Karen and Malc's Gap Years: Melbourne

5th - 12th Dec 2011

Well we got away just as it started to get really cold and the first snows had fallen in Scotland. It was extremely quiet and very civilised at terminal 5……………………pity because our flight went from terminal 3 as we found out when we tried to check in!! “Who told you it went from here?” said the good-looking British Airways bloke that I asked………………..that would be my husband who used to work for British Airways!! Luckily it was only one stop on the Heathrow Express and no harm done.

It was a very nice 22 hour flight in Business Class with a brief stop to clean the plane and refuel. Unfortunately the flights to Melbourne from Sydney had been severely disrupted due to storms in Perth the previous day so we landed at Sydney at 6am and didn’t get out to Melbourne until 6 hours later but it was only a 1 hour flight and we were settled into our apartment by 4pm – minus our luggage though which wasn’t on the same flight! That arrived almost 36 hours late!

We stayed in a very posh apartment in one of Melbourne's suburbs which we booked through Airbnb. Mia who owned the apartment was lovely and met us when we arrived and then left us to make ourselves at home in her flat.

Malc in the foyer of our Melbourne apartment

Melbourne is a lovely city, very easy to get around with trams and trains, and so many different places to visit. We had a trip down the river on our first day and spent some time walking along the river Yarra.