How It All Began
In January 2017, I visited Melbourne for the second time in my life. My first visit was a decade ago in 2007, fresh out of university and about to enter the workforce. That trip was special because it was the first time I watched a concert overseas. I was so fortunate to have caught the Dave Matthews Band with their original lineup – Dave, Carter, Stefan, Boyd and LeRoi (RIP). It would kick start my love of flying overseas to watch concerts and it was the first of several to come.
This trip in 2017 would prove to be equally memorable because I would be watching the Quarter Final matches of the Australian Open (AO), one of the four major Grand Slam tournaments in tennis. Hopefully, with a stroke of luck, I’d get the chance to watch Roger Federer play too. It’s not guaranteed because it depends on his progress in the tournament.
Roger Federer is one of my sporting idols. Together with a couple of my fellow Federer fans YS (the OG Federer fan), YE and his wife KL, we went to Melbourne to catch the AO because it is the closest Grand Slam to home – the others are Wimbledon in London, Roland Garros in Paris and the US Open in New York.
With Federer inching ever closer to retirement, we decided that we should delay no further or we may never get to watch our idol in action ever again – or at least, not at the peak of his powers. It was especially exciting because he was returning in 2018 as the defending champion, after a fairytale 2017 when he won two Slams (AO and Wimbledon) and a slew of other titles. Hopefully we’ll get to watch Federer performing at his very best in Melbourne.
For our AO Quarter Finals match tickets, we each paid A$442 (S$484) for Category 2 seats for the Night session, held at Rod Laver Arena. These were for two nights on 23 and 24 January 2018. Category 1 seats cost A$720 and Super Row seats cost A$858, which were beyond our budget.
We deduced that these QF matches were our best chances of watching Federer in action and playing against formidable opponents. Besides the fact that we needed Federer to progress to the QF in the first place, we also needed him to play at Rod Laver Arena and during the Night session as well. There were other QF matches being played during the Day sessions at Rod Laver Arena, and also at Margaret Court Arena, so there were a few uncertainties. But judging by his status as the defending champion, the probability of Federer playing the Night session at Rod Laver Arena was the highest. So we kept our fingers crossed as we purchased our match tickets on 7 October 2017.
For my flight to Melbourne, I redeemed my Citibank Miles and paid an additional S$217.15 for my Scoot/Tigerair return ticket. I then paid a further S$108 for 20kg checked baggage both ways, so my total airfare was S$325.15.
For our accommodation, YE booked an Airbnb apartment for the four of us. It was a condominium unit located near Queen Victoria Market and it cost S$312/pax for six nights, or about S$52 per pax per night. Quite a good deal.
Airbnb link: https://www.airbnb.com.sg/rooms/20864648?s=51
With that, we’re all set for Melbourne and the AO!
Exchange rate: A$1 = S$1.0279
Time difference: Melbourne is 3 hours ahead of Singapore
20 January 2018, Saturday
My Scoot/Tigerair flight was scheduled to depart from Singapore at 12:25am. It was a direct 7 hour 40 min flight to Melbourne. I was alone as YE and KL took a separate SQ flight while YS would only arrive Melbourne two days after us.
I was assigned a normal aisle seat but a lady asked me if I could swap seats with her sister so they could sit together. Her sister had an exit row seat that came with extra legroom, so I gladly obliged. The only downside was that the air-conditioning at my new seat was very strong, and it was located near the toilet so it was a little noisy when other passengers opened and closed the door. I ended up buying a beef lasagna (S$12) and hot coffee (S$4) just because I was so cold and hungry. I did not sleep at all throughout the flight and was groggy when I landed at Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport at 11am local time.
The first thing I did after coming out of the Arrival hall was to buy a local SIM card. I saw many people queuing at an Optus shop so I joined the queue. Optus has a 7-day prepaid SIM card with 15GB data for only A$10, which was a great deal!
I then bought a Myki card from a vending machine so that I could take public transport. The Myki is a stored value card that works like our ez-link card in Singapore. It costs A$6 to purchase and it is non-refundable. Strictly speaking, it is refundable, but you have to mail in a letter to ask for a refund so it’s really troublesome and not practical to do so. I paid a total of A$20 for the card (with A$14 added value) because the machine does not give change, and I did not have smaller notes available.
From the airport, most people would take the SkyBus express service to the city. The ticket costs about A$19, depending on your destination. I went for a cheaper option and took the public bus instead. At 12:23pm, I took bus 901 from the airport to Broadmeadows station, where I then changed to a Metro train to take me to the city. The entire journey cost me only A$4.30.
The bus ride from the airport to Broadmeadows took 15 minutes. From Broadmeadows, I hopped on to a Metro train. Perhaps because I was so sleepy, I actually went in the wrong direction! Fortunately, I realised my mistake immediately and alighted at the next stop. I had to wait another 15 minutes for the train to arrive. Being lost is part of the journey sometimes.
After the unexpected delay, I finally arrived at Melbourne Central station at 1:56pm. From there, it was a 10-minute walk to our Airbnb apartment at A’Beckett Street. YE and KL had arrived just before me so they had already checked in. The apartment was a condominium unit on the 41st floor of the 60-storey building. It was clean and well furnished, with a great view of Queen Victoria Market (QVM) and beyond.
After settling down and freshening up, the three of us headed out to explore the city. YE and KL have been to Melbourne several times before so they were pretty familiar with the place. I was happy to take a backseat and let them lead the way.
The first place we visited was Queen Victoria Market (https://qvm.com.au/), less than 10 minutes away on foot. When we arrived at 2:45pm, it was 15 minutes to closing time so we didn’t get to see much of it.
The iconic market is over 140 years old and there are more than 600 stalls spread over seven hectares. It is where you can find the freshest fruits and vegetables, as well as clothing and souvenirs. QVM is open five days a week (closed on Mondays and Wednesdays) but it is occasionally open at night during the summer. Visit the website https://thenightmarket.com.au for opening dates and times.
After the short visit to QVM, we walked to the nearby Seven Seeds café (https://sevenseeds.com.au/) for our first proper meal of the day. I had a strong cup of coffee and an Eggs Benedict waffle with pulled pork, which was fantastic. It was such a satisfying meal.
With food in our stomachs, we were energised and we then took a leisurely stroll towards Flinders Street station. Along the way, we passed by landmarks like the State Library of Victoria, Chinatown, Bourke Street, the iconic former General Post Office (GPO) building that is now occupied by H&M, and St. Paul’s Cathedral.
It was a Saturday afternoon and a fine day to be out because we heard that the previous two days were scorching hot (40 degrees Celcius). It was a comparatively cool 25 degrees today so many of the locals took the opportunity to come out and play.
We reached Flinders Street station at about 6:15pm. Flinders Street station is arguably Melbourne’s most recognisable landmark. So much so that Federer once featured the station’s iconic image on his Nike shoe for the AO tournament.
Here’s a little background history on Flinders Street. In front of St. Paul’s Cathedral at Swanston Street, there is a statue of Matthew Flinders, an English navigator and cartographer. He was the leader of the first circumnavigation of Australia and he identified it as a continent. For his contribution, Flinders Street is named after him.
At the Melbourne Visitor Centre at Federation Square, we were pleased to see a giant billboard image of Federer, capturing the moment he beat Nadal and won the AO last year. Just seeing the billboard got us pretty pumped up!
We then walked along the banks of the Yarra River towards the AO grounds at Melbourne Park. We were not watching our QF matches till Tuesday but we came here today to check out the scene and soak up the atmosphere. The nearer we got, we could definitely feel the excitement growing in the air. Finally, we reached the AO fan festival area.
We made a beeline for the official AO Shop. When we entered, we were like little kids in a toy shop. There were all sorts of AO merchandise and we had a hard time deciding which T-shirt design to get. Decisions, decisions!
We then went to the AO Festival, which was free entry to everyone, so members of the public without AO tickets can enter too. The atmosphere was great. The sun was setting and we had a nice view of the Melbourne city skyline here. There was also a grass slope where people could sit and watch the live matches being played on a “big screen”. I use inverted commas because the screen wasn’t big enough, and the background music was too loud and drowned out the commentary. But nonetheless, the vibe was great.
And of course, it’s not a party without booze. The Festival Bar did roaring business all evening, as people bought trays of beer to share with their friends. We bought a couple of beers ourselves, and settled down on the grass slope to watch the match between Angelique Kerber and Maria Sharapova on the screen. After that match, we got hungry again so we went to buy some food. The grilled barramundi fish was surprisingly very good.
We then continued watching the Federer vs Richard Gasquet match. However, at 8:30pm, they stopped showing the match on the big screen for some unknown reason. We waited for a while but it never came back, so we gave it up as a bad job. It was getting colder so we decided to head back to our apartment to continue watching the match.
We retraced our steps and reached our apartment about half an hour later. I was totally shagged out by then, because I hadn’t slept all day. It’s been a good first day so far. More to come!