Down Under Day 10

In the morning, we got up at a fairly leisurely pace. I am almost always the first one to wake up in our couple dyad. My diurnal rhythm is quite locked in. I believe Deborah would sleep 20 hours per day, the way Australian koalas do, if she were able to. We did our morning ablutions, with me taking a shower after Deborah, while she got ready for the day.

When we descended to the ground floor, on our way to breakfast, we stopped at the front desk to see about a room upgrade - or at least a bed upgrade, because (as mentioned in yesterday's post) the room we had been given was tiny and the bed was miniscule. The hotel was able to give us a complimentary upgrade to a room with a bigger bed, at no extra cost, the transition to which we made later in the day, after getting back from our planned excursion, a tour of Melbourne's infamous arcades and lanes.

We had our usual breakfast fare of vegan tofu scramble on toast for me and vegan muesli with fruit and yog(h)urt for Deborah. For beverages, I had a soy mocha coffee and Deborah had a chamomile tea. I was not particularly enamoured of the hotel staff working the morning shift. They gave off faint attitudes that were off putting. I also continue to not be enamoured of the Ovolo hotel chain in general, with their militancy about what's included and allowed in the "complimentary" breakfast. A credible and profitable hotel should offer a self serve continental breakfast, and when they don't, it conveys a distrust in their customers. But enough said about that.

I was very excited to use Melbourne's excellent public transport system, which we did after breakfast. There was a train station (South Yarra) very close to the hotel, with trains running frequently, inbound and outbound from Flinders Street Station in downtown Melbourne. In fact, one of the train lines passing through the South Yarra station was the Sandringham line, which we would take out to Brighton Beach later in the week. I was very excited about that, because I could show Deborah where I lived in the 80s.

We walked to the train station and caught the next available train down to Flinders Street Station. We were slated to meet our tour guide for the Melbourne Iconic Arcades and Lanes tour in front of the Time Out Cafe in Federation Square, across from Flinders Street Station. We got there a bit early, anticipating (but not experiencing) delays or difficulties in getting there. So, we ordered hot beverages at the cafe and used the loo.

The arcades and lanes tour was quite enjoyable for Deborah, despite a lot of walking. Lanes are the equivalent of alleys in the US. But these Melbourne lanes are also home to some infamous street art (aka, graffiti) by infamous street artists. Arcades are the equivalent of mini malls in the US. But these Melbourne mini malls are decorated with interesting things of historical significance and host numerous shoppes, boutiques, and cafes. Deborah was a trooper, surviving a three hour walking tour, with only a 30 minute coffee break at a cafe in the middle of the tour.

Even after the tour was done, we stayed downtown for a while. Deborah shopped for clothes at a chic clothing store called Alpha 360 (A360), and she bought a few things. We found a vegan friendly Indian curry restaurant called Om Vegetarian and ate a late lunch of vegan curries with sides of rice and naan bread. We also scored some vegan Ben and Jerry's ice cream and, on a whimsy, I got a shave (complete with straight razor) at a barbershop that was down at the end of one of the aforementioned lanes.

We got home in the early evening, quite pooped out. Deborah was spent and did not want to go to the hotel restaurant, so we ordered room service, which was actually very good, especially the vegan dumplings. I think we watched a couple episodes of Squid Game on Deborah's tablet and then went to sleep.

Fin.