15 hours to oz

As soon as I boarded our Qantas flight bound for Melbourne, I knew that I was on my way to a destination that I would fall in love with. For at least the past 10 years, I’ve felt a strong yen to be in Australia and in a matter of 15 hours, I would finally be setting foot on the only habitable continent I had not yet visited. The flight to Melbourne from LA was undeniably long, but with Rob as my traveling companion, a new Sudoku book (thanks Sara!), a set of NYT crossword puzzles, my iPod, and the in-seat on-demand entertainment provided by Qantas, I was set.

We landed at 7 in the morning, Melbourne time, checked into the Ibis Hotel on Little Bourke Street in the Central Business District (CBD) of Melbs, and headed out to explore the city. Our first stop was breakfast at Café Segovia, a lovely café located on one of many little alleys found in between the city streets of Melbourne.


We then hit the requisite tourist sites, including Federation Square


and Flinders Street Station.


By this point, Rob and I had already determined that we were moving to Melbourne. Even the graffiti was cool.


Despite our efforts to seamlessly adjust to the local time, Rob and I started crashing in the early afternoon and headed back to the hotel. Our plan was to take a power nap and then go back out for more sights, dinner, and drinks. I guess we were more exhausted than we thought because we ended up falling asleep at 3 PM and waking up at 3:30, um AM, the following day. (Those of you who know me are probably thinking that 12.5 hours of continuous sleep is hardly noteworthy.) So much for trying to beat jetlag on the first day.