Drama Queen

I just got back from my holiday...
There was just a long weekend here in Australia... we had 1 extra holiday on Friday for ANZAC day...

Me and my other 2 friend went to Melbourne just for a short vacation but there were problems... A LOT of problems I would say when we were there...

OK here is the story...

- Day 1 -

I went to Melbourne on Friday morning... what I would normally do is to do online check-in on the previous day for both going and going back from the trip but there was problem with the booking (since Jetstar rescheduled the confirm flight) so I couldn't do the online check-in for the trip going from Melbourne to Sydney...
So since I could only print 1 boarding pass, I haven't checked-in for the trip going back to Sydney and planned to check in at Melbourne Avalon airport...

The problem began when we arrived at Melbourne... I was sick when I reached Melbourne. I think it was because I didn't sleep well on Thursday night...the weather was pretty bad too, it was showering all day and we didn't realise that most shops would be closed on ANZAC day, so we had to change our plan.
We went to Sovereign Hill, Ballarat straight away after finding out that most of the shops are closed. We have changed our plan already...
We could just spend 2 hrs at Sovereign Hills while we actually need more time to explore the whole Sovereign Hill. Well I know, it was really a problem but I found that it wasn't easy for us going there either coz we went to the wrong direction so we had to spend another hour just to go back and go to the right one...

Day one hasn't finished yet. Going back from the Sovereign Hill, we decided to go back to the hotel first and then have dinner...
We planned like going to jazz bar, cafes, etc but we couldn't really do all that :(
OK, it was quite difficult to find out "serviced apartment", and once we found it, apparently we got the wrong place, the lady in the reception desk told us that we booked a motel and not a serviced apartment...
When I knew it, I really set my expectation low and I was quite disappointed since I thought I really got a good price for a serviced apartment... maybe I should come to my senses more eh hehe...

We then went to this place that was recommended by my friend, Rococo... the place was cozy, the food was alright and it was OK...no problem :)

- Day 2 -

Day 2 was the best among the 3 days I've spent in Melbourne... We went to Lygon St and had a really nice gelato :D durian and roche... what a brilliant combination hehehe... it wasn't really a combination, both of them just taste NICE and 1 cup has 2 flavours, that's where the brilliant combination comes from :)

We also spent the day in Chapel St, accompanying my friends doing boots hunting and I just spent my day there looking at good stuff... It was just unfortunate that I am not a money machine sigh...I just could look at them... and prolly touch them hahahaha...

We went to my fave Korean place in Carnegie, Kimchi Grandma... We ordered a little too much but it was nice... the kimchi cigae was a bit too spicy though hehehe...

After that, we went to Nam Loong to buy some buns and went to Casino...
It was really hard to find parking at the Casino coz we tried to get free parking spot and there was almost to space for us, especially when we didn't really know the area well...
I just forgot most of the street's name there... well not to blame myself, it's been 3 yrs since I left Melbourne...

We spent like 1 hr just to find parking...what a fool.. :|
Then we went to casino, met my uni friend and went home...
There was no major problem on day 2...

- Day 3 -

-DOCKLAND-

-SouthGate-

Here comes day 3, the real problematic day :((((
The day started with Dockland... I wanted to see dockland so we went there and took some pictures, we planned to have breakfast there but no cafe has opened yet... :((( So I asked my friends to go to cafes around southgate....

So we went to Southgate... but then my friend asked us to have yum cha...she said she had a nice yum cha in this restaurant called "Red Emperor" in Southgate so we went there...
We spent a lot of time there, like 1 hr or so in yum cha... we talked a lot and ate a lot and we didn't realise the clock kept ticking... until we paid the bill and realised that it was 1 o'clock :| DA** ITTTTTT our flight is at 13.30 :|||||
So we ran back to the car and I drove to Avalon at a constant 110% speed limit :| It was really hectic and panicking time...

We reached the airport at 13.30 but we were late...the plan has gone :((( I felt like crying at that point coz I thought OMG...I would have to buy another plane ticket :(
We checked all airlines' websites through the internet cafe but most flights were fully booked.
The ones that were available cost like $340-$400 ish... I thought it was a rip off so I then suggested "Let's drive back to Sydney" ... I felt silly now coz it was quite a crazy idea... for someone like me who has never driven out of town before... but in my mind, I had only 1 thing, I NEED TO GO BACK TO SYDNEY, I'VE GOT WORKS TO DO... SO we then decided to drive back to Sydney, coz going back by bus would also cost $300 and you will reach Sydney at 12 noon while we could go back to Sydney at around 3 am if we drive... so we picked the cheapest option, drive back to Sydney :|

My friend tried to hire the car back through the phone but Hertz said someone else has queued for that car...we've got Toyota Prius btw...
Then they allocated us a Toyota Corolla instead, we agreed to it and went back to the Hertz desk @ the airport... We told the guy and the guy said we could just use our car and we don't have to pay anything since we've paid for 3 days renting anyway, what they'll do is to change the return place for that car...so we were lucky to get the prius back considering it consumes less fuel :) and it's the best car to use for long distance trip...

We agreed to take turns driving back to Sydney so I think that is fine :)
Well I'll take this as a lesson learnt or just take this as an experience for myself... when else I would drive from Melbourne to Canberra and Canberra to Sydney NON STOP :)

*Me so tired already*

Anyway, this is my favorite noodle soup when I was in Melbourne