Arrive Melbourne

This morning I arrived in Melbourne after 22 hours on two different planes and 7 hours in two different airports. After spending another hour or so in the queue for customs, picking up my checked bag and queuing again to exit the airport, my lovely mate Zoya picked me to take me to my hostel. But before that, we stopped for dessert. If you ask me, dessert is best served any time of day. And best served from Brunelli's Cafe, I now realize. I still don't know how I actually managed to make a decision on what to have, but the pear cheesecake did not disappoint.

So here's a quick rundown on what I have neglected to chronicle over the last couple of days (clearly I am off to a procrastinistic start) (I know procrastinistic isn't a word, but this here is my blog and I do what I want). My second day in Victoria I did a ton more walking around. And walking. And then followed that with some more walking. Visited the Craigdarroch Castle, which reminded me of some buildings I saw in Scotland, which makes sense because Robert Dunsmuir, the coal tycoon who built the castle to be his house immigrated to British Columbia from Scotland. Picked up fish and chips for lunch from Red Fish Blue Fish down by the wharf. Highly recommend it. Like seriously. Go there. If you like your tastebuds at all. Stopped for amazing frozen yogurt up Yates street from my hostel. Again. And picked up a new Kobo to replace the one that I broke the day before I left. Before long it was time to pick up my gear from the luggage room at the hostel and head down to catch the bus that was taking me to Vancouver that night.

By the time we were all loaded onto the bus the fog had rolled back into Victoria, so after a beautifully sunny day, it was the perfect time to leave. Bus ride, ferry ride, another bus ride and then a short, albeit somewhat sketchy walk and I made it to the hostel with just 10 minutes left before check-in closed.

The next day, my one day in Vancouver, I was up and out the door before the fog even burned off the city. Did some wandering, found some breakfast and made my way to Stanley Park to see the Vancouver Aquarium. Penguins, sea otters and porpoises oh my. If you're ever having a bad day, just watch someone feeding a sea otter. Literally one of the cutest things I've ever seen. After that took a walk around Stanley Park, following the sea wall walk. Later in the day, found my way to Granville Island. Heaven. So. Much. Food. And shops. And the Granville Island Brewing Company. Heaven. Although by that point it was starting to get foggy so you couldn't really see much out onto the water. Picked up a tea to go and walked to Kitsilano Beach, unfortunately the fog had rolled in so thick that you could barely see beyond where the sand began, much less any of the water. So I made my way back to my hostel, still walking.

The next morning up early again to take the Skytrain to the airport to catch my flight to Shanghai, to catch my flight to Melbourne. Now tomorrow's a new day, excited to get out and see what this city's got to offer and whether I want to spend the next six months of my life here.

Comments