Australia - The Beginning

The Australian adventure has come and gone and I am stuck still trying to overcome the miserable jet lag. Luckily, the horrendous jet lag was totally worth it! It was definitely an adventure. After surviving the 16 hour, nonstop flight from Los Angeles to Melbourne (no, we did not get first class seats with the full mattresses. We stayed in coach), we lost an entire day in the flight, and arrived Sunday late morning.

Our driver Barry, picked us up in a luxury Lexus and drove us into town towards the hotel. He was very friendly, and gave us a lot of great tips of things to do and see while in the city. Of course his first comment to us was our lack of luggage. It's me, so of course it was carry-on luggage only. He asked if I could write it all down for his wife to learn to travel light. I get that a lot.

Because the hotel was not yet ready for us to check in, we wandered up to the private club lounge for a little snack and amazing view of the city. We then left our luggage, and wandered through the city to do a little shopping for some necessary forgotten items.

















We returned a few hours later to check in, with another fantastic view from our room on the 47th floor. 5 star hotels are really nice. I totally recommend them.


To stay awake, we wandered over to St. Patrick's Cathedral to walk around and take some pictures. There was a wedding couple taking pictures there with a horse drawn carriage. It was certainly a beautiful day for a wedding.










We then returned to dress for our fancy dinner at the Tramcar Restaurant. This is a tramcar you ride on through the city, that has tables set up on the inside to feed you dinner. We were exhausted, having been awake for 48+ hours, but we weren't about to miss this 5 course meal. It was so worth it.

As we chatted with one of the waiters, we discovered that while we were excited to see kangaroos, he was fascinated with squirrels in the states. Apparently squirrels are not something you see in Australia. Squirrels to us stateside are like kangaroos to the Aussies. Who knew?

We arrived back at our hotel around midnight, exhausted and ready for an actual bed to sleep in. I was out when my head hit the pillow. So far, the trip was off to a great start.

For a few more details of this day, check out my travel blog at http://globetrottingwannabe.blogspot.com