MELBOURNE

The next leg of our Australian trip was Melbourne, the so called sporting capital of the world. On arriving at the airport we were met by m y daughter Kellie who had flown down to Melbourne to meet us. It was great to see her again.


We caught a cab from the airport to our accommodation in the suburb of South Yarra. I had booked the accommodation on the net and it appeared to be a great bargain, $120 a night for five people. We weren’t expecting anything flash, just comfortable.


From the outside the place didn’t look to promising, a non-descript block of flats. We marched up the flight of stairs and entered the flat. My first impression was one of “god what have I done.”


The flat was super tiny. I entered and poked my head around the corner and took a quick step back. Tammie looked at me with a “what’s wrong” look on her face. The one bedroom had a queen sized bed and a set of double bunks and it looked as if someone was sleeping in the bottom bunk. I gingerly prodded the bedcover with a toe. Nothing moved. I moved toward the bed and ripped the covers off with one swift movement. There was nothing hiding under the covers thankfully.


On closer inspection we found that all of the beds were unmade, the bathroom was a mess and not at all clean. The flat consisted of a small living area with a foldout bed, small kitchen and the one bedroom. Not a great way to start our stay.


We kicked the girls out and Tammie and I set forth to clean the place up. The end result was much better at least the place was clean. We saved money but paid the price of sub-standard accommodation.


I contacted the owner who blamed everyone, he came across to me as a real shylock. He promised me a refund of a day’s rental as well as free accommodation in one of his other houses. In the end I received half a day’s refund and a lot of hot air. Lesson learnt.


Over the next four days I caught up with good friends and did minimal sightseeing. Tammie and I went into Melbourne central and went to the State Library in the centre of the city. Tammie was keen to see Ned Kelly’s armour that is on display on the upper library levels.


As we approached the glass case that houses the armour we were horrified to find the case empty. There was a note attached to the case that stated that the armour had been removed so it could be shipped to Glenrowan for the Ned Kelly weekend. The armour would be back on display on the day we left Melbourne. Damn!


The girls did lots of shopping as we were staying near the swank shopping precinct of Chapple Street. The days flew by and we soon found ourselves in a taxi on the way back to the airport. Our Melbourne leg of the trip was over.