onboard with 30 seconds to go (they have a countdown clock showing when the bus will close doors and leave) we pile about with suitcases in tow, and the bus promptly takes off! leaving as all just about on the floor! :O but luckily I had some strong sisters & brother with me so they could lift my suitcase (the biggest one) into the luggage tray. I hug my laptop backpack (no way is that getting put anywhere as luggage) and we are on our way (about a 20min journey) to Melbourne City, and our apartments on Little Bourke Street.

As we started off into the city, which was looking bigger, grayer and unfriendlier every second - I started wishing for home :( but luckily you can't just turn around and go home when you fly somewhere - lucky because it meant I had to experience Melbourne, whether I liked it or not!

My first ever glimpse of Melbourne city, through the window of the Skybus.

The Skybus dropped us off at an underground bus-parking-place and we caught the 'city-hotel-link' bus which takes people directly to their hotel rooms. I started txting Mum to tell her the current temperature (13C!) and high excitement was experienced when I saw the Telstra Dome!!! (the other major stadium in Melbourne, apart from the MCG!).

Excitement however, soon turned to absolute horror and amazement - people would rush ahead of trucks, cars, our bus, anything! and that to with their laptop bag over their shoulder and lunch in one hand! I thought everyone would be run over :O but we had traveled for a few streets and I was yet to see someone suffer that fate! so I guess I then thought it was just a 'Melbourne thing'.

Another thing that really struck me was the different demographic that what I'm used to back home! everyone was dressed really nicely (with a few exceptions of cause) in black business type attire, the 'compulsory' black coat, laptop bags, and black hair :D black hair sure made me smile, as I'm a big fan of black hair.. another interesting thing was their was lots of Chinese, Japanese and Indians in the crowd, unlike back home where they would be Italian or Chinese.

to be continued.. (cause at this rate writing about Melbourne on my blog is going to be longer than the time I was actually in Melbourne! )