We went to the land down under and no, we didn’t have any vegemite. (I think the only place I saw any was on  a kids meal sandwich (with cheese–ick!) at the Melbourne Museum.

But, we did try to have many “native” experiences and blend in as much as possible. Though, since we didn’t eat at McDonalds or Subway or frequent the 7-Eleven every day, we may have failed.

I guess I’ll start at the beginning…it’s a very good place to start. We left at 11:30 pm on Thursday and arrived in Sydney at 6 am on Saturday.

Brit eagerly awaiting the flight

Brit did fairly well on the flight. It wasn’t that he was bored or restless, he was tired and had a hard time sleeping. So much for the medicine. And, he hated the “bassinet” we got for him. He was way too big for it and even if he was asleep, he’d wake up and cry. So, as long as we had a movie for him to watch or things to color, he was fine. And, unfortunately, Mark’s mom Karen wasn’t able to sit by us. For some reason they put her almost as far from us as possible on a non-full flight! But, she did get some sleep, so maybe it wasn’t so bad for her. It was nice having her there to help with Brit though.

I must say also–we’re in love. With VAustralia. Oh, it was nice. Even in regular economy. There was room, and the food was totally edible and the flight attendants were so great too. With in-seat entertainment there was always something to do too. Added note–in Australia, it’s required for “lap children” to have their own seat belt. They have what looks like a portable seat belt with a loop on it. It goes around the child, then the parent’s seatbelt goes through the loop, so the child can’t fly away if there’s a crash. Why the heck is that not required in the US? Activist friends–this is a great cause, go to work!

Going through customs in Sydney was fine, except we had to throw away all the yummy fruit and nuts we’d gotten for the plane that we didn’t eat. Boo! After arriving in Melbourne, we learn my suitcase didn’t make the flight and it would be coming on the next one. Seriously? We had lunch, waited and then took the awesome public transportation system to the city. It was Brit’s first bus ride, and when I told him we were waiting for the bus, he signed it. I had no idea he knew it (though it’s on the movie). I guess he never needed it till now.

The Grand Mercure Melbourne. Our home for a week. Nice enough. Kitchen, living room, bedroom–and a bathroom attached. We’re not ones to vacation on a vacation (sorry Karen) so after settling in a bit, we went out to experience the city.

Oh, what a city it is. The Paris of the Southern Hemisphere it’s called.

We were right across the street from this:

Flinders St. Station

A huge train station that went all over. Their transportation system made me totally hate LA.  Above ground trams up all the major streets take you all over the city and beyond. Sigh. With a stroller, I wouldn’t be able to do it easily by myself, but it was so great. Everything is very walkable too. It reminded me of a European city, like London, but a lot less crowded and stuffy…and cleaner! It’s not very old, so it has a lot of modern architecture as well.

Melbourne CBD Map

The purple outline/rectangle is the CBD (we think Central Business District) and it’s pretty much where we were all week, with a few outliers. Our hotel was on Flinders and Elizabeth (approximately) Look at all those parks and gardens! Sigh.

After getting a couple of maps and grabbing dinner at an Indian place by the hotel we were exhausted and made it an early night!