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Published: February 19th 2007
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Wrinkly tree in the Botanic Gardens
probably because of the drought...or maybe it just needs a better anti-wrinkle cream We left the Great Ocean Road & the big blue beastie hire car behind & caught the train from Geelong into Melbourne. After about 10 minutes we managed to get a taxi driven by this mad Syrian guy who drove like an absolute nutter but we made it to the hostel in Melbourne in one piece...just.
Once we'd dumped our stuff we got the free bus straight to the Victorian Arts Centre Sunday market, really disappointed though there were only about 20 stalls & everything was really expensive so for once I didn't buy anything!
We had lunch instead & then had a wander around the Botanic Gardens where there was a wedding going on in a small private garden just outside.
We tried to get the free bus back as we were al pretty tired of wandering around but as they stop at 4pm we just missed one as we couldn't find the gate out of the Botanic Gardens! We caught our first tram instead, still no idea what ticket is the right ticket to buy!
On monday we wandered around in the morning hunting for a bookshop that sold the Lonely Planet Travel Book so
we could send it to Niomes parents to say thanks for having us to stay & showing us around while we were in Brisbane when we first arrived in Australia. It took a bit longer than we thought but we got it eventually.
AFter that I let my dad hide from the heat for a few hours in the afternoon before we got a jampacked rush hour tram down to St Kilda on the coast where we had a delicious dinner for only $10 (4pounds!) & then we went on a boat trip to see Melbournes secret (until now!)colony of Fairy Penguins just off the coast at St Kilda. The man who runs the trip & sails the boat, Captain Noel, was part of the conservation team looking after the penguins so he is the only person with a permit to take tours to see them so we had the penguins to ourselves. We sailed out on a pretty small boat, if you tripped & fell over you'd probably end up in the water, to see the sunset over the water & the city skyline at dusk then we went to see the littlest penguins in the world come
in to nest at dusk along the rocky wall built for the Melbourne Olympics that they have now taken over & made their home.
They really are tiny but oh so cute unfortunately it was too dark to really get any good photos of them so I bought a card with a picture of a Fairy Penguin on it to take home instead!
On tuesday we started the day with some shopping (just as I like it!) at the Queen Victoria Markets, which is pretty huge & seems to sell almost everything you could want. I got a really nice new watch for $20 (8pounds!) to replace the one I lost somewhere in Melbourne train station after I'd got the Greyhound bus from Adelaide a week or so ago. After that we wandered around the city centre & headed for Federation Square - this really mad square with all sorts of shaped buildings with strange angles but there are lots of people just sitting around & wandering about, there always seems to be something going on there. We went in to the Moving Image museum/gallery there where you could sit in these sort of tv pod/lounges & watch
More pink sky
the clouds seem to just roll in every night just before the sun goes down which makes for some pretty spectacular sunsets some quite random short films, unfortunately as we were all pretty tired from wandering around once we sat down in the beanbags it was pretty hard to get up!
That night we walked along to a really nice garden next to the Melbourne Museum & Exhibition building but the clouds rolled in (as they seem to do a lot in the evening in Melbourne) & we got some thunder & then some pretty heavy rain so we had to run & shelter under a massive tree before making a run for it. We went & had a Malaysian meal in the Italian food district, I know that doesn't make sense but the food was really nice & then we treated ourselves to some ice cream (bit more Italian) on the way home. When we got back to the hostel we went up to the roof terrace on top of the building & had the best view of the sunset over Melbourne.
Wednesday was our last day together on this trip before my dad & Wendy flew to Perth on thursday morning. We had breakfast at my dads favourite bakery (we probably ate there about 4 or 5 times!)
& then wandered around until lunchtime when we met up with Niomes sister Charlene who is living in Melbourne at the moment. Guess where we ended up having lunch.....once again in my dads favourite bakery, they must have been sick of the sight of us! After lunch Charlene had to go back to work & we all went to the art gallery where they had among other things an exhibition of the history of trainers & they had all kinds of trainers there including my dads favourite Dunlop Green Flashes (he used to wear them all day every day & he even got married in them!) We managed to get lost a couple of times but we made it back outside to the sunshine.
On our last night together we went out for my "last supper" (probably the last really nice meal I'll have for a while since I keep spending all my money on clothes!). We went to a small Italian restaurant & had a delicious meal & we managed, just, to share a huge piece of lemon cheescake but we had ordered two so one had to come back to the hostel with us!
On thursday
morning my dad & Wendy headed for the airport to catch their flight to Perth & I'm in Melbourne for another week....love Melbourne!
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Dad
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Witchy cloud
The witchy cloud came out really well. Is it the witch of the East?