Yeah I know, blog fail. But let me tell you, when you're travelling, internet is surprisingly hard to come by. But I'm determined to complete my travel diary. And then I can end the narration of my Aussie adventures by beginning my American adventures, which start in August! Might have to change the name of the blog though...
Some of the Great Barrier Reef from the plane window |
After touch down in Melbourne it's a 10 minute bus ride into the city itself. I met an old friend at Flinders Station, and took the tram to Toorak where she lives. I love meeting up with people who actually live in these places, so that I can catch a glimpse of what it would be like to live there. My friend Danielle cycles into work, which I would not do as there are too many inclines for me, been there done that almost had a heart attack. Her apartment is great, unlike anywhere I've lived which is either a bit run down or has lots of borrowed furniture, so it always feels temporary. We went to a restaurant on the corner of Cliff Street and Chapel Street for dinner and ate our pizzas off a space invaders arcade game which doubled as a table, fantastic!
Now, you're vacationing in Melbourne, where do you stay? The Travelodge on Southbank is where we stayed, and it is fantastic for accessing the city. It is directly next the the Eureka Building, the tallest building in Melbourne (great landmark for finding the place) and you have the Southgate Precinct right on your doorstep for really nice restaurants (I mean really nice, and pricey, but then they are right next to the river overlooking the city skyline. The Darling Harbour of Melbourne really). Oh yeah, I said "we" stayed there. That's because my dad flew in to join my on my Aussie adventure at this point! A lot of people have said to me "you're holidaying with your dad? I could never do that with my dad." Well, my dad is awesome, and we like the same things when it comes to holidays, and he didn't want to stay in any hostels which suited me fine since my Cairns experience so it was hotels all the way from there on (well, one exception, but we'll get to that).
On my third day and his first, we took the free circle tram to the opposite side of the city, where we decided to jump off at the Melbourne Gaol (which I always pronounce 'goal', can't help it) which is pretty interesting, seeing as we easily spent 2 hours there, reading about some of the convicts and why they'd been there, and learning about Ned Kelly who I'd heard of but knew very little about. The top 2 floors (there are 3, it's quite big! And not all of it is still standing) had some rooms dedicated to art.... which was sometimes nice, and sometimes a bit weird.
Something you might not think to do but you should is go to the Public Library and make your way up to the exhibition landings (they are landings really, not rooms). The view from there into the library itself is fantastic, very NY I think, and the exhibitions themselves were definitely interesting with some original pieces like drawings and letters and books. We then hopped onto the tram again and did an entire circle of the city. The free circle tram tells you what is interesting at each of its stops, so if you like something, you can just get off and explore. Pretty snazzy, London needs a few of them!
The next day we went on a tour of the State Parliament building. I know, suddenly my trip has gone very cultural instead of lazing by a pool and just eating all the time. The tour was really good, it occurs whenever Parliament isn't sitting so it's good to check beforehand. Parliament had been there the previous day, and so we managed to fit it into our last day. The talk was great, and our guide was very knowledgeable, answering every question we aimed at him (sounds a bit aggressive that, but we were nice, promise). It is a very grand place, although not on the scale of the Houses of Parliament in London, but maybe that's more akin to Canberra Parliament houses? Not sure as I didn't make it there. I even got to sit in the speakers chair.
Back in the city, we wandered around the streets, through the Arcade which has some fantastic cafes and restaurants, down the graffiti alley which dad actually liked after he was convinced that we weren't going to get caught up in a load of drug deals. And then we took a tram to St Kilda. If I were you, mystery vacationer stranger, I wouldn't really be bothered with St Kilda unless you wanted to go to Luna Park or desperately needed a beach. Especially in winter, it's nothing special, it was only that Dad had the opportunity of coming to work in Melbourne a few years ago and as he and mum had flown over to check it out, he was keen to show me around the suburbs they'd seen and get my approval for having turned Melbourne down. It's always hard to turn down a dream, but yes, Melbourne doesn't seem to have the suburbs of Brisbane or Sydney so in terms of where to live, I wouldn't completely rule it out, but it wouldn't convince me to come over without having another good look round first. I still remember watching the tv program Wanted Down Under and the only episode I actually saw where the entire family didn't like the place was the one where they went to Melbourne. I loved the city, because I liked cities, but I couldn't afford to live directly in it, so it loses the appeal. But St Kilda does have some lovely bakeries, and I do love my pastry, so....
I digress, after lunch in St Kilda we took a tram and a train to find the stretch of beach huts which are always on postcards. And they are quite confusing to find if you don't know where they are as there are no signs, so here's a clue. Once out of the train station, walk to the right along the coastline, and eventually you'll see them. In the distance. And then you have to get over there, which is a bit of a walk. Probably a nice walk if it was nice and sunny and warm, but Melbourne was cold and windy and rained on and off the whole time we were there so I just used the zoom of my camera to make it look like we were right beside them.
Once back in the city, we finally headed to Federation Square which I'd been aiming to do but never got round to doing. It would definitely be a place I'd like to sit around with my friends in the spring or summer, and the buildings are definitely interesting. Still, anything outside is quite difficult to truly enjoy when it's cold. I definitely travelled at the wrong time for Melbourne. That's not to say my overall impression of the place was a negative one. I definitely do like Melbourne, it has an interesting history and the cultural things are worth a visit. The coffee is fantastic, according to my dad as I don't like coffee, and the views from the Eureka Skydeck of the city were fantastic. We went at night when the whole city glittered, and it was stunning. Perhaps a city worth another visit, when it's a bit warmer.
Taken with my dad's camera, not a stock image :) |
TTFN!
Next up: Adelaide
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