Day 32 - Hello Melbourne!

Chaggie began day 32 with optimism, as they were leaving Canberra (which in all honesty is not a place for two 18 year olds) for the more attractive Melbourne! Chaggie, as you can probably gather, weren't too bothered about leaving Canberra but to be fair it was worth seeing, maybe not again. Don't let us put you off going though! If you like your history/politics, by all means go to Canberra!

We left our room at 08.00 and asked the lady on reception to call a taxi for as soon as possible. She had already mentioned that they can be unpredictable on their timings but surely booking one for 08.00, and the flight being at 10.15 is more than enough time!? Well, you'd think!

We had our breakfast whilst waiting for our taxi, it was about 08.15, which was fine, we were chillied out looking forward to Melbourne. Suddenly that excitement turned to desparation! It was now 09.00 and our gate was to close in an hour, Chaggie were getting very, very anxious. Strangely enough, Chaggie were not alone in this problem, as two Aussie fellas staying at the Formule 1 were also waiting anxiously for a taxi as well as getting the same plane as us! What are the chances! So we all decided to share the taxi to the airport... if it arrives. It finally did, at 09.20, a full hour and 20 minutes after booking it! Absolute disgrace (another tip for any one wanting to go Canberra, avoid the Taxis) oh, and it didn't stop there, this is where you would expect me to say "and we got there with plenty of time to spare with no more issues", of course that wasn't the case! Our taxi driver, I'm not going to say what race or sex they were but they some how realised about 10 minutes into our journey that they were going the wrong way! We were all livid, surely we were going to miss our flight now! However, our luck finally turned and we managed to get to the airport 5 MINUTES before we would miss out on the flight, now that is what you call cutting it close!

We took a sigh of relief on the plane and set off for Melbourne. We arrived at about 11.15 and after a combination of buses, trains and trams, we arrived at our hotel 'The Albany' at around 14.00. We checked in to our room and we were very impressed with what we got for the price we paid. Chaggie were very satisfied, a complete contrast to Formule 1 (no bugs for a start... so far).

Chaggie settled in for a few hours before going for a walk around the local area. We are situated in South Yarra, which is around 15-20 minutes train journey from the city centre. There isn't a whole lot around the area but the transport links in Melbourne look very impressive, especially with a free tram service, so access to Melbourne shouldn't be an issue, (touch wood).

We went for a meal in the hotel, we both had Lasange, which was very nice, before heading back to the hotel room for the night. We are looking forward to our week in Melbourne (the sports capital of Australia, so they say) before we head off for our 3 month epic trip of New Zealand!

Chaggie x