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Published: September 11th 2007
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MCG - Melbourne
Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) Richmond vs Collingwood, Richmond bottom of the AFL won for only the second time this season With only 6 full days in Melbourne and the same in Sydney this was never gonna leave me time to do loads of exploring, so I decided to take it easy 😊....
P.S. Forgot to mention that, before I left Bali I went to the hairdressers and had my hair dyed blonde! So if you think something is different in the pictures....
Melbourne
Shame it was the middle of winter when I arrived in Melbourne, this was a bit of a shock to the system after spending the lost couple of months in lovely tropical weather working on my sun tan.
Unlike Sydney this was my first ever visit to Melbourne. As I was now well and truly out of Asia I was also not gonna be getting my own bedrooms and was back to dorm rooms (and the snorers!!). Checked into hostel near the centre of Melbourne and near to the bus station and set off to explore the city.
Like the rest of Australia before, I first noticed what a beautiful place Melbourne was, situated on the river Yarra , and with the town centre only a few KMs from the coast. It was
Hostel Back packing - Melbourne
Mike/Hero/Mark/Scott at hostel in Melbourne....... a purpose built city and like New York was grid based so was easily navigated around. Melbourne has some lovely early 20st century architecture, and because of its wide streets still has trams throughout the city centre.
The guys that I met at the hostel and I headed to
Rialto Towers Observation deck, where we got impressive 360-degree views of the city grid and river system, as it was 253m up, it was certainly a high 😊 Also went on a tour of
Melbourne Town hall, and luckily for us on this tour the Melbourne Orchestra were practicing in at the time, and we got to hear them practice in a practically empty hall (so performing just for us), sounded awesome.
Also went to the
Botanical gardens (every major town in Australia or New Zealand seems to have one), which was a very lovely and had a relaxed walk while seeing many types of wonderful plants and trees, which unfortunately I cannot remember the names of.............. Also went to the
Melbourne Memorial monument as always interested to read more about the history (especially in war) of a county!.
The big must for me in Melbourne was
to see an Aussie Rules (AFL) game at the
MCG (Melbourne Cricket ground), also called the Big 'G'. We didn't really know the rules of the game when we arrived on the Friday evening or the fact that with breaks it lasts over 2.5hrs! Two Melbourne teams were playing so was pretty good crowd of 50,000 for the midweek game. The two teams were Collingwood who reportedly are the most supported team and Richmond who were bottom of the league. Against the form book and to the annoyance of the Collingwood fans behind us, Richmond won, hip hip and high five I am now a Richmond Tigers AFL fan!
Missed out on the neighbours tour so Helen Daniels & Harold Bishop I'll see you another time, and also didn't go on the Great Ocean Road near Melbourne, that's for another time when I go back in the summer months!
Sydney
I had been to Sydney about 7 years previous, just after the Sydney Olympic games in 2000, when I had spent 5 weeks travelling the east coast of Australia from Sydney to Cairns (which by the way is awesome). So I had done alot of the
- Sydney
Can see the MCG in the background tourists things, which included going to Bondi and Manly beaches, visiting the Zoo and Aquarium, climbing the Harbour bridge and taking pictures of the Opera house.
This time unfortunatley just like Melbourne I had arrived in Sydney's winter and it was alot colder than the previous visit when I was here in November.
Whilst in Sydney I stayed with my relatives who live in Sydney, Vivienne and Jackie (hello to both of you and thanks for letting me stay), in Engadine which is on the outskirts of Sydney near the bush land.
One thing that I had not visited last time I was in Sydney (I had bought a tour for it but was too hung over on that occasion to make it!!) was the
Three Sisters in the
Blue Mountains. The Blue Mountains are about a 2hr train ride from centre of Sydney and so easily visited as day trip. The three sisters are rock formations that legend has it were three sisters that were turned into stone by Aboriginal magician when tribe was invaded, and he died during the battles and the girls were never turned back into living flesh. Echo Point has awe-inspiring views
of the three sisters and the Blue mountains.
Also at the same site as the blue Mountains is Scenic World which is a theme'ish sort of park complex with rides that show the perfect views. This included the scenic railway with a 45 degree drop, which was very steep and one of the steepest railway lines in the world! There is also the scenic skyway (cable car half crosses Katooba falls) and Scenisender (enclosed cable car)
Back at the Sydney Harbour I also went on the
public ferry service from the Circular Quay to Darling Harbour. This was an ideal short journey which goes across Sydney harbour giving amazing views of the Opera house as it sails by, then great views of the Harbour bridge as ferry goes under it to Darling Harbour. This ferry journey gives you just as good views as a private tour around the harbour, but at a fraction of the price.
Had a heavy all night session in Irish pub I visited last time I was in Sydney, and then was ready for the even colder New Zealand 😊
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shell
non-member comment
BLOND????
Not sure about the hair! Is blond the new name 4 ginger? shell xxx