We went to the US Consulate office in Melbourne yesterday to organise our visas. Found the multi-storey building without any hassles, and went inside. As we walked into the foyer, a large apparently-permanent sign was prominently displayed to alert us that if we wanted to go to the US Consulate office, we would have to notify the foyer guard first.

Since the main thing you hear on the news about a consulate is that it has been bombed or people taken hostage, I figured this must have been a security precaution to prevent unwanted sorts from making it into the offices. Still, a little odd that you’d be allowed right into the foyer - a decent bomb would take the entire building down, if you were of the suicide-bomber persuasion.

As we went with the guard to the lift so we could go to the offices on the 6th floor, I decided to ask if that was indeed the reason he was there - to prevent mad terrorists from getting to the consulate staff. He gave me a gentle smile, and assured me it was nothing so grand or interesting - the lift is broken, and requires the guard to insert a key so it will go past the 5th floor, that’s all.

Ah well, not that interesting after all, but I guess it’s better to have the guard there for that reason than them believing there to be a realistic chance of a bomb-toting terrorist storming the building…

Incidentally, this is “Part 1″ because we never got the visa - we needed more documentation to make them happy to let us into the country.

Categories: Travel, Odyssey 2001