First Weekend in Melbourne

5/11 - 5/13

So we ended up going to a Thai restaurant, except it wasn’t anything like Thai food I’ve eaten before. It was more of a Thai-influenced restaurant. The food was pretty tasty. We all ordered a dish and shared. We had a couple of different kinds of curry, a noodle dish, and some other food I can’t recall now. The dishes were relatively small and it came out to about $20/person. Average price of beer at a bar is about $6 - $10 (and they apparently don’t import Miller Lite).

I went to bed at 9pm.

The team gets into the office around 8am. The client gets in earlier, but they leave around 4pm. We have been staying until 530p – 600p. The commute to work takes about 40 minutes. 7 minute walk to the train, 25 minutes on the train, and another 10 minute walk to the office. It’s been a while since I walked to work, so I’m getting plenty of exercise. Yes, there has been some complaint from my end about all that walking, but more of an observation than a complaint. Walking is good…

On Saturday, we WALKED to Budget and rented a car and drove a couple of hours to Torquay, popularized by the movie "Point Break." This area is at the beginning of the Great Ocean Road and has a beautiful beach. The guys went surfing (no thanks) and I WALKED around. It was sunny, but there was no way I was going into the water even with a wetsuit on. I was cold in my jeans and sweatshirt as is. I got some nice pictures of the beach and it was a good place to WALK around. There were a lot of surfers out and the waves were good...so I’m told. We spent the whole day at the beach. I did not see any roo’s.


After we got back, we went out to the bars. I was exhausted by that time, but I went out anyway since I wanted to see what the nightlife was like. We WALKED downtown searching for a bar Kevin has been to. The first bar we went to had a great idea. It’s called Trader Bar and it had TV monitors listing the prices of each beer (from different regions) and liquor. There were also marques around the bar displaying different messages. Depending on the supply and demand, the prices went up or down in 15 minute intervals. Like rum would be $5.50 at one point and if people start buying it, it’ll go up to $6.50 in the next round. We waited until certain beer got cheaper, and then we buy. It was fun! I drank an Aussie beer called Little Creatures, it was pretty good. I swear it’s weaker than Miller Lite since I didn’t really feel it. Or maybe my tolerance is up a bit. I think this place would do really well in Chicago.

After Trader, we went to Elephant and Wheelbarrel. They had a live band there playing pop music from the 80’s and today. They played "How To Save a Life" and "Chasing Cars", so they’re aight in my books. We stayed out until 2am and stopped by Lord of the Fries for some “chips and gravy” which is essentially French fries and gravy (them Canadians call it poutine). Afterward, I went home and crashed. It was a good kind of sleep. The strange thing was that I got a hangover in the morning. I rarely get morning hang overs, it was a nice change to having a headache right away.

On Sunday, I somehow thought it would be a good idea to join Kevin and Dave on a hike at the National Park. It’s about a 2-hour train ride from Flinders station. I had imagined a nice stroll through the woods and maybe see some cool animals. OMG, the first section was like climbing a mountain! I swear I was suffering from altitude sickness after 5 minutes. My butt was burning from trying to walk up this steep incline and I was sweating profusely. We ended up hiking for THREE hours. I have never walked so much in my life…yeah, great fun. I must admit the scenery was amazing. There was a section in the park that had a sad little waterfall flowing through it, but I imagine with a bit more water it would have been quite a sight. I’m going to have to look into jeep tours for my next outing.