Monday 22nd October 2001, Melbourne Oz
What a night! Our economy room may not have been such a good idea after all. Although clean and reasonably comfortable, we shared the second floor with a group of Neanderthal rugby supporters who suddenly awoke at 2am and decided to go out for a drink. About half a dozen ‘20-somethings’ thumped up and down the passage, laughing, shouting and hammering on each other’s doors. John stuck his head out of our room and bellowed some Anglo-Saxon expletive at them, but went unheard.
Eventually the noise died down as the party moved downstairs, and we went back to sleep – at least until they got back from the pub!
In the morning we went out to buy some Internet software. After shopping around, we settled on AOL. Then we went down to the local Trailfinders office to book our train journey to Sydney, and to book some ‘whistle-stop’ sightseeing for Tuesday.
The sightseeing was easily sorted. We settled on a Wine Lovers’ tour of the Yarra region. But the rep couldn’t help with train travel – instead she suggested we book a cheap Ansett flight over the Internet. Ansett? Sure enough, like the proverbial phoenix, Ansett had risen from the ashes and was offering AUS$77 flights to Sydney.
At the hotel reception desk we complained to the Duty Manager about last night’s disturbance. In fact the perpertrators had checked out, but nonetheless he offered us a quiet room on the fifth floor, which we accepted.
John went out to get a haircut … and came back an hour or so later, waxing lyrical about the pleasures of having his scalp massaged by a pretty (and, it has to be said, a rather well-endowed) female hairdresser!
For dinner, we walked over to Southgate. Melbourne looked very pretty from our table in Elgreco. The pinks and blues of sunset were reflected in the river and in the mirrored windows of the City’s handsome skyscrapers, complementing the original Victorian buildings perfectly.