For The Attention Of All You Lucky Buggers

Left South East Asia on a 9 hour flight from Bangkok to Melbourne. On arrival, it looked like we would never get out the airport, almost 2 hours waiting for luggage and getting through customs. Eventually boarded the Skybus to Southern Cross Station for 15 Australian dollars each, just under 7 pounds. This also includes a free shuttle to your accommodation, so after a short hop on the bus, we were dropped off at the Miami Hotel in Hawke Street. This place is a cross between a hotel and hostel, I think most people would be happy with the hostel but not with the hotel. We paid 59 AU$ for our basic room without bathroom, about 28 pounds. We thought this was expensive until we
found out the cost of other places in the city.




After settling in, we went exploring, and our first impressions are very good, this seems an attractive, clean, multicultural city with wide
streets, beautiful parks, extensive tram network, and a myriad of cafes/restaurants, some of which are alongside the river and revamped docks.


Having spent so much time in Asia we are finding it hard to adjust to the cost of living here, food, drink, accommodation, and transport all seems extortionate. There's no way that we can continue as before, no more eating out every evening. At times we will have to kick into poor student backpacker mode, buying cereal, beans, crackers, tins of custard, type of thing, although it's not as if supermarket food or carry out food establishments are cheap either. The exchange rate is only 2.2 Australian Dollars to the Pound.

One thing for sure, there's plenty to see in Melbourne. A 15 minute walk from our accommodation takes you to the free city tram line, which
takes you to all of the major sites in the centre. We've utilised these burgundy coloured carriages so often that we could become tour guides. On your left is Flagstaff Gardens, on your right is one of the oldest houses in Melbourne, built in 1835, so on, & so forth.



When turning up at Federation Square we discovered it was the opening day of the Australian Open Tennis Tournament. In the square there's a ticket office and large screen showing matches. Felt we had to go whilst in Melbourne, and it would be good to see Andy Murray
as well, except he was knocked out in the first day, couldn't believe it!!!!


Lots of museums to visit, first stop the Police Museum where we seen Ned Kelly's famous body armour, then a short walk along Flinders Street to the interesting Immigration Museum. The first one was free, the second costing 6 AU$ each, a tip if travelling from Bangkok, get yourself a fake student ID at the Khoa San Rd for free entry and travel discounts in Australia, unfortunately we never thought of it!!!
Spent the rest of the day, and into the evening sunbathing on the banks of the Yarra River. Cos it's the height of summer in Australia it doesn't get dark until after 9 o'clock.


The Royal Botanical Gardens are great!!! A large park with ponds, wildlife, fauna, and flora from all over the world. We're told it is the best in the Southern Hemisphere. We spent all afternoon there, had a picnic, and sunbathed on the grass. Afterwards we went to the Victoria Night Market, which had stalls selling food from countries as diverse as Germany, Turkey, Lebanon, and Africa. It was so busy you could hardly move. The smell of all the food was tempting, but we decided against it, didn't fancy a long wait for a meal in a plastic container, then having to find somewhere to eat amongst the crowd.

One of the best museums we've ever visited has got to be the Melbourne Museum. Spent 5 hours enjoying various exhibits, lots of which are interactive. The galleries range from Body & Mind to the Aboriginal Centre, and Rainforest. For a museum that doesn't possess any truly famous treasures it makes the most of what it has. We only left 'cos it was closing time, and 6 AU$ entrance fee is great value.







Even although Andy Murray had got himself knocked out in the first round, we still intended to spend a day at the Australian Open Tennis, Competition, so on day 5 we joined the queue at the ticket office in Federation Square. A day pass cost 30 AU$ each, however this doesn't allow access to the two main courts, Vodaphone Arena, and Rod Laver Arena. No sooner had we joined the queue when a young Australian couple approached, asking, if we wanted to buy their tickets for half price. They could no longer use them, as they had to travel home. At first, we were wary, but they seemed geniune. Better still, their tickets were for the Rod Laver Arena. The girl told us that she paid 70 AU$ each for them, and would accept 70 for both. Eileen talked her down to 55AU$, so we ended up in great seats at the best court watching three top matches with No 1 seed Justine Henin, No 3 seed Jelena Jankovic, and mens No 2 seed Rafael Nadal. The atmosphere, and stadium was really impressive, especially with the new true blue surface Plexicushion. Turns out the price for a ticket on the day was 80 AU$ each, so instead of paying 160(73pounds) we paid 55 dollars(25pounds).



We caught one of the special trams taking everyone to the tournament, thought is was funny when the driver announced over the speaker " FOR ALL YOU LUCKY BUGGERS GOING TO THE TENNIS, yours is the next stop".




Two other great places to visit in Melbourne are the NGV (National Gallery of Victoria) and the State Library of Victoria, both of which are free. The NGV on the south side of the river has many galleries full of paintings by famous artists. Next door, on Sundays they also hold a good arts & craft fair at the Arts Centre.

The State Library is an impressive building, similiar in size to our own Mitchell Library. As well as displays of manuscripts, early Melbourne paintings, and temporary exhibitions, it possesses massive reading rooms equipped a plentiful supply of computers. In fact, this is where I'm writing this blog. 4AU$ per hour is the cheapest internet I've found, so this is a welcome bonus to discover free internet access in the library. I should point out however, that you are supposed to be limited to 15 minutes. Few seem to adhere to it, especially in the quieter first floor reading room.

A feature of Melbourne is the lack of Jaywalking, apparently they dish out fines on the spot. Was strange at first, standing at the lights with no traffic in sight, everyone else does it, so NO WORRIES!!!, as they say in Aussie Land.
After looking at various travel options, we've decided to head for Sydney on an overnight train. Due to maintainence work on the line they were offering half price fares of 66AU$(30pounds) until the 24th January. When we booked for the 23rd they informed us that the work was finished, therefore we wouldn't have to change to a bus for part of the journey. Pleased with that outcome!!!!.






Endured a few days of typical Scottish weather, wind & rain, however the sun is back out, so off on a tram to the seaside. A day ticket on the Transport system costs 6'50AU$(3pounds). Melbourne has many beaches on its doorstep, we stopped at St Kilda, an attractive resort with a pier, marina, funfair, and a main street lined with cafes specialising in coffee & cakes. Spent most of the time lazing near the beach at a park with juice & cake. Oh yes! and we saw a little penguin.

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