Not the best start to the weekend...
March 1, 2007
Getting from work to
the airport was trouble free - rocked up to Central station, an airport train
came along within 5 minutes and we were off. Isa didn't think much of the
'airport train' - $12.50 from Central to the Domestic Terminal and it's just an
ordinary CityRail train with passengers going about their daily commute. Can't
say I blame her, it is pretty ridiculous. If you can't supply a separate train,
at least charge a more reasonable amount to use the existing service - a $9
surcharge just to get off at one of the airport stations is a bit
rich.
Anyway, we got there
with plenty of time to check in. Only to find out that our flight was running
about 40 minutes late. C'est la vie so we decided to get a coffee. Except the
coffee place inside the terminal (past the security check) didn't have soy and
the guy behind the counter made a snide comment at Isa when she said she didn't
want coffee if they didn't have soy milk. Something along the lines of 'What,
it's not real coffee if there isn't soy?". No, jerk, she's lactose intolerant.
What an idiot!
We were the second
last group of people to board the plane - they assumed that because our flight
was running late we'd all just be sitting around the gate and didn't bother to
make the usual boarding announcement. But, since we weren't technically the last
people on the plane we weren't holding up the plane leaving
:)
By the time we
arrived in Melbourne it was already after 10pm so we knew we wouldn't make our
free transfer from the Skybus terminal at Spencer Street Station to our hotel.
Rather than walking the 5 blocks (about 1km) with our luggage, we decided to
catch a cab. What a disaster! The cab driver didn't seem to know where he was
going, even after I gave him pretty simple instructions. And I'm a Sydneysider
who's only ever spent a few hours, once, in Melbourne. He ended up a block away
from the hotel but, because of Melbourne's plentiful one way streets and lanes,
he was going to have to go all the way around the block to head in the right
direction. By this stage, Isa and I were so fed up we just told him to stop and
let us out. His excuse/quasi-apology? "Sorry, I haven't slept for three days".
Great, just what I want to hear from the person driving me around late at night!
After that, there was no way we were staying in the cab.
Luckily, we only had
to walk a few minutes from where we were to the hotel. However, when we got to
reception there seemed to be some problem with our reservation with the front
desk person insisting that we had booked from yesterday and had not yet paid.
Luckily, I'm somewhat cynical and pedantic about booking things online and
always carry at least two copies of anything to to with my bookings. After I
produced those few pieces of paper, the front desk person finally figured out
they were looking at the wrong reservation. Eventually, we got to our room,
dumped our bags and took a quick shower. Knowing we had a big day ahead of us
tomorrow, Isa and I crashed asap.
