Across the Tasman Sea - Night 117

I was up before my 3:30am wakeup call. Not surprising, as my inner clock has never failed me on flight days. The airport shuttle arrived a bit late at 4:15 and after a few more pickups we were at the International Terminal by 5am exactly as check-in for my 7am to Melbourne opened. My domestic reduction exercise of yesterday had paid off as I can now fit all my belongings, including my sleeping bag, into my large rucksack thus greatly reducing the awkwardness of having the sleeping bag dangling off the back. Very proud of my minimalism, I have nary seen another traveler with less luggage than I.
The four hour flight was pleasant and prompt; just like all of my low-cost carrier flights overseas. If only the U.S. commercial carriers could figure it out. We landed at Melbourne around 9am and by 9:25 I was on board the bus to the city. That’s 25 minutes to deplane, go through customs, baggage claim, and quarantine, including two questioning by customs agents and a random drug dog sniff. It takes nearly twice as long just to get your baggage from a domestic flight landing in Seattle. The efficiency of Australia’s second busiest airport was absolutely astounding.

Stepping out of the airport I was immediately struck by the warm, moist air. Having spent the last two and a half months in the windy, low humidity air of New Zealand the thick, still air in Melbourne was quite a change – like getting off the plane in Baton Rouge after having started the morning in the Pacific Northwest. The bus into the main station and the free transfer to my accommodation where just as efficient as the airport security…a good sign as I was in a race against time to catch as much of the Super Bowl as possible. After checking in, I tossed my bags on my bed and headed out in search of the nearest sports bar (The girls at the front desk proved completely useless and couldn’t mention one single sports bar in the city, other than “maybe the Casino?”). A block down the road I passed the Duke Hotel, which was showing the game on a large flat screen. The place was pretty much empty (it was 11 am on a Monday) so I had the best seat in the house. I was shortly joined by a talkative Aussie guy who worked next door, but spent the majority of the four hour game jawing my ear off about the supreme kicking abilities of the Australian Rules Football players. The cook was a NFL fan and was pulling for the Giants along with me. The manager and the talkative guy were rooting for the Patriots. As the bar began to fill up for the lunch hour I had to pass updates to the waitress who passed them on to the cook, as he was sequestered in the kitchen fulfilling his duties. On the Giants winning drive and the subsequent Patriots possession he temporarily shut down the kitchen and joined us in watching the end of, what I consider to be, one of the most exciting Super Bowls in memory.

The City at Dusk

I took a well deserved afternoon nap (I had been up since 1:30 am Australian time) and then ventured out into the city. A brief thunderstorm sprung up in the early evening, bringing some relief from the stifling humidity. The humidity, haziness, and soaring cumulonimbus clouds reminded me of the summers of my youth, of little league games rained out, of vicious lightening strikes and of tornado watches and flash floods. Living in Seattle, you just don’t get these things. Melbourne’s downtown is set on a perfect grid system and is filled with little alleyways and nooks that are jammed with restaurants while on the main streets retail stores dominate. The only place I’ve ever been with more shopping and restaurants is New York City. Men in suites downing pints of beer at small hidden pubs and the trams lining the street give the city a distinctly European feel. I stopped in the funky Federation Square for a bit of outdoor TV viewing on the huge screen before wandering back to the hotel by 9. In order to get my internal clock on the right setting, I managed to stay awake until 11 and then passed out dead.

What I Learned Today: Little pieces of home can go a long way on the road. Just watching the Super Bowl brought with it a sense of revelry and a reminder that in less than six weeks I’ll be back on American soil. As a sidenote, unfortunately, the overseas broadcast of the Super Bowl did not include the vaunted U.S. commercials. Instead we were stuck with cricket and rugby snippets as well as that annoying Snickers ad with Mr. T in the tank (do you have it in the US?). They did, however, advertise that the Super Bowl commercials could be viewed on MySpace immediately following the game.

written by

exumenius on February 4, 2008 from Melbourne, Australia

from the travel blog: Kiwis and Kangaroos

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