I woke up before the alarm this morning with the realization that if checkout was at 10am, and there was only one shower for the floor, I’d better start early. Luckily there was no line and I was nearly ready by the time the alarm went off and Dave woke up. Blerg, my eye still hurts. Anyways, we packed at headed down to the free breakfast where I had Rice Bubbles (Krispies) and some toast. Dave moved the car to another spot so we could park until 11 and we chilled in a lounge area until then. First on the list was to return the rental car. I got directions from the site and we headed out….yea it totally wasn’t there. Dave called and found out where it really was…I don’t like these people much. Phew, rental car all returned though and now it was time to walk around the city. There really isn’t anything to ‘do’ in Melbourne, so the plan was just to explore. First, however, was sushi. After both of us proclaiming a desire for sushi, we set off on the main road and were greeted with dozens of sushi restaurants. Of course. We settled on Go Go Sushi, a sushi train, and I got inari and salmon nigiri. Mmm sushi is so so good and I think we may have some plans to make it in NY come September. It’s so odd to be making plans this far in advance but hopefully the time will go quickly 🙂
After sushi, there was more walking with a quick stop at Starbucks for me to get some coffee. A little further up the main road was this visual arts center that seemed to have an exhibit on video games. We took awesome pics of us with a giant Mario billboard. We then checked out the awesome architecture exactly like that of a stadium built in Beijing for the Olympics. It was very unique and we checked out the area underneath it which was a market thing with tons of books for sale and bar that only served beer, and more things like this. Next was Federation Square where Dave made some calls and we sat for a moment until we noticed an Olympic rally being held right there in the square. It was absolutely insane and hysterical at the same time. We watched for a bit while completely being surrounded by Chinese people and Chinese groups adorned with dragon costumes, ribbons, and flags all listening to speakers both in Chinese and English. Dave was super excited and I took a nice picture of his with a bunch of Chinese people holding an Olympic flag. I’m super excited that he has the chance to do go to the Olympics and of course a bit jealous too as I was not selected 🙁 Eh, probably best as I need to stop spending so much money. We checked out the Yarra River before going back to the rally and eventually heading over to the visitor’s center and finding out about the free tram that Gabriel told us about. Turns out it stops right across the street so we went to McDonalds so I could get a slurpee-type thing and Dave could get some chicken nuggets before running to catch the free tram. It was packed! I guess it was to be expected, but it wasn’t an issue because we got seats after the first stop. Dave fell asleep shortly after that and I watched out the window as we made the city loop. Melbourne is cool – it’s no Sydney but it’s still nice. I don;t think it’s some place that I would go to for more than a day, but it does have character. After what seemed like a long time, the city loop was over and we realized that we should really be heading back to our hostel to get our luggage!
The train ride was quick to South Yarra (10 min) and we got our bags and contemplated whether to take a cab or the train. I was all for the train but Dave persuaded me to take a cab, especially now that it had started to rain quite heavily. Unfortunately, no cabs. Free train it was! We had paid for a 2 hour pass so this was a free ride basically even though we were somehow using the concession rate which couldn’t have been right. The wait for the train was about 10 min and the ride to Southern Cross station was maybe another 15. This station was really nice and very modern. From here we were to catch the 109 tram down to Port Melbourne. Course the second we step outside I can see the 109 at the station and we were sure to miss it. In the interim, Dave attempted to get us donuts from Krispie Kream but our plans were thwarted by tons of girls who couldn’t decide what they wanted. Oh well. The tram ride was very quick and we were at the port in no time at all. It was POURING. We didn’t have far to walk but the rain was coming in sideways and I had a skirt and ballet flats on. Not good. Finally we made to to the wharf area and into the waiting room. At 6:30 we boarded and passed through very very silly security. We went through metal detectors but there was just one lady who made us open our bags, lift up the first layer of clothes, and that was that. lol. On board, wow was Dave excited! It was kinda adorable that he’s seen all this amazing stuff and something little like a cruise ship is somehow exciting. It’s not that I wasn’t excited; I’ve just seen all this stuff before. That said, we had an amazing room!! Room 7000 – front and center of the boat. Exactly. We settled in, looked around our cabin (just a little smaller than the Caribbean cruise) and then explored the ship again and made dinner reservations at 8pm, which is when we set sail. We looked at the gift shop, the travel agent room, and chilled in the cabin until we set sail a bit before 8. Dave made me play $1 in slots and as soon as I was up over $1 I quit. Ka-ching! Not at all. The restaurant was nice and actually had some people in it when we sat down at exactly 8. We ordered a bottle of champagne because we hadn’t had a chance to buy one before boarding, and we both had the same meal, of course. It was seafood linguini puntanesca with loads of stuff in it. They are really big on mixing all types of seafood together here, which is fine with me! We had an awesome time at dinner just talking, eating, drinking, laughing and soon we were the last people there. The dessert menu was lame but Dave asked for a plate of strawberries instead. Our tremendous waitress (best one in Australia, hands down) brought them to us with a side of freshly whipped cream. It was awesome. Best part was she didn’t charge us. This would be, I think, the only time we tipped in Australia. Totally worth it. From there, we explored more, went into the gift shop, and headed back in the room to watch 30 Rock because we have both been quoting it like crazy people the entire time. I maybe saw about 8 minutes of it. I’m actually not sure what happened after that but I woke up a few hours later and was in my bed somehow and my laptop was neatly tucked away. In the morning we would try to recount exactly what happened with limited success. Ahh cruisin’. Goodnight from the Bass Straight!
