Early start today; something in the 10:30 region of time. B was up even earlier to watch the Riders game, but I couldn't be lured from my warm bed to watch football in the cold living room. Alas, it sounds like I missed a poor effort by the Riders anyways. I flipped on the TV and tried to get a clear channel for awhile (reception was brutal today for some reason) and B went to call home from the least sketchiest payphone he could find in the area. Once he got back we had the usual eggs and toast breakfast (at lunch hour) but added some sausage for a twist today. Ventured over to the NAB branch on Smith Street to take out some cash to pay the hostel bill and attempted to get some New Zealand dollars, but they had none on hand and would have to order it. Doesn't do us much good when we leave tomorrow. Wouldn't that be like a Canadian bank not having American dollars? Seemed weird. After the mostly unsuccessful bank trip , we stopped in at this great bakery I had discovered the other day and I had the most amazing piece of mousse/cheesecake I've ever tasted, while B opted for a freshly made jelly donut and latte.
Stopped back in at the hostel and got online to find flights and hostels in NZ. We booked a place in Auckland for when we arrive, found the bus pass we'll get once we're there and booked a flight from Christchurch back up to Auckland on Nov. 29 (so we'll be back in Auckland for the return flight to Australia on the morning of Nov. 30). After some chat about Melbourne, the weather, etc. we also are thinking of maybe working in Perth or Brisbane instead of Melbourne, provided there are jobs available for us in those places. Melbourne just isn't tropical enough and is a lot like home. We're all the way in Australia, we may as well live somewhere hot with a super nice beach, plus we haven't been to Perth yet, so we're sort of leaning that way presently. But we do want to see the Australian Open of Tennis, so we'd have to fly back and forth for that, which might be tricky. After the most productive couple hours in the last week, we headed to the train and into the city.
Downtown we wandered to a main NAB branch to check about currency for NZ. The branch was closed because "it had rained lat night and leaked into the bank" or so said the paper sign on the door. This was a bank in the main floor of a huge building, so that seemed odd, but we continued along to the next branch, which was only a couple blocks further. They had NZD but it cost $10 to exchange it, so we were told to just use our debit cards in NZ to get money instead. Well that was a waste of time, thanks NAB. We walked a few more blocks and stared up at the Eureka Skytower (highest building in Melbourne and tallest observation deck in the Southern Hemisphere or some title like that) and then down at the Aston Martin and Rolls Royce cars in the building next to it. I've never seen a RR Phantom in person before. Looks a lot like a Chrysler 300C, but bigger. Aston Martin also had an impressive display of cars in the showroom. Close to here was the Crown Casino and Entertainment Complex, so we walked over there and looked very much out of place from the high rollers mixing and mingling in pricey suits, drinking pricey drinks as part of the Melbourne Cup eve celebrations. Our hoodies and jeans just didn't quite make the grade. Regardless, we walked into the huge centre and enjoyed stunning views of a casino complex that must have cost a fortune to build. Down a set of marble stairs with an enormous ceiling all covered in dangling crystal (lit up with purple neon lights), past the cascading fountain wall, we saw retail outlets of the likes of Versace. But we didn't need any Versace sunglasses at the present moment, so we cruised back out onto the promenade.
tracked down a tram headed towards the docklands. Now the tricky part was when to get off. So when we got around what looked like the end of the line near a bridge and some industrial looking development sites, it was time to hop off. Now we had to find the rink. Easy enough, it's a rink in Australia, right? Wrong. A very big lack of signs and lack of people with knowledge of the area they live or work in made it a very long, difficult task. Finally we found the rink and did a fist pump of victory into the air. But we had missed the public skating session, which happened in the afternoon, even though the website had said it didn't open until 5 pm. Regardless, we sat in the stands and watched the zamboni clean the ice, then some rec hockey action. Never have I been happier to watch terrible hockey players mucking around in my life. After our fill of a real sport, we exited and trammed back to the train station, then trained back to the hostel (Quite a process to get anywhere around here). Tonight we made easily the most impressive meal of our trip: fried sausages, niblet corn, boiled potatoes, fresh garden salad (iceberg lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, red pepper and ranch dressing). The ranch dressing is weird here though; very vinegar-y. And we made enough salad for probably 5 people. Since we leave tomorrow, all the extra stuff hit the rubbish bin (as the Aussies would say). Then came some research into NZ and Perth and the usual early end to the night.
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