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Published: April 21st 2010
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Melbourne, 6th to 8th April 2010
Hello it’s me again to tell you about Melbourne. As Bowks told you we arrived at the YHA hostel where upon arrival we were greeted by the wide-mouthed, frog receptionist who was highly annoying, but after a few yes/no answers we collected our room key for the 4-bed dorm which we would be staying in for the next 2 nights. The hostel was very clean and better still had a great roof top terrace that gave 360 degree views of the city. With our bags in our room we decided to take a walk to the Melbourne Docklands to look at its harbor and grab a bite to eat. The harbor was very nice with the backdrop of the city behind, but somehow it seemed to be lacking the prominent landmarks that Sydney captures with the likes of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House. We decided upon a Moroccan restaurant for food which gave us great views across the night lit city and better still as luck would have it, it was ‘super Tuesday’ meaning 50% off everything on the menu. So what began as a 1-course meal, promptly turned into 3! Bargain, and
The Melbourne Skyline
Taken from the Shrine food good too! Having finished our food we set off back to the hostel in an attempt to walk off our full stomachs. We arrived back at the hostel just in time to beat a downpour of rain that had come in and headed straight for bed.
Wednesday morning after breakfast we headed into Melbourne city centre to see the sights, if we’re completely honest neither of us really knew what we were going into see as we had done little reading up the night before. We grabbed a couple of leaflets on the way out of the hostel and saw that the well renowned Victoria Markets were nearby so we thought we’d go and check it out, but little such luck as it didn’t run on a Wednesday, ah well we’ll have to do it on Thursday instead. So onwards into the city eventually finding Federation Square (City Square) and the tourist information, where after 10 minutes, we were loaded full of local information of things to do and see. Having only been in the city centre for 20 minutes we picked up that this was a city built with a definite modern and cultural style where as
Sydney seemed a lot more iconic.
First stop was the Victoria Gardens that lay next to the Yarra River and near to the Rod Laver tennis stadium. The gardens were beautifully maintained with an outdoor concert arena in the middle, hollowed into the ground to make a bowl effect. We wandered through looking at the various statues and trees which were now just beginning to turn as it started to hit autumn in Australia. Crazy really that we have now seen the start of autumn in the UK, US and now Australia. We eventually arrived at the Anzac Memorial (Shrine) at one side of the park that was similar to that of the Canberra and paid rememberance to all those that had fought in WW1 & 2. The memorial also gave great views of the city so with lunch calling we sat on a bench and ate our earlier prepared sandwiches. Sandwiches eaten we were off again heading back through the park, watching the 100’s of runners that ran around its 4km perimeter, known as the tan (how do so many people find the time in the middle of the day?)
Walking past the National Gallery we decided
to stick our head in and on doing so realised that Ron Mueck, a London based sculptor had an exhibition on that Bowks had read about some weeks before and liked the sound of. We decided to go and see it and were very pleased we did. It was really quite unbelievable the lifelikeness of the sculptures, that had such attention to detail and were a joy to look at, if you haven’t heard of this guy check out his work, it really is something else. After much praise to Ron Mueck's work we headed out of the gallery into the afternoon sun and strolled along Southgate and the Yarra Rivers edge before passing over a footbridge across the river and through the huge, prominent feature that is Flinders Street Station (railway) with its orange brick, large dome and clock tower and most impressively of all stretching 300 metres down one side of Elizabeth Street, slap bang in the heart of the city.
With our legs feeling a little weary we decided to see a little more of the city from the free city circular tram. So after a short wait we stepped on board and chugged around the
circular route, taking in the sites and participating in a spot of people watching, which is always a bit of fun! Once off the tram we headed back to the hostel to freshen ourselves up before our evenings events, and where I feel it appropriate to add that you do get some real weirdo’s in hostels, no doubt there are plenty that think the same of me but the weirdo bloke, who kept staring everyone out, including me whilst cooking that eve really needs a spot of help! Anyway, back to the evenings events. Refreshed we headed out with a uni friend of Bowks’s, Pat along with his Fiancé Katy, who lived just outside Melbourne and headed a bar which was uniquely made up of ship containers, toilets and all. It was a really nice evening with Pat and Katy. Bowks was able to catch up on all the news of the past 4 years and we all exchanged stories old and new. It was really interesting to hear that Pat and Katy had lived right next to where the bush fires were (Black Saturday) that hit last year. Luckily they had been spared due to a sudden change in
wind direction, however many others were a lot less fortunate. After a couple more beers Pat and Katy dropped us off back at the hostel where we said out goodbyes and headed to sleep.
Good sleep was had and we were up to check out of the hostel and load our bags into the car. After missing the Queen Victoria market the day before we decided to pay it a visit before we left, so we headed down there by foot. The market was massive, easily the size of Lymington and Whitchurch market, times two! And yes, as always, I was drawn to almost every stall looking at the range of offerings! Having officially looked at almost everything we left happy and content with 4 bananas and a tomato. Back into the car we drove out of Melbourne after a great couple of days and headed off to out next destination, Lakes Entrance. On the drive out of Melbourne we noticed that it’s a lot more built up on the East than it had been on our drive on from the north. The motorways were quiet and with the satisfaction of knowing the Beast (our car) had made it
down to Melbourne and was now on the return leg we relaxed into the drive heading east.
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