Leaving Melbourne
Jan 19th, 2008 by Nick
Today is Sunday, and I am writing from the Alice Springs airport, where Qantas has been kind enough to provide free wireless Internet access for my 3.5 hour layover. I did not make it online while I was in Melbourne, so I’ll take a few minutes here to catch up.
When I last wrote, I was in Launceston waiting for my flight to Melbourne. Virgin Blue has a very efficient operation, and even with the plane for our flight arriving from Melbourne 35 minutes late, we made it into Melbourne only about ten minutes late. Virgin Blue is another nickel-and-dime low cost carrier: you get your seat and one checked bag, and everything else costs something. A second checked bag is A$20 if you pay for it when you buy your ticket, and a lot more if you just show up with it. A Diet Coke is A$2.50, a couple of cookies are A$2, and the in-flight satellite TV is A$5 for a short flight. On the other hand, my ticket was A$72, of which two thirds of it were taxes. That works for me.
Melbourne was rainy when I arrived, and stayed rainy for all 33 hours I was there. This is a good thing, as most of Australia is undergoing a severe drought, and the rain is welcome. My Uncle George and Aunt Debra met me at the gate (I’m not used to people being able to get through security without a ticket any more), and drove me to both the Westin to pick up my larger suitcase from storage, and then the Park Hyatt.
The Park Hyatt was a fabulous hotel. I seriously doubt that I’d actually pay A$600 a night for a room there, but for an award stay it was excellent. As a Diamond member from 25 Hyatt stays last year, I was upgraded to a gigantic corner room, about 500 square feet, and got breakfast for free. It was just a very comfortable, classy place, the type of place where I didn’t even think twice about dropping A$5 for a cup of coffee in their lounge while killing time early Saturday afternoon.
On Saturday, I went out for a walk in the late morning and did some shopping, then Steven and Betty picked me up just before 3pm and took me to Uncle George’s house. A tremendous amount of family had gathered, many stopping in for just a couple of hours on the way to other committments. I met a number of second cousins and their families, and we spent the entire evening eating and chatting about a wide variety of topics. I think I might have helped encourage a couple of them to come to the States for vacation while the US dollar is incredibly low. I got back to the hotel at about 11 and crashed for five hours, then packed and took a cab to the Southern Cross station to pick up the Skybus service to the airport.
Melbourne turned out better than I possibly could have imagined. I don’t know if Americans are able to completely go all out in the way that my relatives did. My dad was able to speak with his cousins, some of whom he had not spoken to in over half a century. Hopefully technology will allow us to keep the momentum we’ve been able to build over the past ten days, and keep in closer touch.
