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Published: March 16th 2007
Us on Ramsay Street
In front of Harold's house!We actually arrived here from Sydney for our initial night's stay a week before this entry. However, this was really just a bed for the night before starting our road trip to Adelaide via The Great Ocean Road and back again via Barossa, The Grampians and Daylesford/Hepburn Springs. So the only experience worthy of note for the benefit of other travellers (and for our friends, a good laugh at our expense) is to point out the slight error of judgement on our Jetstar flight from Sydney to Melbourne : this flew to Avalon airport rather than Tullamarine. The former is actually close to Geelong, which is handy for a head start on The Great Ocean Road being that much closer. To get into the centre of Melbourne from Avalon is a bit more of a challenge : for a start it is the smallest airport I've ever landed at (not much more than an aircraft hanger). I did actually wonder for a moment if we'd land on a dirt track airfield. Secondly, it was a good 1hr 30 mins journey just to get to Southern Cross station, as the name might suggest, on the southern side of Melbourne city
View from Rialto Tower
Botanic gardens and MCG in the background centre. From there we then had the challenge of finding the correct trams to get from here to St. Kilda where we were staying at Cooee. Be warned : as good as the tram system is here (there are loads of them criss-crossing every major street in the city centre and beyond), given the grid layout typical of modern cities, you end up stopping at every intersection. Some journeys seem painfully slow as you stop-start and stop again...and again...!
In fact, I have to say initial impressions generally were not that positive : this just seemed to be like every other Aussie city we'd been too, but with a more industrial introduction as we arrived into the Southern Cross Bus terminal, taking in the concrete jungle and building site views. Take the typical ingredients for an Aussie city : a high-rise modern CBD, some watery views, a Botanic Garden, the same street names (Flinders, King, Queen, Victoria etc.), a cosmopolitan population, a shrine of rememberance, maybe add a Southbank and mix it around (but only a little). Check - all present and correct! Certainly all this is true, but it'd be like reducing football by saying it's just 22
Federation Square
Top left of photo, from Rialto tower. Flinders Station left. lads kicking a ball from one end to the other - there's so much more to it than that!! It's at this point I can draw comparisons to Adelaide but only because after the above similarities, the 2 cities are polar opposites!
Getting to know Melbourne Melbourne has so much going on : it hosts major world sporting and entertainment events on a frequency that any other city would crave for. Australian open tennis, World swimming championships, Formula One Grand Prix, Cricket have all been or will be hosted here within weeks of each other. I reckon they could organise these things in their sleep they're so well versed in it! In Federation Square we happened upon what appeared to be a mini food and wine festival, with plenty of free samples (Sally wasted no time in lapping up the sparkling Merlot!). I will now go on to discredit my initial impressions further...
The Neighbours tour Okay, let's get this one out of the way first as I know a number of you are dying to hear all about it! The tour started by getting on the Neighbours branded bus (see the photo) with the tour guide then
putting on a DVD of a selection of the music 'hits' various Neighbours stars have had over the years - yes, it couldn't get much cheesier!! So with these cheesey beginnings we thought we were in for a great time!
After about 40mins we arrived at the real Ramsay Street (actually called Pin Oak Ct.) in the Melbourne surburbs. The first thing that struck us was how small the street actually is. I won't go into it here, but there's actually quite a lot of trickery that goes on to make the street seem a lot larger than it is. The guide spent sometime going through who had lived in each house over the years, gave us a lot of inside gossip and told us what is going to happen over the next few months or so! So far, so good. The guide was very entertaining. We hadn't seen any filming (go on a Tuesday for this), but we didn't expect to.
Then we went
passed the studios. This was our first dissapointment. We didn't actually go in and get to see any of the sets - apparently the studio don't allow that. So, okay, onto Erinsborough High
The MCG
For you cricket fans School we went anyhow. We had a little look around the outside, but that was about it. So then we headed back to Melbourne (to St. Kilda) for our star meet...yes, it soon became apparent that we would actually only meet one star. And the star was...Dr. Darcy! Yes, he's not been in it for a while has he?! Nice guy though - seemed a dedicated professional, only watching the show to watch himself, to see how he can improve.
So we came away feeling a little bit disappointed. However, I would still recommend it as a trip. What there was of it was great fun. For anyone thinking of doing it I would just say, don't get your hopes up too high. You can also go to Melbourne Museum to see a set (the Robinson/Daniels kitchen). Separately, you can do the Trivia night on the Monday night where you may meet more stars and see Dr. Kennedy and his band! We weren't in Melbourne on a Monday, so this was never an option for us sadly.
Oh, and by the way, the Paul Robinson single was easily the worst. Apparently it was only released in the UK
Rialto Tower
Amazing 360 degree views from the 55th floor and got to number 16ish...does anyone actually remember it?!?
360 degree views from Rialto In the space of about two hours, whilst I left Sally to peruse the shops (minus any money, cards etc. just to be sure) I had the most superb time! I went up the Rialto building to the 55th Floor observation deck ($12.50). The 360 degree views were excellent. I could clearly see the whole of Melbourne in any direction. Better still, on using the free telescopes mounted outside I could clearly see individual people amongst the crowds forever gathered in Federation Square. I could see the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), Telstra Dome, Botanic Gardens etc. Best of all, I could see Albert Park! This was where I was catching the tram to next.
Albert Park After experiencing a few footie fans along the way (AFL that is - Aussie rules, they're mad for it) I found my way to Albert Park. For any of you not aware of it, the park is huge and largely devoted to being able to accommodate just about any major sporting event - with a huge lake in the middle for all the watersport. I can't think of
Albert Park
View from Rialto tower any other city that could rival that. To make it clear where I'm going with this now (if it wasn't already) exactly 2 weeks prior to the Grand Prix season speeding off the grid here, there was only one thing I'd come to see...
Okay, so many of you will not like F1 or even sport in general, but surely you can appreciate a dream being fulfilled. If so, read on...
I wasn't sure if I'd even get close to the circuit, but I had to try. Considering that for the rest of the year the circuit used for the race is actually public roads within the park I thought I was in with a shout by foot. Even in my wildest dreams I never thought that just 2 weeks before, with the stands and barriers looking ready for a race, I'd get this much access. I walked up the start/finish straight and stood on pole position. Even the pits were taking shape, with the drivers and team names already in place above the garages - but of course, no Schumacher. It's not until you see it first hand like this that you appreciate how much hard work
must go into staging this. Most of it looked temporary - as if you came any other time of year you'd have no idea that this park could become a racing circuit. It was a moment like a football fan standing on a hallowed turf of a prestigious club.
Yes, this was my Nou Camp! I could have even 'kicked a ball about' had I known it - despite looking ready for action, the public were still driving and cycling round it...damn it!, I could have put the Hyundai Getz through its paces had I known. I was far from alone in my wonderment, as I watched a German couple taking photos of each other stepping to their marks on pole position and avoided the many people exploring it with amazement by car and bike.
St. Kilda We stayed in Cooee on St. Kilda Rd, about a 10min walk from St. Kilda itself. Cooee is fairly new, so it looked better than your average hostel/budget accommodation. Our double ensuite room was more like a hotel room, with a small LCD TV. However, for self catering, the kitchen and dining area were so tiny that you couldn't get in
Pits Straight
Albert Park Grand Prix circuit, still open to the public with only 2 weeks to go. Presumably the chicane is in place to stop boy racers like me doing practice starts! Shame. there after 6 o'clock and there was hardly any space to store your food. We thought the double room was expensive and felt that we were subsidising the bunk rooms, which were reasonably priced. We would rather do without the TV (it wasn't a Philips!) and pay less. However, it did cater for the backpacker that was strapped for cash, offering free bangers on certain nights (no good if you don't eat meat, like Sally!!) and having a pizza and film night for $4. Some of the staff at reception seemed to be a bit vague/wrapped up in each other and, as with a lot of hostels, there were never enough staff on when you needed them. I'd recommend staying in the city, as its a pain in the arse having to take the slow tram each time you want to go in the city. St Kilda is nice to visit for a day.
St Kilda is quite a colourful place - an unusual blend of people from all ends of the spectrum. You'd walk past Porsches parked up, then in the next stride pass a prostitute or two, no kidding. Then you'd pass a scruffy looking guy muttering
under his breath and give him a wide bearth because he is clearly criminally insane. Acland street is the hub of St. Kilda, an exciting mix of bars, restaurants, unusual shops and cake shops with amazing creations piled up to the ceiling. Around the corner, Fitzroy street is even more crammed with bars and restaurants. The beach itself here is okay if you're desperate for more rays, but nothing to get excited about.
So overall, there was loads to enjoy in Melbourne and we thoroughly enjoyed it here. Aside from eveything mentioned above, we also checked out Brunswick Street in Fitzroy which was similar to St. Kilda in it's mix of bars and restaurants. There's tons of shopping available in the city centre, from the upmarket Collins St, to all the usual Aussie High St. stores. The Botanic Gardens, billed as one of the finest in the world, were not bad at all, but still nothing beats Kew - even if it is free in Melbourne. And then you have Federation Square, which seemed to act as a bit of a hub for everyone to congregate - I could see why whilst the food and wine tasting was on,
Flinder's Street Station
Named after Matthew Flinders (as are so many city roads in Oz). A famous navigator who charted much of Australia's coastline. but beyond that I'm not sure what all the fuss is about with this square!
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Alix
non-member comment
How could you?
How can you not remember Stefan Dennis's song? Jesus I can even picture the great video in my head! Visions of him in his leather jacket with smoke bellowing around! "Dont it make you feel good!"