Melbourne

Last night we noticed signs hanging around the hostel buildings with a warning for people that needed to go to the airport in the early morning. The president of Israel was flying in for a visit and that meant the roads to the airport would be closed between 5 and 7. Our flight was at 8 though so it didn't matter too much, but we did arrive quite early by taxi just to be sure. We had breakfast at an airport café and then waited for the flight. Then we discovered that while Fiji welcomes you with songs and flowers, on the way out they quite literally leave you high and dry. Right before getting onto the plane they stole everyone's water bottles, which was quite mean for a 6 hour flight. Unfortunately our 'window seat' couldn't put the smile back on our face either. But at 12:30 local time we landed in Melbourne, and after 9 days in high humidity and airco's we were able to breathe in relatively normal air, so that made us happy.

The Melbourne Airport SkyBus brought us to St. Kilda, where we were picked up by Geoff, our AirBnB host for the next 4 nights. He's a friendly guy who also immediately made sure we'd get a transportation pass. Once at his home, we got a tour of the house and got to know that he really doesn't mind sharing everything including his guitars, books and food. Despite being very tired from the journey, our stomachs were begging for some proper food so we walked to the nearest supermarket through the rather nice Chapel shopping street. It wasn't hard to fall asleep after that.Read more