Melbourne - Brunswick St and City

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Up earlyish start today as going to Brunswick Street with Sarah. We had a walk around all the many boutiques, this is what i like about Melbourne, all the quirky shops and things! We stopped in one of the many cafes before leaving Sarah at lunchtime and walking into town.
We walked down Brunswick Street, Gisborne Street, MacArthur Street ( where the museum is ) onto Collin's Street in the CBD ( Central Buisness Centre ). We met Lee as Chris had left his jumper in his car and it was quite breezy today, a little cold! We then walked down Exhibition Street, along Flinders Lane and took a turn down Hosier Lane, this is where the famous graffiti's are, they are everywhere, all over the walls, street, bins... but amazing art!
Then we went on the hunt for the Greyhound Bus Station. According to the one map i had it was jut around the corner, then i looked at another map and it was somewhere else. SO i thought it would be best to ask someone form the tourist Information Centre - surely they would know! They said it was on this main High Street, so we walked about 15 mins and found that it was for another type of Bus group - again, great information on public transport!!!! We asked the girl at the desk here who pointed us in the right direction!!! Mad - it took us about 1hr30 to find it in total!!!!! But hey, we got to see Melbourne at least!
So we arrived at Southern Cross Station, booked our tickets ready for Sydney. We then walked back down Bourke Street but turned left onto Niagara Lane to find some stairway!We found the "organisation for Future good steps" as the book put it! It is a sculptural intervention, a non-functional staicase elevated from the ground that has no beginning nor end. It is part of the "Lanes" of Melbourne, a series of lanes with random arty thngs! Quite fun trying to find them!
We had some fresh sushi for lunch - it is sooo much cheaper here! Then headed for the other part of the "Lanes" between Flinders Street and Collins Street. We went through the Royal Arcade to get to the lanes, it is so nice as it really feels like the old part of the city, a must do if ever you come! There are lot's of quirky shops and food places all along the lanes, some shops are tiny! We came out by Flinders Station, the oldest in the City - a huge yellow building!
Then we went to Federation Square, went to the Ian Potter building and saw the Rennie Ellis exhibition on the 3rd floor. Lot's of art and photo's throughout the building. After a couple of hours we went looking for the "lane" with the bells. This is on Union Lane, a long street with bells along and as you walk past the sensors make the bells ring!!!
We met Sarah for dinner at 6 and she took us into Chinatown to a place called Shang Hai Dumplings. It's a fantastic chinese restaurant with dumplings ( as the name suggests!! ) and dim-sum. Really cheap and fast service, they bring you plates of these little dumpling things, you order them as 12 or 24! You can eat so much and have a drink for around $10 each - Great Place!
We went back to Sarah's and got ready to go out. Going to see a band at "the Retreat", a pub around the corner. The first band playing was called Alcolretz, they were a rock'n'roll band, really good and then the main band came on....said they played Rock'n'roll but it was more like 2 chinese brothers, who couldn't really sing playing the guitars!!!! But funny to watch!!! Met Sarah's friends Kate and her flatmate Alana and her friend Rachel.

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Photos

The random stairway!
One of the "lanes"

One of the University's buildings
I love the architecture here!

Dinner made by Sarah
Georgia, Chris, Sarah and Me ( from left clockwise )