After getting up at 5:30 on Sunday morning and spending about 12 1/2 hours on the train, we were a bit exhausted when we finally reached Melbourne. I have to admit our first experiences were not good and if we hadn't just spent so much time in the train, the girls and I would have went right back "home" (luckily there is only a morning and an evening train to Sydney and we already missed the train back). Ray and I thought that the public transportation was much worse than in Sydney. We mostly travelled by Tram, the people that worked at the station were grudgingly helpful and when we finally found the right tram it left right after unloading passengers. I told Ray I think he saw all of our luggage and didn't want to wait for us to get on as the tram light was green! There were also a couple of german tourists that were left behind too, so it wasn't just us. :-) After standing around waiting for about 15 minutes for the next tram, a couple of young women took pity on us and informed us that we can actually take any tram to where we were going, that all but the #1 tram went to the university (and our apartment was a stop on the way). So we finally made it to our apartment at 10:00pm (thanks to a nice mother& son who helped us figure out which stop to get off at).
Then we had to figure out how to get in! Intercom system, after hours operator with an Australian & Indian? accent, key to the lock box, key to the building, ride up the elevator with 12 pieces of luggage, dropped everything in the living room, walked through to claim bedrooms, tried to figure out phone to call for take-out, call to after hours operator again, phone still didn't work. About this time Hanna discovers ants and one of the girls loses it. Starts sobbing and says she wants to go home (not mentioning any names)! We managed to get everybody calm enough and said we would get a new apartment in the morning. Looking through the entire apartment, I couldn't believe we didn't notice the ants right away we walked in. They were everywhere! On the kitchen cupboards, kitchen floor, living room floor, hallway, bathroom and even a couple found in the beds. Since the majority were in the kitchen and dining room, we figured we could co-exist until morning. Upon awakening I discovered they were now in a perfect line from Hanna's bedroom all the way to the kitchen. I was almost admiring them and thought maybe we could co-exist, that is, until I saw the mass of them all over one cupboard door and I decided we really needed to get another place. The girls couldn't get out fast enough! The apartment people were very helpful and relocated us one floor up where we are happy to report we found only 3 ants in Hanna's closet. Overall, we were quite happy with our apartment. I loved the maid service, everybody was very friendly and helpful and we had much more space than our place in Sydney! Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures so I'll see if I can find some stock photos of the apartment online.
