To the Melbourne Zoo!
We’d promised to take Duncan to the zoo last school holidays, but unfortunately a coworker’s childbirth was around that time and I didn’t really feel comfortable taking time off until it was well and truly past school holidays, so we didn’t get to go.
I didn’t want to make that mistake again, so I scheduled a week off immediately after the trip to Budapest, coinciding with Duncan’s first week of school holidays, which worked out perfectly (apart from the fact I didn’t know what to do with my time in between that!).
Sabriena booked a motel within walking distance of the zoo, for two nights. We drove down there leaving early on Wednesday, and wandered around Melbourne for the evening before having dinner at the Pancake Parlor. I tell myself that this is OK, because we walked a whopping 11KM that day if Google is to be believed.
To sleep in the motel, for an absolutely shit night’s sleep. I’m not sure if I was still not quite over the jet lag (which hit me much harder this year!) or if something else woke me up, but I absolutely couldn’t sleep for about three hours starting from around 2am, so I felt awful in the morning.
Thankfully some breakfast and a cup of coffee fixed that, and we had a great day at the zoo. Missing last school holidays turned out to be a blessing, as you simply couldn’t have asked for a nicer day weather-wise.
Sabriena and I were both significantly heavier the last time we were at the Melbourne zoo, and it showed. We stayed very late last time, were utterly exhausted, and by no means saw everything. This time around, we finished everything (including the temporary Dinosaur-themed attraction) around 4pm, including the customary stroll through each of the gift shops. Perhaps the cooler weather may have helped also?
Back to the motel again, having walked probably another 7KM, and tried to decide what to have for dinner. The restaurant in the hotel didn’t have terribly promising reviews, I didn’t feel like walking anywhere and I certainly didn’t want to drive in peak-hour traffic in the middle of Melbourne looking for parking.
Borrowing again from my experiences in Budapest, we decided to give one of those food delivery services eventually settling on the burger place “New York Minute” via UberEats. The process was pleasant enough and I didn’t have to leave the room which was excellent - a presumably-student brought it by way of bicycle quite quickly.
Another broken night’s sleep, which I diagnosed at low-confidence as being related to the light outside the room shining in the window around the blackout curtains, and we woke up early ready to head home. Quickly down to the nearest Krispy Kreme shop for a small dose of Americana that Sabriena indulges in every chance we get, and we set off before stopping at Ballarat on the way home.
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