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Published: August 21st 2006
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Right then boys and girls, we arrived in sunny Melbourne at 7am bright eyed and refreshed after our overnight coach journey from Sydney, no really, its true the whole thing was actually quite relaxing and we both managed to sleep right through - apart from midnight feast at McDonald, our first introduction to Australian roadside cuisine. Speaking of which we have still managed to see nothing of the ozzy countryside as it was dark all the way but we still have our fingers crossed for a snake or two before we leave this place.
When we arrived in the city at silly O’clock we jumped on a tram and headed down to St kilda which is a cool beachy part of town. The hostel that we planned to stay in appears to have been sold and closed so we wondered about some of the more seedy parts of town looking for somewhere else. We only knew of one place in the area to stay, a hostel called Xbase which is part of a chain throuhout Nz and Australia. We had been hoping to avoid this as we have ended up in their places three times before but it wasn't to
be as it was 8am and we needed somewhere to stay that would let us check in ASAP. Luckily it was one of the nicest places we have ended up at. We should point out that at this stage although we are technically backpackers (with all our worldly possesions in two rather uncomfortable back packs) we are not technically hostelling at the moment as we got a double room with an ensuite which although cheap is definatly not roughing it. However, were a little suprised when we got the keys to our room and opened the door to find that there was someone sleeping on our bed (goldilocks and the three bears style) but we managed not to wake them, retrieved our porridge and were given another room. The xbase hostel has a big kitchen, internet, bar and goldfish tanks built into the floor so they really are like cheap hotels.
After checking out the local beach and being frightened by the Luna Park fairground gate-scary-head-thing (there is a similar one in Sydney v retro). Aparently the St Kilda one has the oldest working roller coaster in the world, no thanks. We also discovered that the hostel can sell
$7 gym passes to a really nice health club on the beach so we headed down there to do some rare exercise. The Ozzies are super fit but the club was not that busy - they were all out powerwalking down the beach - so it was really nice and empty. Our first evening was spent with Manny (an Ozzy friend of Caz's who has moved back to Melbourne) who we met in a bar in St Kilda and spent the evening in a couple of local places, it was really nice to see a familiar face and get some tips about our stay in the city. And we only called ‘bloody poms’ a couple of times by the Ozzy locals, although a crazy guy from Tasmania did tell tom to ‘get a haircut and get a bloody job’ hmmm he might have a point there. Caz, he (Manny not our new Tazzy friend) sends lots of love and talks about coming over for a visit sometime soon and thanks Manny it was lovely to see you.
Highlights of Melbourne for us included walking about the city, there are loads of cool shops and arcades (just window shopping of
MCG
Don Bradman's statues course). Melbourne is arranged around a river (the Yarra) rather than a bay like Sydney and there is loads of cool places to visit along the river side as well as loads of museums and gallaries. Having said that it is also by the sea and the St Kilda beach is nice, although the Australians scoff when you say this so their must be better to come :o) On Saturday we walked to town from St Kilda one morning which is about 5 miles of different parks including the botanical gardens which were really nice especially in the sunshine, still no wildlife though. At the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) Liz tried to drag tom into an Ozzie Rules game but he wasn't having any of it. Aussie rules is the biggest game in town and MCG is its spiritual home. Unfortunatly the game is completely incomprehensible to us - which was a major reason both for and against getting a closer look. Instead as a reward for all the walking we visited China Town and ate obscene amounts of Dim Sum (where the keep coming around to your table with different little dishes, yum apart from the chickens feet which
just looked wrong) and strolled the hour walk back to our hostel.
On the last day we went to the Jewish Museum in St Kilda for a ‘Where the 'Wild Things are Exhibition', which was held there as the author Maurice Sendak is a Jewish writer. It was free to get in and really cool, they even had monster costumes for kids to dress up in and loads of his amazing illustrations. We then jumped on the tram, realised we did not have any change for the self service ticket machine and tried to do some sneaky fare evasion into town, yes this is a crime and no, not one which is not taken in lightly as we discovered when we jumped off at the central station and saw people being stopped and questioned left, right and centre. Trying to look as inocent as possible (not a problem of course) we managed to sneak past and avoid capture as they were too busy interrogating the 15 other people on the platform - didn't look as though many people had brought a ticket that day. In town we visited the Old Melboune Goal which has just about been around since
they started releasing the first convicts who were sent over to Oz so as you can imagine they did a fair bit of business. It hasn't held any prisoners for a while now but one wing has been kept and turned into a museum so you can wonder in and out of the (tiny) cells and they each have little exhibits in. One interesting thing we learnt was about the 'science' of phrenology (whats that? its the science of determining personalities based on the shape of ones skull ) where we learnt that the area directly above the ears determines the destructiveness of a person, quick all check each others heads! Because of all this scientific research all the people who were hung at the prison had 'death masks' made so that there heads could be examined and of course they are all displayed by in the cells which is somewhat creepy.
The people of Melbourne Goal appear to be most proud of their connection with Ned Kelly who was kept and hung here after his arrest and shooting - he was wearing a suite of armour but didn't cover up his legs, big mistake, he was shot and arrested after having been on the run for sometime with his gangster family. Despite the nature of the gang and the crimes that they commited Ned Kelly is a bit of a hero in oz, presumably beacuse he is a bit of a rebel and fought against British rule. His mother was in the same gaol at the time of his hanging a women and children at that time were kept only slightly apart from the mens wing, it was a pretty brutal place really but a fascinating museum.
Melbourne is a great city and was almost as sunny as Sydney. Loads of cafes and bars, gigs and resturants, worth a good look round for sure. Amazing shops (better than Sydney) one day when we have more time and more $$$ we will return, but now we are off to the airport to catch a filght to Queensland, hello sunshine!
Stop the press, we have just had some really good news that Rachel is going to come and hang about in Malaysia and Thailand with us in September, can’t wait to see her! Nb all those others of you who fancy a little holiday lets get something organised! Also hope that you are all paying attention to tom’s beard growing experiments, its coming along nicely no?
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