Hailstone's and getting the hell out of dodge!

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MELBOURNE

We take the taxi to the address we have been given for the Embassy and are expecting to get out at a building that looks like a Buddhist temple, however it looks more like a block of offices and there is nothing that states there is an Embassy there! We recheck the address, so does the taxi driver, so we bid him a fond farewell before heading in at speed as it nearly midday! We find the Embassy listed in the building information on the third floor, so jump in the lift.

We rush in and had over the forms and photos as they enquire whether we have just come from Thailand or are on our way there very shortly. No we explain, we have just arrived from Adelaide and wanted to get here before the free visa expired and as they were closed tomorrow we knew we had to be here first thing. Oh that is old information on the website, they are open until 2.30 and open tomorrow too! So no need for the rush after all! Well at least we got it done. We needed to come back to pick it up the following day. They decided as it was free to issue us with a multiple entry visa as we are planning on doing a trip to Vietnam, Cambodia & Laos.

We caught two trams up to Parliament Square and walked down Little Collins Street, where our hostel was supposed to be. We could not see it, so reaching The Flight Centre at the bottom of the road Charlotte popped her head in and asked directions. It was back the way we came. Yep, sure enough we walked past it looking at the hotel on the other side of the road! Up a flight of stairs and we check in. Up another flight of stairs and we were at our room. A nice little double with fridge, TV and free WIFI. Woo hoo!

We popped down to the local Irish pub that we passed on the way to the hostel as we saw that they were doing a Steak and a Pint special. Mmmm Lovely late lunch. Back to the hostel for a little afternoon nap as we were up so early and had done so much. We popped out for a walk later that evening around the town and through China town before finding a reasonably priced restaurant for supper.

A day relaxing and doing the essentials then off up to find the IMAX as we had heard that Alice in Wonderland in 3D there would be fantastic! And we heard right. We got there about 2pm and the show started at 3.30pm so we went off to the local 7 eleven, honestly we have found them everywhere! We grabbed a picnic lunch and sat in the park next to the IMAX enjoying the sunshine.

We are booked into the hostel for four nights and as it was so expensive we were throwing around ideas of what to do next. Whether to go to Tasmania, Canberra or stay in Melbourne as we still had two weeks before the flight. We came to no conclusion and deferred the decision until we could check out prices on the internet. We enjoyed the film, although it was not quite the spectacular that Avatar was and went back to the hostel to do research.

We went to collect our Thai visas from the embassy and got the tram back to Federal Square. We had a quick look around as they were setting up stalls for ’Moomba’ which was happening this weekend, but nothing was trading. We grabbed a quick lunch at KFC then we jumped on the free tourist tram, but it was not very good so we went to the museum.

When we booked the IMAX tickets we got museum tickets at a reduced rate of $5 each. When we got there it was about 3pm and it shut at 5pm, so we went around. It was so much better and more modern than any we have seen so far that we were quite upset when we got thrown out at closing time. We walked to Woolworths and brought a couple of days worth of pasta suppers before going home and cooking in our rooftop kitchen.

We decided that night as it was so expensive in Melbourne to stay another couple of weeks and not really going to be any less if we went else where, the best option was to change our tickets to Singapore and bring them forward. I sent an e-mail to our booking agent and await a reply to see how much it would be.

Today we headed up to the Melbourne Prison that we had passed on the free tram tour as it had a feature on Ned Kelly which we wanted to see. However on arriving they were charging a lot of money just for the entrance, we asked for a discount as we have a YHA card, which they gave us, then we asked for a discount as Liam is a Kelly, surley they must have family rates? But no, so we decided instead to go to the Library across the road as it had a free exhibition on Ned Kelly.

On the way there the sky darkened, so it looked like it was night time, then much to our amazement the heavens opened! Not rain, but hail stones! As big as a 50 pence coin! We have never seen anything like it, we took refuge in a huge doorway arch that I had taken a photo of on the way past the first time. A few of us huddled in there for about 45 minutes as it hammered it down, with thunder and lightening, then hail followed by rain!

Oh my God! we had done the washing this morning and hung it on the line to dry in the sunshine, that was about earlier! Bugger! Well it isn’t going to get any wetter! When the rain eased a little we stood under the bus shelter waiting for a tram to come along. But 20 minutes later, still no bus, so we walked down to the library.

We walked through a collection of rare books up to the Ned Kelly collection which was fascinating. They had a copy of his original suit of armour and a film about the making of it, and his trial. They also had his death mask on show. We head a bit of commotion from down below and they seemed to be chucking everyone out of the library! We headed down and it turned out that due to the huge downpour there had been flooding and they were concerned about the electrics of the building. Good excuse to get off early on a Saturday night me thinks!

We walked home via China town and cooked supper again, accompanied by some goon! Charlotte got on the phone that evening and managed to re-arrange the flights with the booking agent, however we could not get away on Sunday as we had hoped due to the storm Saturdays flight had been cancelled and Sunday was now showing as full. But although Bank holiday was busy we managed to squeeze in! Great, time to relax and stop worrying!

Charlotte managed to talk to her Mum that night also, she had been missing her at home quite a few times and was getting frustrated! She could still not get hold of Julia, but managed a nice long chat with Yvonne. It was great to catch up.

We spent Sunday sorting ourselves out and packing then we got up Monday morning, checked out, grabbed some breakfast and headed down to the end of the road to watch the ’Moomba’ parade. It was great fun watching everyone parade along, the kids really looked like they were enjoying it. It brought back fond memories for Charlotte of the Village carnivals and Liam of the Lord mayors show. A nice end to a lovely stay in Australia.

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