Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2004 13:08:33 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Finished one city and on to another!
Howdy,
Its been 3 days since my last email, and amazingly enough, not much has
happened in the last 3 days!! I was in Melbourne, and there's not a whole lot
to see in the city.
Boxing Day morning -- the only "good" day of the last three -- one of my chat
friends (for those of you who know her: "Shiny happy person".. Laura) and her
boyfriend Jon were coming over to show me around town. I didn't do much before
they came (there wasn't much to see) so just waited in my hotel...
First sightseeing stop was the observation deck at Rialto Tower -- tallest
building in Melbourne. The Melbourne Cricket Ground was visible to the
southeast.. Crown Tower to the South.. and the docks and open land to the
west.. with the Yarra River seemingly connecting everything together! So it was
a nice view, and probably the best sightseeing attraction in the city that I
saw.
we were all starving, so next stop was lunch at the Crown Center, a large mall
with a casino and highrise hotel, on the banks of the Yarra. Both Laura & Jon
kept asking me what I wanted to see, and I really didn't have much! An
"introduction to Melbourne" movie at the Rialto Tower confirmed that -- there's
not much to see in the city! For a while I was also debating whether or not to
go to the cricket game, but it was probably sold out. So we talked about
places..... New Zealand, Europe, U.S., .....
Well, supposedly, one of the "introductory" things in Melbourne is the (free)
City Circle Tram. We got on and made a circle of the city (about 45 minutes) --
with recorded commentary on board that was muffled by the sound of the wheels
on the railroad track. Once again confirming to me that Melbourne is a nice
city to live in and to roam around, but not much to actually SEE. Yes they have
an old prison but I wasn't too interested in that. They have an aquarium and I
wasn't too interested in that either -- but went anyway -- and it turned out to
be a way to pass the time. One thing I definitely wanted was to go to Lygon
Street for dinner.
A couple of you had told me that too -- Lygon Street is "THE" place to go to
eat italian food in Melbourne. By the time we were finished with the aquarium
it was around 2 or 3pm, and we started to just wait around for dinnertime. Went
to Federation Square -- very nice -- and had a few drinks and just sat and
chatted over there for a couple hours.... again about New Zealand, Europe,
U.S., Thailand/China (they had just been there)....
5:30, off to Lygon Street for dinner.
I remember Agra, India -- on that street leading up to the Taj Mahal, all the
shopkeepers would be outside, grabbing on to the tourists' elbows and telling
them to come take a look inside the shops..
Lygon street was the same atmosphere, except they wouldn't grab our elbows. But
they would say things like "come eat here, I'll give you 1 bottle of wine on
the house"... hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...... tempting, but Jon didn't like that
kind of attitude from them, so we walked around until we got to a restaurant
where no one pressured us to sit down. That's where we sat down.
Good dinner with the typically huge portions (and "pollo" pronounced with the 2
L's in the waiter's australian accent)... then off to a cafe for what Laura
promised would be good tiramisu. Well, I didn't have tiramisu, but the pastry I
had was just as good :D
So that was it for the day.... we walked back to the train station (all the way
across downtown -- and Melbourne's Chinatown), made plans to go to "Puffing
Billy Railroad" the next day, and both of them went home on the train while I
walked back to my hotel.
Hmm, things didn't exactly go according to plan after that.
I went to sleep pretty quickly after reaching the hotel, and woke up around
2am. Then stayed awake all night watching the breaking news about Thailand etc.
In the morning (27th), I was feeling quite sleepy so I cancelled the Puffing
Billy railroad plans. Napped a little, then suddenly got it in my head to go
see the cricket game. By now it was also lunchtime, so had to grab lunch first
on the way to the stadium... So far it had been a bright and sunny day.
By the time I took the tram to Federation Square, went inside a cafe and got my
lunch "take-away" (not "to go"), it was pouring rain. Literally had to run back
to the tram stop (drenched by then) and hop on the tram back to the hotel -- no
cricket game.
By the time I got back to the hotel (about a 5 or 10 minute tram ride) it was
sunny again and very windy and cold. That's the thing about Melbourne -- you
can have 4 seasons in a single day.
Anyway, I spent the rest of the day in my room, watching the cricket on tv...
didn't see anything else in Melbourne.
The next morning (28th -- yesterday), it was time to check out. I wanted to go
to into the mountains to the east of the city, but it was raining quite hard so
decided to just drive wherever the road took me. "And if I ended up at Phillip
Island by sunset, I'll go there." Well.... I didn't go to Phillip Island, which
is probably one of the star attractions in the area. It's a small island about
2 hours from Melbourne, and every day at sundown, you can see penguins making
their way onto the beach... "Penguin Parade".
I'll be back in Melbourne to see the Penguin Parade some other time...
The road took me (through no fault of my own) to Wilsons Promontory National
Park. I "U-eed" at the entry gate and went back to the highway. Didn't feel
like paying the $10 entrance fee for just a couple of viewpoints.
Now I'm Bairnsdale, VIC, and have an 800 km drive ahead of me to Sydney, where
I'll be until the 2nd..... then back to "Brissie" (Brisbane) for my flight out
:-(
This is what I wrote in my notebook yesterday morning before I started driving:
"Rialto Tower = best views of the city, 2.5 stars
Aquarium = Bah. 1 star
Federation Square = Great place to just hang out, relax and have a few
drinks.
Lygon Street = An experience all by itself!"
ok, its now past 8 AM, which means time to go get ready and head out...
g'day
View from the Rialto Tower:
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View from my room: (the last picture shows MCG on the far left)
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