Melbourne Day 1

First day in Melbourne I pretty much spent in bed. I had worked all the day before, rushed home to pack and then caught the midnight horror flight over. It was stinking hot on the plane so I was glad to get to chilly Melbourne with a balmy 5 degrees C at 5:30 in the morning.

The address I had for our short stay was the wrong address. It was a Short stay but one of the older ones. The staff were just arriving by the time we got there so they directed us to where we were meant to be. "It's only 10 minutes walk," he said. My mother was with me and there was no way we were walking after a sleepless night and with all our luggage. We caught a cab, who went the opposite direction, only to loop back, do an illeagal u-turn and drop us off. Luckily someone in my apartment was awake and they came down and let us in.

The others had got there the night before and managed to get a good sleep so why they were off in Marysville for the day, enjoying the first snowfall of the year; their first time in the snow; snow angels and snow fights, I slept and mum just rested.

The view from my apartment (15 floors up and across from the convention centre) was spectacular. I will have a photo in day twos blog.

After mum left with my cousin Alida and the others had all returned from their snow adventure, we got dressed up and hopped on the Resteraunt Tram. It is very old worldly and seriously cramped. This photo is of me sitting as far back from the table as I could. This is the roomiest seat. I had to swap with someone, other wise my chest would have been wearing my food and not reaching my mouth. For $70 though the meal is not really worth it, and they don't tell you where in Melbourne you are so that you could go back to the interesting looking shop you saw on the corner of whatever street.



After the tram ride we all went over to the Crown Casino Complex. Being Melbourne, the shops were still open this late at night. The Casino also has a great hourly fire display outside along the river and a massive fibre optic display in the complex itself.

The flame tours were huge and you could really feel the heat. Great place to be on the hour of a cold night. They go on and off for 5 minutes. I could even see them from my apartment even though we were on the other side.

This is just a tiny portion of the fibre optic light display. The are is gi normous and the lights are timed with music, lasers on the wall and water fountains on the floor.