To Melbourne

I'm off in Melbourne to visit Luther, well, crash on his couch and go to the F1, plus assorted hijinks.

Melbourne is quite a cool city. The trip in from the airport on the Skybus is no hassles, and the train system is quite navigable (though I lost my F1 tickets somewhere around the train station – grrr – oh well, I've been lucky in travel so far re property, so had to happen some time).

The weather was absolutely sweltering though – in the 30s Centigrade at the moment – and you really feel it as soon as you walk outside.

After hopping off at the stop near my host's place I had a wander up and down a couple of blocks (he being still en route) checking the suburb out – loads of little asian restaurants and groceries.

One pakeha across the street saw my bag and called out “Backpacker?? This is a dodgy area mate, don't hang around here!”, which was amusing as he was the only even vaguely dodgy/threatening guy I'd seen so far. Certainly the asian kids wandering around didn't seem to have a problem!

We were out for a couple of drinks after – both too tired to get too carried away – and Melbourne certainly seems to have some cool places. Though disturbingly, I found another bar with my parent's old carpet (now kitsch-cool rather than merely ugly), not only on the floor but the wall too.