First Impressions
- Toronto —> Chicago —> LA —> Sydney —> Melbourne. I AM FINALLY HERE!!!
- All three of my bags got stuck in Chicago, which was somewhat of a blessing in disguise as I didn’t have to lug them from the airport to the bus to the hostel. Especially as I wouldn’t look this eloquent doing it. (Total luggage weight: 140 pounds. I know. I’m just as impressed as you are.)
- I can’t lie to you Little Blog, when I was heading into the city on the bus shuttle I got a glimpse of Melbourne and became very nervous. It’s an ugly city from afar, no real sky line, and I don’t know where the hell this ‘summer’ they speak of is, as it was freezing today (think scarf weather) which meant it looked grey, dark and scary as hell.
- But. But I forced myself to head into the windy, cold world of Melbourne, in an attempt to stay awake and fight my serious case of jet lag and… I loved Melbourne. It may not look pretty from afar, but it’s beautiful to walk around within. My first impression? A real people city with lots of potential for me!
- It’s hilly though. I had no idea it was hilly! For some reason I imagined it super flat - that’s gonna be fun for running!
- They have street cars (trams) here and they do them right (sorry Toronto, but no). Fun Fact: When Melbourne updated their tram system, Toronto purchased their ancient trams.
- They seem to have public washrooms (sorry “toilets”) everywhere.
- I was also stunned at the number of smokers in Melbourne. Every street corner I was on someone was smoking.
- Subway sandwiches gives you guacamole as an option. I repeat, Subway sandwiches gives you GUACAMOLE as an option!!!
- It’s going to be more complicated than I thought to open an Australian bank account here and get an Australian phone number. I tried today and was missing so much stuff and am still confused about the visa/debit card difference.
- I am a lost soul in a big city here; everything is new to me. The first time someone handed me back coin change (had to buy an outlet converter because of my lost luggage) I had to inspect the change as I had never seen it before.
- “All you need is thongs.” Thongs = flip-flops.
- It’s oh-so-very-bizarre to see the Australian flag blowing in the wind.
- I do not dare cross the street without other pedestrians around me. Despite their roads simply being the opposite direction of North America’s (y’know, because Australians drive on the
wrongother side of the road), it’s still incredibly confusing. - I am in the future. 6:35pm on Jan 31, meaning I completely missed the entire of January 30th and this puts me 16 hours ahead of Toronto/NYC time (which also means, Little Blog world, that my posts are going to feed into your dashboards/google readers at very odd times)
- I didn’t take any photos of the city today - wanted to just let it be, y’know, take it all in quietly. But I’ll try later this week :)
- Their port-a-potties are round.
- I am shocked at how many trees there are here.
- And even more shocked by how kind people are. I had a really cool/nice/funny seat mate for the 20+ hours from LA to Melbs who I will meet up with later this week to unite in our f-unemployed-ness and then a girl came up to me when I was waiting for my non-existent luggage to show up, saying she overheard I was moving here and gave me all sorts of advice.
- Oh and-and-and my okCupid has gone CRAZY. Like whoa. So many gentlemen callers requesting the pleasure of my company to show around this city. I have no clue why, but wow.
- Okay, it’s 6:45pm now… I am FIGHTING to stay awake. Must. Stay. Awa… ZZZZZzzzzzz
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