We arrived in Melbourne on a small commuter jet late in the evening and had to catch the Skybus (double-decker) and buy a MyKi (the Melbourne public transportation card). I gotta say, Australia has their transportation game down!  The Skybus took us to the central station where we got onto a train that took us to the appropriate station for us to catch our tram that would take us to our hosts apartment.

At last we made it, stop 20. We were finally there and could rest and meet our hosts. However, as soon as I got off the tram, I realized that I had left my personal bag on my seat!! So that it is clear just how bad this was, my bag contained: all of our extra cash, my macbook pro, go pro and miscellaneous gear, bathroom amenities, GPS and all of our charging cords. I immediately began to run after the tram in my flip flops along with my fully packed 40 liter Kelty backpack. Talk about looking foolish.  After yelling out to Ashley to stay there and running after the tram for 5 rather large blocks in full sprint through red and green traffic lights, the tram made a right hand turn and was out of sight.  I turned back to look for Ashley and she was nowhere to be seen.

Completely out of breath, I began my long, sad, slow walk back towards her.  Me and Ash hoped for the best and hopped on a few other trams to ask about the proper procedure for a lost bag and were met with a grim, “get on or get off”.  Feeling sad, mad and frustrated we walked to our hosts home. Curtis and Roxanne were our first Airbnb experience and they were very kind. We told them about our lost bag and they immediately began making phone calls and looking up the tram times along with explaining the routes and the tram system to us.

After grabbing a pint with Curtis and speaking out some of my grief, I remembered the GPS that was still in the bag.  As soon as we got home Ashley pinged it and got a response.  It was 8 miles away.  To be sure, we pinged it again and it was dead on.  I knew that if we wanted to see our bag again we had to move now, so without skipping a beat, me and Ash headed out.  We jumped on the next tram and off we went.  Roughly 45 minutes later we arrived at the fabled neighborhood that contained our lost bag and I was pumped.  My mind was teaming with all the possible ways this was going to play out.  Was it going to be a kid in a frat house, a homeless guy squatting or maybe just an old lady?  Ultimately it didn’t matter, I was getting my bag back.

The door bell was loud and long, pouring out “ring ding, ding dong, ping pong ding dong etc…” like old church bells.  I must have rung it 12 times before I began knocking.  I guess I should mention it was 1:45AM!! (But it was now or never)  After about 10 minutes of ringing and knocking, a soft voice came through the door, “do we know you?”  A short, civilized conversation ensued through the closed door for about 3 minutes then she said, “Oh you left your bag on the tram!” Then outstepped a tiny 4’ Indian woman.  Never turning the light on she handed over my bag, explaining how her husband had found it and that they were going to turn it in to the police station in the morning.  For their honesty and willingness to answer at that hour, I gave them $200USD.  Totally worth it!!  We thanked her and her husband (who was not there?) and we were on our way back.