Blogs from CBD, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Oceania - page 4

So this blog covers a bunch of random things Shelagh and I have been up to since our Darwin Blog. We plan to do a fair bit of diving while we are here so we signed up to do our Advanced Course. The course was held in Manly. It didn’t get off to a great start. We were told to arrive at 8 am. Some others were told 8:30. It was 10 am before we did anything other than fill out a form. 10:30 before we left the shop…to go to another location to get our gear. Around 11 when we reached the beach to start the course. Not so impressed. We had to do 5 dives. The first 3 were on day one just in shallow water at Little Manly. We did a dive to ... read more

Melbourne is the capital city of the Australian state of Victoria. It is also has the second most populated city in the entire country. Melbournehas received a number of prestigious accolades over the year from a number of sources, including having been designated The World's Most Livable City in both 2011 and 2012 by the Economist Group's Intelligence Unit. Today, Melbourne is known as the Cultural Capital of Australia and has lots to offer residents and tourists alike. In fact, the city attracts over 15 million tourists each year. If you find yourself as a tourist in Melbourne, we're going to show you some of the sights and attractions that are not to be missed. Here they are – in no particular order. Eureka Skydeck The Eureka Skydeck is located inside the Eureka Tower and is ... read more

11/2 We got up early and walked to Flinders Street for the Neighbours tour we had booked for this morning. We bought a snack and drink from a little shop and found our way to Bunyip's office and waited for the tour. We all left on a little Neighbours bus with our crazy Irish guide called Gerry, giving us a lot of facts and figures about the beauty that is Neighbours! Neither of us had watched it for years, so we didn't know a lot of what he was talking about, but there were the old classic characters we knew! We got to the set and saw the backs of the buildings- Erinsborough high and the mechanic's garage. Then we were ready to meet our special Neighbours star, who turned out to be none other than ... read more

Here is my extensive list of everything you need to know about visiting Australia (Melbourne & Sydney): Now with pictures! Of course there's a lot more to Australia than just these two cities, but they are popular and I spent considerable time in both so they are the ones I'm most versed in. Disclaimer: I was in Australia in 2011, so some of this information may be out-of-date (restaurants closed, museum prices raised, etc.) To Do in Melbourne: - Queen Victoria Market. Lots to see, fresh produce, clothes, hats, etc. Look for the sales, negotiate for better prices. Only open certain days of the week. Get a burger (it is huge, cheap, and has egg, cheese, etc., so delicious, I think the vendor is down the cheese aisle). Get a beer (Holgate Brewhouse Temptress Chocolate Porter) ... read more

Today was a bit of an odd one; we'd somehow ended up with a day spare but we knew we had to get some things done prior to our flight to Fiji tomorrow (washing, blog updates etc). After sorting the washing out (and hoping it wouldn't get stolen off our washing line at the caravan park) we hopped on the train into Melbourne. We spent 2 hours updating the blog in the State Library - it's about the only place you can use a computer without spending a small fortune! After some advice from the tourist info volunteers we decided to pop down to the docklands and take a look at the art trail. While some were quite fun (the giant bunny), the rest confirmed that we do not understand modern art at all! Back at ... read more