Airport trains, hook turns and milipedes!

And so it has begun!

Liam, my lovely manfriend, and I arrived in Melbourne last Thursday morning bright and early. The journey was surprisingly pleasant with little incident to bother us, despite my predictably oversized suitcase exceeding weight allowance. We left from Shannon on Monday afternoon after some very difficult and tearful goodbyes, and a good weeping session in the duty-free. After a short wait in London we boarded our giant airbus into the care of the lovely people of Malaysian airlines. FYI, their uniforms are beautiful! Our 12.5 hour flight was smooth and comfortable, and involved some very delicious Malaysian food and a really good chocolate cookie at 3am. There was inflight entertainment thank God (unlike flight to and from Thailand - I am still traumatised!) which, for me, took the form of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One, and The Kings Speech. As it was a night flight, there was a lot of sleeping.

We arrived in Kuala Lumpur around 5 pmish local time which was very confusing seen as we were still working on Irish time. We had to get a train (yes a train inside the airport!) to the arrivals and from there we walked the 5 minutes to our hotel which was connected to the airport by a tunnel. I am ashamed to say I barely stepped on Malaysian soil! I blame it on yet lag. Once settled in we went for food where I had another homesickness-weeping session. To my embarrassment, I couldn't pull myself together so I think the staff thought I was dying or something. The noodles were delicious but I barely touched them, being so focused on getting back to our room so I could Skype home! Somewhere along the way I developed a cold and so sleep wasn't great, but we slept for most of the next day too, with the result of still being on Irish time!

The final leg of our journey with Malaysia airlines was just as pleasant as the first, though we were wide awake throughout the night and landed in Melbourne exhausted and jetlagged. Happily, we were picked up by my Dutch grandfather's cousin, Peter, and his lovely wife, Tina, who have been living in Oz for 40 odd years. We were well taken care of by these two amazingly energetic and generous people, who showed us around Melbourne and are helping us get our hands on a fabulous apartment. We stayed with them in Point Cook, a suburb 25 km outside the city. It's great to have family here!


My inital impression of Melbourne is that it is massive!! Also the driving is crazy and involves hooks turns. Basically, this means that at some junctions, if you want to turn right, you take the left lane instead of the right and wait for a gap. It is crazy! Tina explained how it is efficient and all but the concept is lost on me I'm afraid! The food is great here. We've already had great vietnamese and japanese. From what we've heard, we have a lot of eating to do to get through all of Melbourne's amazing and various restaurants! Yay!

 On Saturday we moved to a holiday aparment in St Kilda while we sort our an aparment. St Kilda is the backpacker districk of Melbourne so there is lots happening and loads of people around from differents parts of the world. Unsurprisingly, many an Irish accent has reached my ears. We seem to be taking over! There is a real cafe buzz over here, with the most beautiful cake shops I have ever seen. All my hopes to become fit and healthy in Oz seem defeated before I've even begun! Though Tina told me about a crazy palm oil diet she did recently. You mix palm oil with fruit juice three times a day for a week and that's it! I don't think I have a strong enough constitution for that one!

We're very near the beach, but have yet to venture that far despite the beautiful weather. However, we did have a go on the trams yesterday which, are the main form of transport in Melbourne city. Some are very old school, others are more Luas like. It's a lovely way to get around. We have yet to figure out how to validate our tickets though. I'd say the locals got a kick out of us trying to skick our tickets into various machiene-like objects on the tram to no avail! We'll get there eventually.

Now, a lot of you were concerned by the possibility of bugs playing a large part in my life here. The news on that front is that the city is much better than the suburbs! When we were with Peter and Tina there were quite a few spiders, though none of them dangerous. The more upsetting ones were the Milipedes that appeared at night. Also the giant cockroach on the front door was something I'd rather not encounter again. However, as I said the city is much better and I have encountered little on that score yet. I will keep you updated!

Liam has started his new job today in the Alfred hospital. It's very exciting! He wore a shirt and everything! I think maybe we're growing up or something! The hospital is a quick tram-ride away from here. I'm dying to hear how he gets on. I'll let you all know too!

Meanwhile, I will be busy this week sorting out our apartment. In Oz, it is more common than not to have unfurnished apartments. This means that there isn't even a fridge or washing machiene! So I have a lot to organise. Ikea and Target here I come! I'm also hoping to get to the botanical gardens that are nearby and try out one of those cake shops!

Until next time...