Melbourne Part 2 AND the last of the east coast! - September 3-10, 2007

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Ok I've got a lot to say here but I'll probably rely on the pictures to do most of the talking in the interest of not boring you all...I've got a crazy game of catch-up to play in this blog but hopefully now that exams are done I'll be successful!

Botanical Gardens and a random trip to Monash Uni
On the 3rd, Danae and I decided to visit the Melbourne botanical gardens. It had been a 'thing' in Sydney that we always arrived at the botanical gardens just after they closed, so we wanted to make sure we saw these ones! They were very pretty, and we had a good time being kids and playing around in the grass. A highlight was a craft cottage up on a hill where people got together to make crafts out of local plants. Very enviro-friendly, especially using local plants to make all the dyes (no chemicals!)

That afternoon, I went to Monash University. No, I didn't transfer schools. I was missing debate club so I decided to randomly attend the meeting of the Monash Association of Debators. It was fun! They were awesome! And I won the first debate (THB the pope should allow condoms in the fight against AIDS in Africa). I judged the second one.

There is a funny story about getting to Monash. Dana attends the university, so I counted on her to get me there safely. Unfortuntely, she mixed up the names of the campuses (clayton vs caulfield) and I ended up in the wrong place. Thankfully there was a charter bus between them.

After the meeting, I headed into the city to meet up with Dana and Danae for some dinner and drinks at a little place called Cookie.

A Walk around, Rialto Tower, and the Simpsons
On the 4th, Danae and I decided to walk around Melbourne. We, umm, saw what we could see. Then we headed to the Rialto Tower, which is Melbourne's obligatory tall building with a lookout. Alright, I will say this. While on most things, I side with Sydney (Sydney and Melbourne are rivals, like Toronto and Vancouver - you have to side with one of them) on the tower issue Melbourne wins BIG TIME. No line to get up, no crowds at the top, we were there in the day we were there for the sunset and we were there in the early evening. Just hung out up top, looking out over the city, the river, and the distant ocean. We also had some snacks at the little cafe. It was nice, a very pleasant evening.

At the tower we asked one of the kind workers to check movie listings for us (that's how not crowded it was). We discovered The Simpsons Movie was playing that evening at the Crown, just across the river from where we were. So we decided that that would be our evening activity. And oh man was it a good one. We had both been wanting to see it for MONTHS (or however long it had been out). After the movie we revelled in the fact that we 'got' the spider pig jokes...

Random Trip to a mall
On the 5th, Dana took us to a random mall. It was good fun. That's about it.

The National Gallery and a night on Chapel St.
On the 6th, Danae and I went to the National Gallerfy of Victoria (I don't get the name either, Victoria is a state, not a nation but whatever). Much like the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, we wished we'd arrived earlier! It was awesome! There were some great exhibits. A highlight for us both (being avid photographers) was a photography exhibit of some of the first pictures. There's a great pic of me with a quote about cameras...look for it when going through the pics.

That evening, we headed to Chapel St to meet Dana for dinner. We went to a few of the local establishments afterwards.

Ferris Wheel and MCG
On the 7th we headed back into town to ride the giant ferris wheel. You get a nice view of the city. It's a bit over-priced but meh, it's a tacky tourist thing. We also headed to the MCG aka the Melbourne Cricket Grounds which I believe is the biggest sport stadium in Australia. Unfortunately we just missed the last tour (they close early) so our view was the outside only. But we could see through some of the windows. Looks like a cool place.

We met Dana for another night out on Chapel st. that evening.

St. Kilda
On the 8th we headed to St. Kilda, which is on the ocean. It's a pretty little place, kind of like Fremantle in Perth. Danae and I met up with Dana and the three of us basked in the sun before heading for some dinner. It was a nice day.

Sausage Sizzle, St. Kilda, and a Dinner in the City
Sunday the 9th was our last day in Melbourne. There was a sausage sizzle at our hostel so we hung out with some strange (I'm sad to say) Canadians who were in town for a beekeepers convention (no joke) and seemed to have few interests outside of bees. Oh they also thought that Danae was from Perth, Ontario. Oi, I was embarrased. We also hung out with these 2 british girls who we'd befriended throughout our time at the hostel, and one of the employees who was always helping us out.

We were trying to decide what to do for our last day, and all these random people (well not the beekeepers) advised us to go back to St. Kilda's to see the market that they have on Sundays. So we headed back to the coast and browsed the markets and got some random stuff. My favourite thing from the market is a pretty necklace I got with an Australia-shaped pendant. The maker said she orginally designed it for her friend who had moved to Montreal and wanted something Aussie so it was a sign!

After the market we went out onto the jetty and watched the sun set and saw the amazing view of Melbourne city. It was a fine night of photographing, with Danae taking my digicam hostage and finally proving to me that she actually worked as a professional photographer (cause most of the pictures she took with her crappy camera were just that - total crap.)

After St. Kilda, we headed into the city to meet Dana for our final night in Melbourne! We had a nice dinner and enjoyed the view of Melboune city and the Yarra river that one last time.

Back to Perth!
After 4 weeks in the east, Danae and I finally headed back to Perth on Monday the 10th. It was a great trip, but for both of us, it was back to the real world...

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Photos

ANZAC Memorial
Yes, another one. Look how big it is!

Stalker photo of Dafne on her way to Monash
On her way to the WRONG campus

Inside Federation Square
Cool building, eh?

View from the Rialto Tower 1
Here you can see the ocean

View from the Rialto Tower 2
Here you can see the Yarra River

View from the Rialto Tower 3
Random tall buildings

Comments

[Anna]

that ball of jeans is a histone! confused? look it up!