A coworker of mine asked me at one of the many holiday parties we had this year how long my flight to Australia was and when I told him about 18 hours to China then another 9 or so to Australia, his jaw dropped and he said, "how do you do it?!"
So how did I do it? How did I survive the epic journey to Australia? You have to find your most zen self, your center. Let the noises, chaos, smells, wash over you. Accept that you're crammed in steerage with a crappy selection of movies and thank whatever you hold dear that you bought those noise cancelling headphones for a Kings ransom and can find solace in your Amazon Music playlist and Amazon prime movies that you downloaded before the flight.
Getting to China was a trip. Being in the China airport for 5 hours was like if you took Flushing Main Street in Queens, stripped out all the eclectic shops and put it inside an airport. It felt so surreal to have traveled that far and feel like I was still back home. I made a bee-line for the lounge with my trusty Priority Pass ready. I had done my research before the trip and knew ahead of time what I was looking for.
My reaction to the lounge at first was luke warm. There were hundreds of tiny water bottles, a selection of beer and soda, but the only food they had was ramen and some mini pastries wrapped in plastic. I was so tired from not sleeping on the flight (or much the night before) that I didn't really care. I was, however, very grateful to find and make use of the shower facilities. It was so nice to be able to wash up after - and it's one of my go-to post flight jet lag prevention measures. After the shower I made myself some ramen and tea while proceeding to start demolishing mini water bottles.
I soon got restless and decided to see what else the lounge had. I had only made it half way through the facility so maybe they had better seating somewhere else? I started walking and eventually made my way to their cafe - they did have real food!! I gathered my things and moved camp to the cafe. There were all sorts of dishes and soups. It was so nice. After eating I relaxed a bit more, dozing off slightly in one of the lounge chairs before dragging myself (almost literally, I was so exhausted), to my next flight.
The flight to Melbourne was uneventful. I slept for nearly the whole nine hour flight and landed feeling refreshed and ready to conquer this new land. A lot of people asked me why Melbourne instead of Perth or just more time in Sydney. The answer was pretty simple and as soon as I made up my mind to come to Australia finally there was no doubt where I'd be spending the most time because my friend and fireteam-mate Bren lives in Melbourne!
Those of you who know me or follow my twitter know I enjoy playing video games - I even raised $1600 for charity by playing video games for 24hrs. There is one game that has been dominating my free time for the last three years- Destiny. Through that time I've met a dozen or so new people, as well as grown closer with a couple real-life friends, and have grown exceptionally close to quite a few of them. Last summer I had the chance to visit Tommy in Austin, one of the first new friends I made playing Destiny, and had the time of my life. Bren is another friend from in the same fireteam/group and so it was really a no brainer that I'd come to his city on my trip. Our group jokes around that we've been together longer then most of the relationships we've had! Those thousands of hours together really add up and you really get to know the people you're spending all your time with.
Coming off the plane in Melbourne I wasn't sure what to expect. The sun was warm but not overpowering. I hopped on the bus to the city center and immediately burned through the free wifi cap on the bus. Staring out the window I found the drive to be similar to the ones I've encountered in South Africa and Scotland, I suppose because they're all part of the U.K. at one point. I got off the bus and was faced with a choice - walk a mile to my hostel or try and figure out the tram system. It was so nice out I figured I would walk.
About a third of the way there, however, the overcast skies gave way to the sun and a crystal clear blue sky. A few minutes later I wondered why my arm felt warm and realized here I was, walking through the city in midday with no sunscreen on. My arms were already turning pink at the taste of the powerful Australian sun. By the time I made it to my hostel I was dripping with sweat. Thankfully I was able to check-in right away, grabbed a bottom bunk, and changed out of my moist clothing so I could hit the road again.
There were a few things on my to-do list - get a myki card (their version of the Oyster or Metrocard), fix the SIM card I bought in the airport, take a bus tour. So it was back to walking, I managed to pick up a myki card right away and hop the tram to the sightseeing bus tour. I wandered through the visitor center first and immediately was hit with a wave of exhaustion. Sitting for a moment on the bench in the air con area I contemplated heading back and going to sleep. Then the little voice in my head said, "no you moron you didn't come all this way to sleep!" So I left the visitor center and bought a bus ticket.
At first the sightseeing bus felt like a horrible mistake. It was packed with people shouting at each other and children screaming. I looked off into the horizon and thought, maybe this was a mistake. In the end it turned out to be not too bad. It was hard to hear the audio recording guiding us through the city over the din of families chattering away and for a brief moment I dozed off but in the end I was able to see the whole city and make some educated decisions on what I wanted to see while in town.
I texted Bren somewhere along the bus line and he asked if I was "too knackered for drinks tonight" - heck no I wasn't! I traveled all this way to finally put a face to the voice and toast to the good fortune of meeting each other! We agreed on meeting around 9:30 that evening. I eventually made my way through the whole city and got off the bus. Got my SIM card fixed and then noticed this alley way that dozens of people were headed down.
It turned out to be one of the many little shopping and eating nooks around Melbourne. Between the quaint eateries were beautiful murals and graffiti, tons of touristy shops, and a Crumpler store where they build you a custom bag on site. I made a mental note to return to that one another day. Suddenly I felt my stomach rumble and realized it was nearly 6pm already.
I looked around at all the little shops and saw a sushi stand. The rolls were unlike any sushi I had seen before - each one was the size of my fist and stuffed with all sorts of meats and veg. I picked up three of these monster rolls and then saw a savory bakery. I had seen quite a few dotted along my walk so I stopped in and grabbed one. Then I saw a grocery store, which if you've read any of my other posts will know that it's my favorite thing to see/do in a new country, and wandered my way through the aisles. Filling my bag with two inexpensive, large bottles of water I decided to head back to the hostel to eat my dinner.
I wasn't sure what the rules were on where to eat so I sat in the common area of my floor and enjoyed my delicious sushi mega rolls and quietly watched Back to the Future with about 5 other people. I took another shower and got my things together to meet Bren later that evening. Unfortunately I made the mistake of laying down and when I opened my eyes again it was 10pm. I looked down at my phone to find a text from Bren about 20 minutes earlier asking if I was still awake to meet up. Thankfully he was okay with heading back out again and I quickly got ready, hopped a tram in the drizzling rain, and made my way toward China town to find him.
Bren's directions and Google Maps were vague at best. The rooftop bar that he picked was a 7-floor walk up, which he made it half way up before finding out it wasn't open yet. After getting cat called from a couple boys hanging their heads out the window of a bar across the street I eventually found out where to go. I walked into a dimly lit cocktail bar unsure of who I was even looking for. I scanned the bar and started to walk further into the place when around the corner comes this tall, bearded man. We looked at each other and he smiled broadly, opening his arms for a hug, and said, "You made it!" I could've picked out that voice anywhere, and immediately embraced him - I finally found Bren!
We sat at a table for two near the bar and sipped fancy hand crafted cocktails for a while, talking about everything and nothing. It's hard to describe what it's like to know someone so well and only meet them for the first time after knowing them. It feels like a small piece of home in a strange place, like putting in the final piece of a puzzle. After fancy cocktails closed we walked around the corner to a whisky bar. It looked exactly like one of those kinds of bars you find in Brooklyn, there were even American dollars in the tip jar! We stood at the bar and had a boilermaker, after asking what it was, then switched to a delicious cider.
Reaching our limit Bren said let's go get food. We ended up in a Chinese food shop where you order by number and quantity like dim sum. I got a bunch of dumplings and steamed pork buns. Bren got duck roll and some chicken dish. He burned himself a bit on the duck, too eager to let it cool before eating. After gorging ourselves on the delicious dishes we ordered some tea and Bren posed for a photo to send back to the rest of the gang. We laughed and laughed, made plans to meet up again on Sunday, then ordered Uber's (after Bren finally figured out where he was going) and parted ways.
By the time I was crawling into bed it was nearly 4am and I was getting texts from my other gaming friend Tommy asking about my trip and Bren. I finally fell asleep, after booking a day trip for the next morning, feeling so happy to have so many wonderful people in my life from all over the world.
Location:Clarendon Street,Southbank,Australia
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