Melbourne Day 1

Been a little slack with the updates lately, somehow the inspiration to update has been evading me and I spent 5 hours trying to work on an assignment, but it's gotten to the point when the assignment just doesn't want to work for me, so it's time to leave it alone and I'll get back to it after this blog. And after some dinner. And a shower. And maybe a few hours of sleep too. Looks like assignment will be neglected just for a while.

Its own fault.

Today at work, I asked one of my colleagues who is taking a year off studying (finished year 12 last year and decided not to head straight to uni) whether she plans to do anything. Lamenting that she's only got 3 days of work next week instead of the usual 5-6 that she usually gets, she said she's planning to go to Melbourne in November. This little tinge of envy crept into me because... Melbourne is so awesome!

From Melbourne AMTA Conference/ Sightseeing

So I came back from Melbourne so many weeks ago, it's become a thing of the past, best left untouched because then I get all unsatisfied with Sydney.

From Melbourne AMTA Conference/ Sightseeing

But it's time for an update before I fully put it to rest. Upon leaving the plane, P, E and I took a coach to the train station that we needed to get to. This scene greeted us- a field of yellow flowers that stretched on for acres and acres.

From Melbourne AMTA Conference/ Sightseeing

Arrived at Parliament Station. It was as big as Sydney's Central, clean and modern.

From Melbourne AMTA Conference/ Sightseeing

Rather gloomy weather on our first day. We walked to China Town and you could kind of see the China Town of Sydney in it, but Melbourne's is by far more organised and cleaner.

From Melbourne AMTA Conference/ Sightseeing

Their version of the gate.

From Melbourne AMTA Conference/ Sightseeing

Checked in and decided to hunt for food. Weather was freezing cold and we decided to yum cha. Not very original, but hey, we were in the middle of China Town, our service apartment was only two minutes away from it!

From Melbourne AMTA Conference/ Sightseeing

I did post up this yum cha session as a Breakfast! entry before.

From Melbourne AMTA Conference/ Sightseeing

Doesn't change the fact that it was very good. Slightly more expensive than Sydney actually, or it could have been because we were hungry. Flew with jetstar, and with a two hour flight, obviously no food was provided.

From Melbourne AMTA Conference/ Sightseeing

Niom.

From Melbourne AMTA Conference/ Sightseeing

Random photo- Information and checkout desk of our service apartment, which is actually opposite and across the road from where our rooms were.

From Melbourne AMTA Conference/ Sightseeing

So we finished our yum cha at about 12, 1pm, checked in and found some information about hiring a car. Looking back, I should really be very grateful that we're still all alive.

From Melbourne AMTA Conference/ Sightseeing

Headed to Phillip Island at about 3pm to catch the Little Penguins and their march into land that night. E, who has never taken lessons in driving and had not driven in a long long time, was the driver. On unfamiliar territory, armed with a gps alone. We resorted to following a bus that seemed to be on its way to see the penguins too, except it veered off somewhere, so we followed road signs instead.

We got there obviously! =D It's crazy how much we trusted our instincts to get there, and still managed to NOT get lost. At all.

From Melbourne AMTA Conference/ Sightseeing

From Melbourne AMTA Conference/ Sightseeing

Um... yes. Strictly no photography allowed. This isn't a penguin at all. In fact, all you can see is... noise.

From Melbourne AMTA Conference/ Sightseeing

From Melbourne AMTA Conference/ Sightseeing

Those little penguins were so cute though, so it's totally worth it. Thousands of them will come flocking up to shore. Some with smaller groups will wait for others to join before crossing to their home. They'd come within centimeters of us and we'd walk with them up to their homes, where they'll cry shrilly to each other. No photography allowed, but they didn't say anything about voice recording, so I recorded their calls. Sounds like a baby crying actually...

From Melbourne AMTA Conference/ Sightseeing

From Melbourne AMTA Conference/ Sightseeing

After that, we dropped off the car at a nearby car park. Just getting to the car park was a miracle in itself. The CBD area of Melbourne is unbelievably congested, even at 11pm (wait, maybe it's BECAUSE it was 11pm... Friday night.. T T) they have these road rules new to us Sydney siders- mainly the right hook turn or something. Several times, we were wondering whether we could actually turn into a road or not, and risking it anyway. After leaving the car safely behind, we walked around the CBD area and headed "home". Spotted the horse carriage for the first time, but there'll be many more random spotting of horse carriages in the following days.

From Melbourne AMTA Conference/ Sightseeing

Our rented car. No damage to the car itself, but that day might have shaved off a good decade of my life.

From Melbourne AMTA Conference/ Sightseeing

We were fully beaten that day. It was a long drive that exhausted not only the driver, but the passengers alike, and we had a conference early the next morning, so we decided P should take a shower first, rest of us get takeaway dinner. Chinese takeaway with hainan chicken rice (I know chicken rice is meant to be yellow... but that is an overkill. What did they use, food dye??), pork belly, char siew and rice.

End of Day 1, which was actually one of the more exciting days that we spent there.