"A side trip to Melbourne." Melbourne by Dreks

On my last week in Australia I pushed through with my planned 4-day side trip to Melbourne. I initially intended to take a round trip XPT Express train from Sydney but was wooed by the poster ads to fly via Virgin Blue @ AUD85.00. When I purchased my one-way air ticket (not exactly the usual airplane ticket but an internet computer print-out only) I ended up paying a higher fare @ AUD112.00 for a weekend flight plus some hidden charges. (My return trip via XPT was only AUD66.00 for a 7-day advance purchase.) On Saturday, August 04, 2003 at 5:30am, I made my way out of a friends’ house at Mt. Druitt, NSW for my 7:15am flight. Unfortunately, I was completely unaware of the interruption of train service from Mt. Druitt for several hours due to some track maintenance and was instead rerouted for a longer bus ride. In short, I missed my flight but gratefully accommodated for a seat in the next flight @ 8:45am – probably some poor soul must have missed his flight too! :-)

Touch down in Melbourne came 45 minutes later with the flight attendant cheerfully announcing a better climate at 10 degrees! I was surprised in disbelief and worried about my nose since it bled regularly in Sydney at 16deg - but there was no turning back!