Why am I back in Melbourne again only a week after I left it? These days it can be only one thing: A concert.
The Marvel Studios Infinity Saga Concert Experience to be precise. I booked it before the announcement that they were doing the same concert in Sydney.
I would have cancelled, except that I actually felt like going. I rather enjoyed last week’s brief Melbourne sojourn.
Initially I thought about flying but the weather can be rather variable this time of year and tickets expensive. After our trip I wanted to drive, to stop at the little places we skipped, take it at a leisurely pace. Just me, the car and music.
B didn’t like that idea. So it’s back on the train. Oh damn it, I’ll save a day and a night’s accommodation by taking the overnight XPT down to Melbourne.
Fortunately there’s one seat in first class left and it is a single seat just opposite the crew rest in the buffet car. I wish that you could select your seats online. I’d pick this one again! No seat companions.
When you are travelling overnight the extra legroom and recline in first class comes in handy, along with a slightly higher chance of the passengers not being hauled off for some crime.
I have dinner at home and then catch the train from Padstow to Central, then swap to the XPT. I’m happy with my seat. There’s a similar one behind me which stays free for the entire trip.
I’ve written about the XPT ride to Melbourne in enough detail before. I decide that I will spend it either watching videos on my devices or trying to sleep.
We depart almost on time, proceed down the way I came, Padstow station racing by.
I finish watching my one and a half episodes of Alien Earth on the iPad. Sleeping is sporadic. An inflatable neck pillow helps.
In between I gaze out the window. Goulburn’s Rocky Hill War Memorial tower is a lighthouse over an inland city sea, its light flashing, spinning across the sleeping city where the only ships are in the dreams of its residents. The stars are bright around the Yass Valley and I watch the blinking lights of an aircraft pass overhead.
Later, when most others are asleep, I buy a hot chocolate and fruit salad from the buffet just behind me. The chocolate is mediocre, the fruit salad refreshing.
We pass into Victoria after Albury. There are flashes in the sky, then some dramatic bolts of lightning hit the ground as we race through northern Victoria, the storm providing the night’s entertainment.
I fall asleep again when we pass the storm’s bounds as dawn arrives outside. On our way into Melbourne I spot kangaroos and bouncing goats with kids in tow.
After arrival I grab a jelly slice, the only one I see, from a cafe, then catch a train one stop further to Flinders Street Station. Fortunately my hotel, just across the bridge, can accommodate my request for an early check-in.
After a shower, I sleep until 11 am. Then I wake up reluctantly, cross the bridge and have some okay, not great, Japanese food for lunch.
I debate catching the train to Stony Point, where I’ve never been before, but another 4 hours on trains seems too much for this trip. Instead I walk down to the Immigration Museum, somewhere I had hoped to take the others last trip.
An interesting exhibit describing the length of the journeys from clipper sailing ships to a 747. The final voyage listed, that of a refugee from Afghanistan, is the longest and most complicated voyage of all.
In this time of anti-immigration sentiment, the immigrants’ stories are moving, but the Indigenous history, their displacement from their land and lack of rights, makes even more of an impact.
Viewing the White Australia displays and hearing people bring up those same arguments now is disgusting. They were wrong then, they are still wrong now.
As a salve to the soul, there is an exhibition, entitled “Joy”. I especially like Clint’s Video Store, wish that I could show Alex what hiring movies was like before. There was something tangibly exciting from choosing a video as opposed to streaming one of thousands online. Exciting, but not better.
I walk to Myer, visit the toy section, notice that I could still buy a Star Wars figurine. Nostalgia. From Muji in the Emporium, I purchase some snacks for the ride home.
Then I walk all the way to Melbourne Central. I have nothing to buy, but I do notice there’s a Marrybrown fast food outlet from Malaysia, like we bought Alex a meal from in Taiping.
Walking back I stop by ACMI at Federation Square. Once again I am mesmerised by the dual forward and reverse video of train tracks in Daniel Cook’s Phantom Ride. I also watch Ayoung Kim’s Delivery Dancer’s Arc: 0° Receiver science fiction exhibit until closing time.
On the way back to the hotel I discover that Southgate now has a Pappa Rich, purchase a nasi lemak bungkus for dinner, though I end up microwaving it for breakfast the next day.
I have another sleep, then head out for my concert, which I thoroughly enjoy. It’s after 10 pm by the time I return. Looking out across the city skyline I think back to the Immigration Museum. I have spent far longer living outside of Melbourne than in my place of birth, but I cannot escape the connection I feel with it. For all its flaws, I still love this city.
I wake at 6 am, the time I have mentally set myself to get up. I used the bathroom, heat up my breakfast, pack and then check-out just after 7.
I decide to walk to Southern Cross, get some exercise before a day of sitting. It’s a fresh morning. I had briefly considered flying home instead of taking the train, but the forecast of turbulence along the route dissuaded me.
Amongst the purple and yellow V/Line trains, a historic DERM diesel railcar in blue and yellow Victorian Railways livery makes an appearance.y blue, yellow and white XPT sits at platform one, ready to take us home.
My seat companion is an elderly man with a European accent, hard of hearing. I see him scribbling mathematics on a sheet of paper. Unfortunately my fears are confirmed and he appears to be a crank who is trying to disprove relativity. He keeps to himself though.
There are no storms on the run up through the Victorian countryside today. The sky soon clears to a perfect blue.
After the crews change at Albury, an announcement is made for the hot lunch. The choices are roast lamb with veges, chicken sausages with mash and gravy, chicken tikka marsala with rice, Thai green vegetable curry with rice, cheese and macaroni.
I decide to give the tikka marsala a go. It is served after we leave Wagga Wagga, a bread roll on the side. It looks like a typical pre-prepared meal like you get in a supermarket freezer, but it tasted okay I suppose.
I fall asleep, wake up when we have already entered the Bethungra Rail Spiral, gaining altitude by spiraling up the hill, through shattered rock gorges and tunnels. It is a change from the rolling green fields before and after.
I listen to music, read, nap. The day is too bright as me beautiful to watch a video. The Riverina countryside, the Southwest Slopes have a beauty about it. Bucolic, sometimes a bit harsh, historic, sometimes abandoned, other times actively rural.
It feels deserved of more attention and I feel like driving through, stopping as I go.
I see a feral man at Harden station, spot llamas towards Yass, a mob of grey kangaroos watching the day pass, a boulder strewn hill with telecommunications towers at it’s peak, the slow stately dance of wind turbines.
The bitter stench of a passing cabin crew member who has obviously been smoking when the passengers (thankfully) can’t.
I read my book. It is rare to have this much undisturbed time. I have videos to watch, but the movie outside the window is enough of a distraction.
Are those apple blossoms around Goulburn? History and industry around the Southern Highlands. The ride goes on and on. I’d like to get off at Campbelltown so I don’t need to backtrack. But trackwork. So we are taking a different route to Central via Liverpool.
We arrive at Central almost half an hour later than the already late schedule. I race down to platform 24, certain that I will miss the Cronulla service which is sitting at the platform, doors closed. Then they open again. Eventually we depart ten minutes after we were scheduled to.
My family meet me at the station. We stop by McDonald’s on the way home so I can grab some dinner and they a late snack, as they are the only place still open after 9 pm. It’s appropriate as I was admiring the brightly lit fast food restaurants as we passed into the night.
It is good to be back. I’m so tired and my bottom feels numb from so much sitting. But I do love Melbourne and I’ve seen so many places that I would like to stop and visit along the way. It’s been a MARVELlous trip!