Super early flight from Brisbane, but got to Melbourne around 8am, then travelled into the city for a bit to explore the city with the 14 hour layover. Super grateful to Kate (from Segment 1 of the cruise) for showing me her hometown!
Brisbane Airport
Got there early cause my AirBnB host told me I needed to get there super early to avoid missing my flight. Got there and there was a whole lot of people just waiting around because….there were no staff anywhere to be seen to check people in or do security, etc. So we all waited about an hour for staff to show up. Check in and security were a breeze and eventually got on the plane with no real hassle. Had a couple rows of seats to myself on this super early flight.
Melbourne Airport
Unfortunately for me, it turned out that since my layover was 14 hours long and my next flight was at 12AM the next day, I wouldn’t be able to just send my bags through, so I had to take them with me, and then dropped the bags at a locker nearby so I didn’t have to lug them everywhere in the city.
Took the SkyBus to the city, which was pretty easy, and emerged in the heart of the city.
Southern Cross
Got out in Southern Cross station and was amused to find a gigantic Pokemon card vending machine with a gigantic pikachu in there as well…was tempted to buy Nate some cards, but ended up refraining…this time.
Also saw another robot bubble tea, but much less options on this one as well. The night owl in me though is intrigued by the concept of 24/7 bubble tea though…maybe we need Royal to get one of these for the ship.
Walked by a donut shop as well, and took all my will power not to buy (and eat) all the donuts.
Degraves Street
Headed over to Degraves street to squat for a bit and grab a coffee and some wifi to edit pictures, and found this little street filled with people all out and about grabbing brunch…on a weekday. Lovely atmosphere, and I walked down the street to a tiny cafe with less people (and a plug) and did some work for a couple hours.
Easey’s (Lunch)
Kate (whom I met on the ship from Segment 1 of the cruise) met me at the little cafe, and we set off around town. We ended up walking over to Easey’s for lunch.
Really cool restaurant that took old train cars and put them on the roof of a building. Nice view, and really just a different experience to also walk up the stairs to get up there. Had a korean fried chicken burger and also tots with mac and cheese (which was as amazing as it sounds and looks).
Melbourne City
After lunch, we walked around the city a bit, taking in the views, and Kate was an excellent guide in her own city (if you asked me to take you around Minneapolis I’d be useless, St. Louis, I’d be even more useless).
NGV (National Gallery of Victoria)
We ended up at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) for a bit as we walked around looking at an excellent collection of Australian art and artifacts.
Hosier Lane
After the NGV, we headed across the street to visit Hosier Lane and take in a little bit of street art as well. Really interesting, and the “meh” particularly struck me for some reason…
Happy Hour
Met up with some of Kate’s friends before their P!nk concert, and did a little happy hour before I needed to head to the airport anyway. Found another cider that was not terrible.
Flight to Indonesia
Headed back to the airport and collected my luggage and checked back in. I was super tired, but knew I had a long flight to catch up on sleep anyway.
Was also super annoyed at check in when the counter asked to weigh my carryon, and then tell me I had to put some of my gear inside my checkin bag. I’ve had maybe 20 flights at this point with all my gear and never once been asked to weigh it. To be fair, it is the rule, but I’ve been carrying apparently around 20 pounds of stuff on my back. They made me take my laptop out and check it, so I also couldn’t do any photo editing or uploading while I waited for my flights.
7.5hr flight to Kuala Lumpur and then another quick hop over to Kuala Namu.
Was pleasantly surprised to find that my grand plan worked and I ended up with one of the few rows to myself for the long flight across to Sumatra. Some more art decorated a whole row of pandas as I was walking to my gate.
Vibe Check
4 parts joy
1 part anger – for airport shenanigans
Feedback
Leave a comment or question if you have any thoughts! Anything you want to know about as we go around the world? Any things you want to share as feedback, or any images that particularly spoke to you. I’ll try to read all of them as time permits!
Matti 
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