It was tough leaving bed the morning after Australia Day, but there was one more thing I had to check off my list. The Sydney Tower is – are you ready for these stats – 4 times the height of the Opera house, 2 times the height of the Harbour Bridge, the same height as the Eiffel Tower, the highest point in Sydney, and the highest observation deck in the southern hemisphere. There will be a quiz in a few days. With 360-degree views of the city, it was the perfect way to get my bearings on our wanderings of the previous 2 days.

Arrival into Melbourne was initially prevented by storm clouds. The plane was low on fuel and, though disgruntled passengers might’ve disagreed, it was thought smarter to stop in Tasmania than to circle aimlessly and risk plummeting from the sky. After hearing news of the diversion, I turned to Tanya to share an optimistic result: “At least I’ll get another passport stamp!” Not only were we never let off the plane, but – more importantly – Tasmania isn’t a separate country.

Luckily we liked the guy sitting next to us, and the delay gave us more time to chat. More time for the Melburnian to offer words of wisdom: “If you look for Sydney in Melbourne, you’ll be disappointed. And vice versa. I think of them as the same city for business, and this is practically a bus (gesturing to the plane), but they’re really not. Sydney is a one-night stand; Melbourne is a relationship.” I suppose Melbourne was playing hard to get.

Our hotel was once again in Chinatown, where dancing dragons and firecrackers made us thoroughly aware of the Chinese New Year. When we arrived at the hotel, the lady asked for my surname to check us in. She then laughed a bit and said, “that’s so funny” in a valley girl sort of way. A bit confused and a bit offended, I asked her why. She replied as if it was obvious, “Cause you’re in Melbourne. Mr. Melbourne is in Melbourne.” I agreed that would be funny, but had to disappoint her with Melvoin.

We decided to tackle my namesake city by foot, and spent the entire first day with a crumpled street map and the acceptance that we'd get lost. Our crumpled street map soon became a wet street map ("4 seasons in 1 day”), but it was easy to find our way from Federation Square. The big dome of nearby Flinders St Station was hard to miss, as was a soaring sculpture near the National Gallery of Victoria (we felt cultured by going in the lobby, but never entered the museum). Across the road we spotted Young and Jackson’s – the city’s oldest hotel. We ventured a few blocks away from the square to mosey down narrow alleys reminiscent of Florence. A café we chose at random proved why Melbourne is known for its coffee.

We thought the various smells of Queen Victoria Market would end our day, but a call from Luke and Frances livened our evening. We had hit it off with the couple in Fiji, and emailed them when we knew we’d be in their hometown. They had just returned from the islands the night before and called us frantically to make sure we hadn’t already left. They picked us up 10 minutes later. We caught up on old times (aka 2 weeks ago) and explored their favorite parts of the city.

Although we covered a good distance on foot, the Great Ocean Road was out of our league. The route follows the curving coast of southern Australia, and, much like South Africa’s Garden Route, offers back-to-back tourist attractions. We headed out of the city with our eye on The Twelve Apostles – a collection of ocean-dwelling rock formations separated from the eroding bluff. While 6 can normally be seen from the viewing platform, only one lonely apostle was visible yesterday. John? Matthew? Who knows? The thick fog made me doubt the existence of an ocean, let alone the rest of the gang. We headed back to the city soon after, and picked up our Last Supper in Melbourne on the way to the Australian Open.

The blue and white we searched for in the sky was found in abundance at the Rod Laver Arena. It was a big fat Greek final, with underdog Marcos Baghdatis facing world number one Federer. While I’d bet that half of the flag-wavers couldn’t find Cyprus on a map, Australia does have the 2nd largest population of Greeks (2nd only to Greece). It was a tennis match for fans of the sport, a parade of national pride for fans of the players. I heard a group of teenage girls exclaim: “I think we just got a goal!”

Melbourne and I got along very well, but I simply can’t do a long-distance relationship right now. We broke up this morning before my flight to Ayers Rock.

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