Four methods of transportation in one day

I am working in Melbourne. I have a two month contract so I've got no idea what happens after, but I do have work. However, in order to do this comfortably, I'm living at Dad & Carols... which means I have a two-hour, one-way commute.

Yep, that's right, I'm spending 4 hours a day going to and from work.

It takes me ~10 mins to drive to the Vline train station, then it's a 40 min trip to Southern Cross stn, then I transfer to a Met train, which takes ~15min to get to Glenferrie stn, then I have a 15 min tram trip, and then a 15 min walk. With time for transfers in between each leg, excepting the walk, it makes for a mighty lot of time staring out the window.

Melbourne reminds me a lot of London though, so I'm feeling less disoriented than I'd thought. And Melbourne's transport systems is no where near as polluted so that is definitely a plus. Just think of spending four hours a day on the tube!! Fawrrr!

The down side is that when it rains here, you don't get damp, you get drenched, as happened to me last night. Mind you, walking through the rain doesn't bother me as much any more. I used to be almost phobic of getting wet when living in Adelaide, but since I was drizzled on so often in London, I have become inured.

Interestingly, there seem to be communities on the train. I catch the same VLine service every morning, so I'm slowly becoming more familiar with the habitual passengers. There are groups of students as you'd expect, but several groups of professionals for various offices meet on the platform and talk animatedly to each other all the way in, and also a gaggle of between ten and fifteen well-dressed Philippineo women also gather and chat. There are a couple of guys who take their bikes to the luggage section, and a lovely plump tranny and her friend who get on mid-route and sit next to me and who have the most amazing fingernails I've ever seen.

The passengers are all pretty friendly in the main too. Melton is on the edge of Melbourne, and I don't know if it's the relative near-by location to country areas or it's socio-economic composition, but I've had many people say hello to me - which is extremely weird coming as I recently have from London - but without the generally very annoying attempts at follow up conversation afterwards.

Strange, but kind of nice. Still. FOUR HOURS. I hope I get used to it quickly.