Hello.
Long time no see.
It seems like we need a change in how we read our blog title: life of (an) atypical couple.
Allow me to explain; Claire and I, well, we are 2x homebodies. We love LOVE to stay at home. This post-Covid era gave us even more reasons to stay at home. I sort of abandoned my cycling hobby, we hiked less, haven’t visited any cafes for months, we kind of just.. spend our days hanging out on our couch.. binge watching TV shows all day long. That is our favourite past time. Is that weird? I don’t know. I see people around me jumped at the first chance to do something outdoors.
Now with the easing of the Covid-19 restrictions, wearing a face mask has become optional in many situation, and I see so many people not wearing a mask walking around spreading germs with their un-masked sneezing and coughing. I don’t know man, I rather stay at home and be away from all these nuisances. Aren’t I atypical?
And then this chance came along, to go Melbourne with the wife. She so kindly offered to sponsor some of my flight fare because I poor. And so we went loh.
The Plan
So this trip is atypical as well. Its still winter in the Southern Hemisphere, weather forecast says it will rain almost everyday, it’s kind of dumb to be travelling there in August. Having aged a few years by now, I’m already past my prime. So our plans were much less adventurous compared to previous times. I only plan on doing a few things per day with a lot of empty time slots in my itinerary. Generally, we planned to do the following:
- Visit Easey’s (a burger restaurant) because they have train cars perched on the rooftops
- Visit Hofbrauhaus Melbourne (Bavarian beer house) because their Schnitzel looks delicious on photos
- Take the Great Ocean Road tour by Go West Tours because we never been and we can’t drive
- Visit Queen Victoria Market for hot jam donuts because we skipped it last time
- Visit Alfred Nicholas Memorial Gardens because it looked awesome from photos
- Take the iconic Puffing Billy because can sit on the carriage sills
That was pretty much it for our trip. We did try to do some shopping and visit some random places in the CBD but yeah, I only planned this much for a 6-7 days trip.
The Preparation
It’s still winter in Melbourne, so we packed warm clothes and jackets in our medium sized luggage. Naturally, Claire’s luggage is packed to the brim, because she vain. And because we will probably need some space for goodies we wanna bring home, I only packed for 4 days for our 6/7 days trip, leaving 1/3 of my luggage free.
That being said, I think we really need new suitcases. The wheels are not rolling smoothly and the handles are falling apart.
We packed our good old The North Face jackets we wore to London almost 3 years ago, so we didn’t have to buy anything excessive. But I did caved and bought a new Chrome Industries Barrage backpack because I sold my previous Chrome Industries backpack when Covid hits us hard. Its kinda a ‘want’ more so than a ‘need’. But the pack actually served me very well because the pack is totally waterproof. My trusty old coat too. It has a pair of weird looking flaps over the large hip pockets which I used to shield my camera from the rain. I kinda just stuff my camera into my hip pocket and used the flap to shelter it. Looks weird, but it works.
The Execution..
We went to Changi Airport early and checked our luggage in before going into the transit area to chill. I saw Hudson Coffee there and thought Australian coffee brand must be good, but it tasted just like Starbucks, it hits me that being an Aussie brand doesn’t make it any less Singaporean. After that we just went on to the lounge to chill some more. Nice laksa because there’s free flow laksa leaves on the side. I love garnishes.
We flew SIA to Melbourne, still the best airline based on my limited experiences. Sleep quality up in the air though was never good on any airline, this flight is no different.
Arrived in Melbourne Airport early in the morning, I see the place still looks the same like the last time we were here 6 years ago. There were more self service stations for customs clearance but that didn’t work very well for Claire. The machine couldn’t match her face to her photo. Humans are still better than machines.
Took the Skybus to the Southern Cross Station in Melbourne CBD, I remember reading that the bus journey should take an hour, but I think we only spent around half an hour on the bus before we arrive at The Southern Cross. Didn’t manage to sleep.
And here I had a miscommunication with my AirBNB host. He arranged for somebody to be at the apartment so I can check in early, but the app also sent me a default set of instructions which I followed. Should have clarified with my host. The staff waited for me for hours while we went to Easey’s for our lunch. My bad.
Well at Easey’s, I’ve already booked a table in advance, but didn’t anticipate the climb up to the top via a narrow flight of stairs. It was a welcome exercise to me, and the carriage was interesting. The interior of these repurposed transportation vehicles were in need of repair, but I guess that’s the charm of it. The food was okay, someone told me that food in Australia was very salty. The food was, really really salty to my weak palate. Too used to ‘healthier’ food back home.
We went back to our bnb and was glad that it was absolutely adequate. Equipped with a washer, I could wash my clothes too and the room heater will help dry them before we have to move. We should’ve just stayed here for the whole trip. Even though there were no housekeeper to clean our room daily, it’s comfortable.
We eventually dragged ourselves out into the cold as we make our way to Melbourne Chinatown to the Hofbrauhaus Melbourne. So you see, we flew to Australia, went to its Chinatown, in order to visit a Bavarian beer garden… But it was worth it, the food and the fresh beer they offered were amazing!
and with this meal, we end the day by walking 1.82km (measured from Google Maps) back to our bnb. We of course stopped by the nearby Coles for some fruit juices and snacks in preparation of our adventure tomorrow!
It was bloody cold, our tropical climate attuned bodies are complaining the whole time we were outside, the frigid wind sapped all our energies to the point we’re burning on our reserves. So we slept like a couple of logs in our beds. Ending our 1st day.
It was great to travel again.
-Simon
