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Published: January 24th 2006
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Fountain in Fitzroy
I just thought this was a cool fountain and had to take a picture. It’s really sunny!
Walk around the CBD
Yum Cha is yummy!
I took advantage of the “free” breakfast provided by the hostel this morning. Basically free toast and a cuppa tea or coffee. Geesh. I really miss my honey on peanut butter toast. But I guess beggars can’t be choosers, right? It’s weird, breakfast is only served between the hours of 8 and 9AM. Anyhoo, Di and I sat around shooting the breeze a bit and then used our free 10 minute token for the internet.
Since the weather was super nice we took advantage of the sun and did a major walking tour around the CBD. We basically started off at the Queen Victoria Market that is just a hop, skip and a jump away from our hostel. It’s huge. They have tons of souvenirs and stuff to buy there. Hmm, lots of kangaroo fur and even giant cow hides, hats, clothes, bags, didgeridoos, shoes, knick knacks and stuff that you really don’t need but its fun to look at. In fact I might go back there tomorrow morning and pick up a few souvenirs since I haven’t really bought many yet and would like to pick up
Post-Mao Cafe
Where they dish up all of Mao's favourite foods he liked to eat. a few things before leaving this great country! Hmm, should I get a kangaroo paw back scratcher to match the gator paw back scratcher that I picked up in New Orleans? Haha
The Queen Victoria Market also has a huge section where fruits and veggies are sold and also lots of meat and fish. It is amazing how cheap some of the meat was! One place has huge trays of meat for sale (steaks, lamb etc.) for only $10 a tray. I guess because there is a lot of competition but still! There was even one stall that was selling meat specifically for pets. Walking through the food areas was interesting listening to everyone trying to attract customers to their stalls.
“Bananas, bananas, bananas, bananas. I got your favourite bananas here…”
“Mushrooms, mushrooms real cheap!”
You get the idea. I may also have to go back to the market to replenish my fruit supply. Mind you I’ll be flying off to Perth soon! The food markets were packed with weekend shoppers getting their groceries. It sure was nice to see everyone with their reusable green grocery bags and many people had these two tiered shopping carts to use as well.
After the Markets we headed towards Chinatown but not before stopping on the steps of the State Library to have a little snack to eat. We went into the library for a bit to see the free exhibit on gardening but we didn’t stay all that long because to be honest it wasn’t all that interesting. They had another exhibit to see but in order to see that you had to walk through the library and they make you check all of your bags into the cloakroom before going in. We weren’t particularly fussed about seeing the exhibit and didn’t really want to shell out $2 for the locker so we headed towards Chinatown.
Next up, Chinatown! Chinatown consisted of a couple of blocks of mainly restaurants to choose from. After walking up and down the block we finally settled on a restaurant for some dim sum. So yummy! I love to go for Yum Cha. Di and I ate tons…Ha Gow, Sieu Mai, Jook, Chun Gin, Cha Siew Bow, deep fried won ton, plus there were a few other fried prawns and some rice noodle wraps as well. I told you we ate a lot. I was a bit disappointed that they didn’t have any don tot on offer. I guess I’ll just have to go to Maxim’s tomorrow and get some since I didn’t have any room left to buy one and eat it today…yup, I was really stuffed!
We passed by this one restaurant called the “Post-Mao Café” that was serving up some of Mao’s favourites. The menu even had Mao’s faves highlighted in a box on the menu. I would have taken a picture of the menu BUT there was a lady outside the restaurant trying to get people to go inside and I felt bad taking a photo and not going in. Too funny.
After stuffing ourselves silly we headed towards Parliament. Nothing too special about Parliament but we did see a banner advertising the Open House on the 19th. Doh! One day too early! Guess I’ll have to head back there tomorrow…or not.
The (Hmm, can’t remember the name…) Cathedral was next on our list of things to see. It’s huge in there! I wasn’t too impressed with the inside though. It would have been nicer if they had more stained glass instead of all the amber glass on the side windows. We also noticed a sign stating the times for confession. There was one time slot, 5:00 to 5:20…geesh. That’s only 20 minutes. What’s a person to do if there’s a queue or hasn’t been to confession in ages and has a lot to unload?!? Haha
We then walked over to Fitzroy Gardens. It looked much larger on the map then it really was. Thought it was interesting that they had a “miniature” Tudor Village as one of the highlights of the Gardens. There was a cool fairy fountain to look at. Oh yes and Captain Cooks House. Didn’t check it out since it was $6 to enter and to be honest the house was rather small and from the looks of it, inside was a gift shop taking up I’m guessing at least half of the house! There was also a small conservatory that was nice to stroll through looking at the orchids, poinsettias and other greenery.
We went up to the Carleton Gardens and saw this hugeass water fountain before heading over to the Melbourne Museum.
Hmm, it was only about 3PM and we didn’t really want to go shopping because that would have meant spending money. So we checked out our map and decided to check out Federation Square and see what was up over there. There was this photo exhibit that we saw from across the street that looked interesting but once we got closer noticed that it doesn’t open until July. Bummer. Walking a little bit further we noticed a second hand book sale going on. Perfect since I don’t have a good book to read at the moment. I ended up picking up Bill Bryson’s “Down Under” to read. Perfect since I am in Australia! There were also a bunch of knitters working on a Salvation Army project to knit blankets for the needy. Reminded me of the knitting we did with Guides last year.
By this time we’d been out and about for +7 hours so we decided to head back to the hostel for some hot drinks and vittles BUT not before stopping off at the Apple Store to check out the iPods. Di is going to get one in Singapore since it should be cheaper than here or in London. I told her if she didn’t stop talking about them soon I might end up getting one myself even though I don’t need one! lol
The hostel put on a free BBQ tonight which was great - free dinner! We opted for the free dinner vs. going to the footie match. Basically the BBQ was free sausages and bread and some hamburgers as well. Not the best but it was free AND I didn’t have to cook. A really bad horror movie was playing as well. Not sure of the title (perhaps “House of Wax”??) but it involved a lot of killing and something about turning people into wax or something. Yeah. Exactly…a winner…NOT!
Di continues onto Sydney tomorrow. It’ll be sad to say goodbye since we’ve been travelling together the last week and a half. Hopefully we’ll be able to hook up again in England…that’d be sweet. So we spent the evening laughing and talking bollocks yet again and said our goodbyes tonight since Di’s bus comes at 6AM and I don’t think I’ll be awake at that time.
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