The Amazing Race to Nowhere Special

When last we blogged, AJ and I were off to grab our bags out of storage at our hostel in Sydney and make our way to the airport to hop a flight to Melbourne. Well, if only things could always be that simple!

When the shuttle driver asked us which terminal we were going, we quickly responded, "Domestic." Seemed easy enough considering we know that Sydney and Melbourne are in the same country, hence requiring a domestic flight, right? Well, as we dragged our bags up to the JetStar desk and asked to check in for the 3:15 flight to Melbourne, the woman said, "Oh, that's at the International terminal." Well, the look on our faces must have said it all because she quickly contnued with an explanation that all flights into the Melbourne - Tullamarine airport go out of the International terminal and therefore we needed to take a TAXI (yea, I said it) over to the other terminal...and quickly...if we were going to make the flight. I immediately was perturbed that we had just paid $14 each to take a shuttle from the city to the airport to now have to pay another $14 (yup...$14...to take a taxi from one terminal to another. Seriously?!) to get to the right gate. And what made it even worse, we jumped into our cab, and the driver's face immediately told us that he was perturbed that he just waited in the queue to drive around in a circle.

So, in our best "Amazing Race" ways, we asked the driver to make it fast! The driver kept lecturing us about why we didn't take the shuttle to the international terminal, and I had to try my best not to bitch him out in true Cara and Jamie fashion (if you watched the latest season of "The Amazing Race," you know what I mean). Once at the proper terminal, we made a dash for the check-in counter and a second dash through security and the never-ending duty free shops to our gate. We were both starving at this point (stupid us thought we'd have time to grab a bit at the airport), but unfortunately there was nothing to really eat by our gate. So we took a deep breath, bought a diet coke and got ready to board our flight thinking we had survived another bump in the trip. Little did we know, it was just beginning!

The JetStar flight was a surprising delight. There was lots of leg room and the plane was fairly empty. With only an hour travel time, we cozied up in our seats and enjoyed sitting after a few days of walking. And as the plane began its descent into Melbourne, we looked out of the window with excited anticipation to see nothing but fields. I looked at AJ and he said, "Are we in Ohio?" And as the flight attendants announced that the flight was headed to Bali after its stop in Melbourne, we thought for a minute about staying aboard and kicking our feet back in Bali for the rest of our trip. In a moment of rational thinking, AJ reminded me that we didn't have Visas for Bali, so we decided to disembark the plane as planned. But as the plane taxied to the gate, and we saw that half of the airport seemed to be under construction, we wondered where exactly we were landing.

When we entered the Melbourne International Airport, we were surprised to find it fairly empty. Both of us being from the East Coast and currently living in Los Angeles, we're not used to being places that aren't surrounded by people. But we trudged toward baggage claim and patiently awaited our luggage. We both jokingly looked around for a quarantine beagle, wondering if the open bag of Tim Tams would land us back on the government's bad side, but no dog was to be seen. With bags in hand, we boarded the red SkyBus to the city and waited to see what our second location of the trip had in store.

As we drove into the city, we immediately noticed that Melbourne didn't have the charm of Sydney. And as we took our first steps out of Southern Cross Station, and headed down Spencer Street in search of our hostel, we had a feeling this "pit stop" would be different than the last. After approximately twenty minutes of lugging our bags through the city streets to our next hostel (as professional walkers now, we felt like we didn't need the public transportation to get us there), we arrived at 228 Flinders Lane to The Greenhouse Backpackers (per Carmen's recommendation). We took the lift to the sixth floor reception area and were quickly checked into our room (although, somehow we had two reservations, but fortunately the guy was nice enough to cancel one of them). We wheeled our bags back into the lift and to the fourth floor in search of our room.

Once inside, we both flopped on our beds and broke out the travel books in search of some ideas for dinner. During that time, the germophobe in me couldn't help but go check out the bathrooms (none of our hostels, except for Sydney, are ensuite). I am happy to report, they passed with flying colors! Yay! After what turned out to be an hour, we finally decided to give up on the books and head back to the reception area and get a face-to-face recommendation. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a terrible idea.

The woman behind the reception desk proved to be anything other than receptive to our request for a place to dine. We kindly asked for a suggestion of a place that wasn't too far of a hike and too expensive. Her first response was, "Well, you could go next door to the food court and eat Chinese food, but it's not that great. It's also got a lot of MSG." Mmmmm.... Does this woman know how to sell a product, or what?! Those of you who know me know I'm not one to give up that easily, so I decided to prod a little further for suggestions. I asked if she could recommend something that might be a little more tasty. She shrugged her shoulders and said, "I guess you could grab a slice of pizza of Degraves St." I asked where and she repeated herself in a tone stating that she obviously thought I should know where Degraves St was. Considering this was the same woman who was sitting at the reception desk when we checked in earlier, I definitely wanted to ask her if she forgot that I was a visitor here and didn't know these place. I decided to hold my tongue though, and tried once more to get information. She suggested we walk to Chinatown, and excited by the option, we foolishly asked if she had a specific place in Chinatown we preferred. Her response? "I don't really ever go there. I don't have time, ya know?" No. I don't know. I don't know at all why you are here torturing my soul when all I want is a good place to grab some grub.

Showing my true Jersey charm, I thanked her for her help, turned on my heel and cursed her name all the way down the five flights of stairs. I was definitely a bit pissed, but fortunately AJ and I found some good laughs in the situation as we made our way down to Chinatown. Once there we wandered the streets until we found a delicious-looking Thai restaurant. (Yea, I said Thai. Leave it to us to walk all the way to Chinatown and then not eat Chinese food.) Inside, we thought we were finally safe from the craziness of Melbourne, and again, we were fooled.

After waiting almost 15 minutes for one of the waitresses to acknowledge us and take our order, we waited patiently while those around us who ordered after us got their meals. And when ours finally arrived and we were enjoying the meals, one of the waitresses came up and asked if we had ordered the jasmine rice. We both said no, and she walked away, seemingly satisfied with our response. However, a few minutes later, she came back to our table, jasmine rice in hand, and asked again if we had ordered the dish. Again, we said no, to which she responded, "But it's on the list." In my crankiness, I looked up at her. Fortunately, AJ answered first with a simple, "Well, we didn't order it," because I was about to say, "Well, take it off of the list."

As we walked home and both commented on how much we were missing Sydney already, AJ also stated that he was in the mood for some dessert and coffee. This seems like a simple enough request being in a big city, but alas, again we were wrong. Besides the neon signs of American chains (McDonald's, Krispy Kreme, KFC, Subway), there were no cafes to be found. UNTIL...we rounded the corner from our hostel and found the famed Degraves St. from the reception woman's earlier suggestions. There on this little alley of a street were a number of cafes, all seeming to have a dessert or two on the menu. Unfortunately, not a one was still open. I turned to AJ and asked, "You think our friend at reception could've suggested one of these places when we were looking for spots to eat?" Apparently she's too busy to check these out too. After a few more walks around the blocks, we found a little churro shop (like the Spanish pastry, not the amusement park novelty!) and both enoyed some churros con chocolate before heading back to the hostel.

So far, Melbourne has left a lot to be desired. However, we know that in the light of day, there's probably a lot of good to be seen. We only have one full day here, so we are going to make the most of it, if nothing else, to spite the woman at reception! And hopefully we'll find some good memories to take with us to our next stop.