*waves sleepily from Melbourne*

[alias_sqbr]

Holiday is going better than I feared it might! I am still a little croaky, and have needed a LOT of naps, but have managed to meet everyone I was intending to have met so far, and done the other things on my to do list (eat sorbet and try on ridiculous hats)

And now some details, possibly useful to anyone interested in visiting Melbourne in a wheelchair.

The Mercure Welcome is very nicely situated in the middle of Chinatown, with lots of food places a supermarket and an accessible tram stop nearby. Unfortuntately the corridoors and rooms are rather narrow which has been annoying in the wheelchair, we had to move the bed to even get it in the room.

The wheelchair from Rehab Rental was very cheap and is...very cheap, it's literally a manual wheelchair with a motor. Which is fine for my purposes but would not suit anyone who minds feeling every. single. bump. or intends to try and make it over even tiny steps without a push from a burly husband.

yiduiqie took me to the very nice Casa Del Gelato for sorbet, it's not acccessible and we shall ignore how we got there without me buying a Myki ticket but the sorbet was lovely as was the conversation.

mandragora2003 took us to the Lindt cafe which was moderately wheelchair accessible but of course filled with dairy, Cam enjoyed his choc orange milkshake. We then went to a pub on Flinders (Something and Jackson?) which was accessible and friendly but had fairly meh food, and the VERY innaccessible Melbourne Hatters which had many expensive but pretty fedoras etc. Then I went with kerravonsen to Koko Black which was wheelchair accessible. For dinner Cam and I wandered Chinatown and ended up at a little Japanese place near the massive China Bar, something like Kokoros? They were accessible and quite nice and didn't need a booking. They replaced my teriyaki chicken when it turned out to have milky mashed potato for no charge. (Not a dish I usually have to check for dairy!)

Today we went to China Bar for lunch, a big Chinese buffet. The food was ok and it was only $33, we both enjoyed ourselves though I sighed over the massive display of tiny creamy cakes and satisfied myself with pstacios and mediocre rockmelon for dessert. Very meat focussed, which I enjoyed, but not a lot of vegetarian options (half the cakes even had gelatin) Then we met up with my sister and her partner (who gets the big sister tick of approval. She wants to make queer video games too!) and now I am killing time until I feel justified in eating dinner and can feed my flight rising dragons WHICH IS NOW.

So, quickly before I go off to eat sandwiches and carrots (oh, being near a supermarket that's open all hours is so great): tomorrow I meet with my friend Geneveieve none of you know and then lizbee at an apparently wheelchair AND gluten-free friendly Japanese place, which should be fun, then on Tuesday we go home and SLEEP (Cam is asleep right now. Preparing for a move and then getting a cold and then going on holiday has wiped us both out)

Comments

[lilacsigil]

Glad you're enjoying Victoria!

[leecetheartist]

Huh, classic mashed potatoes have both butter and milk...

[alias_sqbr]

It may have had both, all I know is it contained dairy.

[alias_sqbr]

Thanks!

[kerravonsen]

Yes, but one doesn't expect potatoes of any kind with Asian food....

[kerravonsen]

8-)

[pebblerocker]

Ugh, Myki. I don't know why Melbourne has FABULOUS TRAINS and then denies them to anyone who doesn't live there. We looked into buying a Myki last time we were there; we'd have to buy the card outright and then put credit on it (I think in $10 increments so there would be money left over after the planned trip) and if we came back to Melbourne again we could still use it unless it had been more than a year since we'd last used it in which case we'd have to reactivate it. We heard of a special Visitors' Pass which gave unrestricted access to all Melbourne's public transport, but it was $50 which is far more than the fare into the city (better to throw away a partly-used Myki) and in any case you had to buy it at Federation Square, which would mean going on the train into the city anyway...

...so we hung around relatives' house in the suburbs, drove around a little in a borrowed car, and didn't spend any of our tourist dollars in downtown Melbourne at all.

[alias_sqbr]

I'm not sure I'd call the trains FABULOUS (I went on one with a scooter at Worldcon and the "accessibility" is dubious) but denying them to visitors (who want to see the sights and are unlikely to have cars!) is a very unfortunate choice. I had been warned so deliberately chose a hotel which was "walking" distance from everywhere I wanted to go but not everyone has that option.