Marshmallow in Melbourne

The day started off incredibly early, and I mean, early, like, 4am early! I did a whole lot of packing till midnight, so we’re talking only about four hours sleep here, ouch!

My parents took me to the airport and quite honestly, I felt sick to my stomach. This was a very different trip to what I had initially planned it to be. I was going to be all by myself. No company, no one to have dinner with, just me. No one to split the cost with, no one to accompany you in the scratching heads over how to decipher the timetable, and as I discovered when I arrived at the airport, no one to say, “Hey… my bag’s getting pretty full, can I put some of my stuff in yours?”

When I weighed my luggage, it came in at 17kg. My jaw dropped. I had hardly anything in there! How on earth would I be able to take advantage of the Melbourne shopping if I only had 3kg weight to play with?!

For most of my time waiting, I began strategising as to how I would try to ‘smuggle’ most of my clothes back to Auckland. First thing would be to wear all of my packed underwear at once, layered on top of each other. Same with the socks and with the few singlets and t-shirts I’d brought. You can call me insane all you like.

I was really thankful that my Mum and Dad stayed with me for as long as they could, right up until I went through into security, the passengers’ only area. I hugged them goodbye, knowing that I would miss them terribly.

During the flight, one of the attendants’ spilt water all down my side, then fifteen minutes later, another attendant spilt MILK down the same side! What is it with these people?!

Because I’m a big kid, I didn’t watch any of the intelligent movies that they were showing in their 82 movie selection (!?!?!), and opted for… hehehe… Kung Fu Panda and Cars. I have no shame in it people, I have no shame.

We landed at the airport on time, and was looking forward to setting foot on Melbourne soil. My stomach was in knots, this time, I wasn’t sure if it wasn’t hunger or excitement or sheer OMG I WANNA GO HOME.

However, when the airport went to taxi to the gate, there was another plane using it. We were initially told that it would be a few minutes until the plane moved away from the gate and we could then leave the aircraft. This turned into 15 minutes, into half an hour, then before you knew it, we were waiting for an HOUR. You could feel everyone getting irritable and restless.

And that before going through the customs and baggage claim waiting times. Ugh.

So that chewed up a significant amount of time. What also chewed up a bit of time was trying to find out where the hell my airport transfer was. Thankfully, I found it and was the lone passenger on a minibus from Melbourne Airport to the inner city. As we pulled away from the airport, Melbourne’s weather didn’t feel much different to what I had left behind in Auckland. If anything, it was the same but a couple of degrees cooler. (Just how I like it. Hee!)

When I arrived at my hotel, my room wasn’t ready, and so I was told to come back a few hours later. I asked them if I could leave my luggage with them at reception, and thankfully, they let me. It was then that I went for my first walkabout.

15 minutes later, I had spent $150. HUH?!

I ventured to the Queen Victoria markets and was drawn in by the call of luscious leather jackets, in chocolate brown. I was a little terrified when the girl handed me a size 18, for a moment all like, “ExCUSE ME?”, though I’ve always found that market clothing tends to from crazy destinations and the sizing is all kinds of bizarre. I do recall a great post that Kenz wrote about the ups and downs of clothes sizing due to woefully inconsistent sizes.

Queen Victoria markets are incredible. Wall to wall of amazing produce, great deals… I really do no justice trying to describe it. You might say I was lucky to come out of it with only one jacket’s worth of damage. I was though, tempted by a t-shirt that said, “But… what if Google was wrong?” Oh say it ain’t so!

Then, I wandered around Melbourne Central Plaza, the mall right next to my hotel. In fact, I can actually see it now, as I type this. It was like a labyrinth, that place. Incredible, but the maze of all mazes. I look forward to being able to explore it a little better sometime.

All of this took place over a four hour period. When I arrived back at the hotel, it’d only just been cleaned. I finally got to go up to my room and take a break. I put the Olympics on TV, unpacked my things (which reconfirmed that I really, had not brought much), and set up my laptop on the desk.

The room feels a lot like Sarah-II’s old apartment in Auckland City, so I strangely felt very comfortable. I planned out the next day’s events, and did a bit of writing on the laptop. And ate some Mallowpuffs that got damaged in transit. (Too busted up to be gifted to anyone. For real.)

While it’s somewhat sad that my first dinner in Melbourne was a foot long chicken fillet sub from Subway, I wanted to go back to the market tomorrow with a LIST of what I needed; else I’d be very easily drawn into buying the whole damn place.

So, Melbourne. Here I am. Get ready for me, I will unleash myself tomorrow.