Terrible Tiger & Marvellous Melbourne

During Martin’s week off, we boarded the worst budget airline I have yet to experience, Tiger airways, to fly to Melbourne.  Now I’m not a particularly tall person, but even my knees were jammed up against the seat in front of me.  

When we touched down, rather than walking into a clean, air-conditioned airport, we were herded into a dark, wooden shed, with just a creaky conveyor belt whirring round - baggage re-claim.  I don’t think Tiger could afford to rent space in the actual airport building.

Now moving on to Melbourne itself.  Despite the first 2 days of grey, British weather, I really warmed to the place.  Melbourne is Sydney’s quirky older sister. It’s got a far more cultural, historical and arty vibe than super-slick Sydney.  

One of the 25 cups of coffee consumed in Melbourne

It has some great little areas, namely South Yarra and St Kilda and a real café culture, which suited me down to the ground.  In fact, most of our time in Melbourne was spent eating or drinking.

We didn’t do anything too crazy, other than randomly go to an Indie night, which was full of 18 year olds and danced our socks off until 4am to Ash, Shed 7, Cast and Kula Shaker.  It was a brilliant Saturday night, followed by a painful Sunday morning.

Flying home with Tiger was definitely not plain sailing.  First our flight didn't appear to exist, then they showed 'flight boarding' on the monitor, quickly followed by 'flight closed' so we thought we missed the flight.  Further incorrect announcements followed, until we were finally onboard and in the air 2 hours after our scheduled time of departure.  The Indie-induced hangover did not help matters.