Melbourne.

The trip was good. The really odd thing was that the place seemed so familiar yet so foreign at the same time - you could place any of bit of Sydney and you wouldn't know the difference. I even felt weird using the same currency down there (ha! Australian Dollar? Go figure).

So the overnight XPT trip wasn't as pleasant as it could have been. It was long (as expected) and hard to get any sleep on. But it was fun, I guess. It was nice to just speed through the country and outer suburbs of Melbourne, and then drift in to Spencer Street Station.

We arrived at about 7.30am on Saturday and wandered around the Melbourne CBD until we could check into the Melbourne Metro YHA - which ended up being really pleasant and didn't smell like crotch. The rooftop was nice and at night you could watch the city lights. Suburban Melbourne is remarkably flat, I noticed.

Anyway, it was all a little intimidating at first, us Sydneysiders being in unfamiliar Melburnian territory. We eventually figured out that we needed to get the 55 tram up to Victoria Markets and walk up from there.

We went to St Kilda that night for dinner and drinks with some people we know in Melbourne - Paul and Pria. It was great seeing them. Food was great too - I never thought bangers and mash could taste that good!

Speaking of St Kilda, we went to the St Kilda Festival the Sunday, too.

We had fish and chips for lunch beforehand at Williamstown, from a place called the Town Fryer. Mmm. There was a spunky boy on the register too, who would periodically flex his muscles and load bags of frozen chips onto a trolley and take them into the kitchen. Actually, I think I would rather have had him for lunch.

What followed was a long suburban odyssey via train and tram to St Kilda for the Festival - first a train from Williamstown to Footscray and then a tram or two from there. Despite the apparent on-time reliability of Yarra Trams, my best mate Adam still prefers Sydney's State Transit buses.


One of my main complaints about Melbourne is that there are too many pretty people, namely pretty boys - all heartbreakingly straight too (or maybe I just noticed it more - you know, being all observant and alert in a new environment). I didn't get to grace gaybars or clubs with my presence - the company I was with (blokey straight blokes) wouldn't have been and indeed weren't keen on that sort of thing. Not that gaybars and clubs are my scene but you know. Next time for sure, though.

The flight back was heavenly. VirginBlue has spunky cabin crew.

I'm planning the next trip down Melbourne way already. I wouldn't want to live there, of course. But I think intermittent visitation is alright.


Listening to:
Title: Just B'coz
Artist: Machine Gun Fellatio
Album/station: Paging Mr Strike (2002)
Length: 4.12