Rough Start in Melbourne

The flight arrived about 8:05 am, but it took more than an hour to get thru immigrations and customs. I filled out my arrival form in pencil and had to do it over. That put me at the back of the line. Then I was in the quarantine line. I am always so fearful of what to declare because if you don’t declare something and they find it, you get an automatic fine. So I declared that I had boots with soil on them & goods over $900. Since my computer & cameras will be leaving Australia with me, they don’t count, but I declared them anyway. I showed the inspector my boots. He made a joke about lifting my foot higher. It was not a problem. I was free to go.

I came to Melbourne with no arrangements for a place to stay. I figured I’d wing it. Back in Christchurch the day before, I went to the YHA to book a bed in Melbourne, but the girl there said she couldn’t because the system takes 2 days to make reservations. That seemed odd to me, but I didn’t press the issue. I’d wing it. I took the $15 shuttle bus that placed me downtown at the Southern Cross Station. I picked up a few hostel brochures and headed out to find them.

After quite a walk weighed down with my two backpacks, I found one. They had a bed for one night, but then was full for the next week. There was a major sporting event in less than a week. The Melbourne Cup, a horse race. This was the worse time to wing it. I then decided to pop into an internet café to try hostel booking site, but found that almost everywhere was full. There was, however, still room at the YHA, so I decided to book 5 nights there. The booking is in real time, not 2 days.

The bank refused the transaction. I used a different card and it went thru. I had received an email from the bank, indicating that they had frozen my account because of unusual activities. Two emails down was a message from my mother warning me about identity theft. I started racking my brain to remember when I might have been careless with my number. But, I guess anytime you use a card, you take some risk.

I took a look at the map to determine where the Oasis YHA was located. I had a long walk across the city, out of the city to get there. I was drenched with sweat, as I was still wearing my fleece, and it was warm. I was told that Australia has lots of flies, but I wasn’t expecting them in the city. One followed me all the way. Of course, it didn’t help that it had been more than 24 hours since my last shower, and I was wearing the same clothes. I had spent the night at the airport, because my flight was at 6:45am with 4:45am check-in.

When I finally arrived at the Oasis YHA, they could not find my name in the system. I was not booked at the Oasis, I was book at Melbourne Metro YHA. I had a drink of water and started walking again. Finally I was checked in and had to figure out how to use the pay phone and calling card to call the bank. It turns out that someone was using my card number in Atlanta Georgia. I was worried that I would have trouble convincing the bank that I, the person in Australia, was the real card holder. But they were nice and reasonable, and sent a new card to me here in Australia.

I had no plans for Melbourne. I figured I’d just stay here a few weeks, then decide what to do. I hope things pick up from here.