Day 14: Midnight ride to Melbourne and one Long Day

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This will be a long blog starting at 12AM on April 18 and not ending until 11PM of the same day. The blog starts with me going to Canberra greyhound bus station. I thought Canberra seemed like a boring city but on my way to the bus station the streets were filled with college age kids running around and partying in the streets. A lot of people were shouting at me on my way to the bus station.

Taking a bus in Cambodia can be dangerous and taking a bus in Canada and USA is not comfortable. I was not looking forward to the Australian bus but it was comfortable and it had charging ports at each seat which helped a lot. I was able to sleep through most of the ride so I woke up in Melbourne just as we were passing the ferris wheel in the city. The bus pulled into a very large station which also doubles as a train station. My hostel for the next few days was called Discovery Melbourne. Strangely enough even thought I would be paying for 3 nights, I would only be spending one night at the hostel. Hostel was chosen because it was close to the bus station and it was right across the street from the car rental agency. It also had a good reputation on hostelbooker and I only needed it for luggage storage. I got there by walking a few blocks and taking a shortcut through a park. Hostel was about $30 a night and they charged 2.5% on top of all that for paying with a credit card. They were also good enough to let me check in early, probably because my room was empty. I will note that not all hostels will do that for you and some will charge you extra for checking in early. Another nice feature of this hostel was free breakfast. It was not fancy, just cereal and bread and various spreads but it fills you up.

It was raining a bit but I wanted to do the free walking tour so with my mini umbrella I headed off to the nearby library. I take a lot of free walking tours in cities across the world because the tour guides are usually very entertaining and informative. Tour was with I'm Free Tours which runs tours in Sydney and Melbourne. Today's tour guide was an university student named Charlotte. She was a Melbourne local and had lived in Melbourne her whole life. It was raining steadily at that point so she told us we would be doing a truncated tour this time which skipped the parks because of the rain. The tour is about 3 hours long and it does go for a few kilometers through the city so bring good shoes. We heard about some old stories about bandits in Melbourne and how the city was founded and the history of the city. An interesting part of the city is Chinatown because it is one of the oldest parts of the city. Chinese families have been living in Melbourne since the gold rush back in the mid 1800's. There was some beautiful graffiti in Chinatown as well and I must admit it was strange seeing Chinese people walking around with Aussie accents. We saw Eureka tower, Flinder station, Parliament, Yarra river, and a lot of other landmarks. Charlotte I will say was both funny and informative which is always a good combination for a tour guide. It was an informative walk through Melbourne and I learned a lot more than I would have on my own. Tour ended near Flinder Station and I decided to walk back to the hostel because I had not oriented myself with the transit system. As it turns out Melbourne transit system is fairly easy to navigate but would save that for my last day. On my way back to the hostel I went past the car rental agency, Atlas Rental and I thought about going in just to confirm my rental would be ready. I decided against it because I am trying not to worry too much while on vacation. I was meeting a friend in Ballarat that evening so I had to head out by 5PM. I got back to the hostel at 2:30PM so I decided to get some sleep because I had a lot of driving in the evening. Bed in hostel was comfortable so I slept well.

Woke up at 4:30PM and headed across the street to Atlas Car Rental and at that point I wondered if I was just cursed concerning rentals. The rental place was closed and apparently had closed at 3PM so if I had checked on my rental at 2:30PM I would have found this out. I called the rental agency and found out not only was this location closed but my rental was actually at the location near the airport. I told them specifically I had asked for the location in the city but since it was only the parking company I was speaking to there was no way to get the car into the city. I would have to get to the airport by taxi. It was easy enough to find a taxi and get to the airport but it was another $40 expense that I did not need. For the record the car rental agency did reimburse me for the cost of the taxi ride.

The lady at the car rental agency was quite helpful because I also did not get a gps. I was able to use my cellphone as a gps and she gave me a car charger with USB ports. I started out a bit later than I liked and I drove as fast I could to Ballarat. My friend Megan had invited me to dinner and see a show called the Sound and Light Show in Ballarat. The show started at 7PM and by going fast I got there around 6:20PM. I quickly found Megan and after a hug hello we were off to eat dinner at a nearby Kambei restaurant. Quick background on Megan, like most of my catchups I had met her on my topdeck tour last year. I remember her most because she was one of 5 or 6 people including myself who were over 30 on a bus of young people. She was also one of the most fun and open person I met on that tour. She was easy to get along with and friendly with everyone and just delightful to have on the bus. So once we got there we had just enough time for a quick dinner. We ate the sushi dinner special which was rice, soup and several sushi dishes. As we ate and chatted I thought it was weird it was my 2nd sushi meal since I got to Australia. It was nice conversation we were having but it was time to see the show. My way of thanking Megan for the invite and the tickets to the show, I paid for dinner which was reasonably price considering how good it was.

We got there in time for the show and sat down at the theatre. I took a quick peek at the tickets Megan had and I was surprised at the price. I told her it was too much and I wanted to reimburse her but to just to show how great a lady she is, she refused and insisted it was her treat. I was not sure what the show was about but the opening introduction told me it was the story of the Eureka rebellion, which was a famous gold rebellion in the 1850's. I was expecting a theatre show with people in period costumes but to my surprise there were no live actors only voices and sound and light effects, hence the name the sound and light shows. After the first scene which was the voice of the authority and the voice of the miner talking about the rebellion. We went outside to a life size replica of 1850's Ballarat. The voices told about life during this period. We walked around the town as the voices talked around us. I must admit I had trouble seeing the speakers and it was almost like people were talking out of the lights. The next part is where we all got on trams and drove to another part of the town. We learned more about the cause of the rebellion. During these period enormous amounts of gold were being mined but the government was not getting a lot of revenue. They than created a gold mining license which was 10 shillings a month but this applied irregardless if miners found gold or not. This was the cause of resentment and a source of corruption as police got bonuses for hunting down tax dodgers. The precise spark of the rebellion was when one of the miners was killed during an altercation at the Eureka hotel and the suspect who was the owner of the hotel was at first not charged because of his political connections. The ensuing riot sparked the rebellion as miners started to demand representation and eventually created their own organization centered on the Southern Cross flag. The special effects were mesmerizing and it looked like the Eureka hotel was actually on fire. The climax of the evening was the end of the rebellion and it was loud with lots of gunfire and screaming. The rebellion ended in blood and the government regained control. A sign of how much public support the rebels had, all the miners who were charged with treason were acquitted by a jury of their peers. At the end we saw our only actor who was a gentleman in period costume and wished us a pleasant evening.

Show ran for about 90 minutes and it by itself is worth a trip to Ballarat. Megan was also nice enough to put me up for the night so that I could get a fast start on my journey on the Great Ocean Road. I followed Megan back to her house, which she shared with her parents on the edge of Ballarat. It was a very nice country home and I was quite impressed. I was expecting to sleep on the couch but I had a whole room to myself (thanks Megan). We stayed up for awhile and talked about everything under the sun. One of the things I did not like about the Topdeck tour was that it was hard to have one on one conversations with people. That is why these catchups were so nice because I got to have long conversations with people that I did not have on the bus. After awhile it was time for me to sleep because I had a long way to go tomorrow. Said goodnight to Megan and settled onto a comfy bed for the night. Tomorrow 6 hours on the road to see the 12 Apostles.

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Photos

My friend Megan
She was not heavy but I really have to work on my upper body strength. Great lady to let me pick her up like this LOL

I Love Fire
I Love Fire