Week 2 - Melbourne

Next up - Melbourne and with a little help from some friends we had a place to stay to base ourselves from - to which we are very grateful for, given the price of getting around and acomodation and all the stuff in between. Tim and I were staying next to the beach but at this end of Australia there isnt a lot between you and the Antarctica - you can imagine we werent too impressed with how cold it was!!! Especially in the night/evening when the temperatures just plummets! I invested in a scarf which was just biggest joke ever, given that we have just been in 30+ degree climates and it is appraoching summer here in Australia where temperature are same if not in some cases worse!!! In any case, I was so grateful for my scarf, hoodie, jumper and jeans! The beach itself in Melbourne is pretty small but the sea front walk stretches all the way down the coast beyond St Kilda's and beyond the city in the other direction.

We spent some time in Melbourne exploring the city and loving its more European feel, particularly with the huge cafe culture here. We also took advantage of the dining out experience and the huge range of Australian Wines, they're not half bad! We ate a lovely Italian Restaurant that did wonderful pizzas - filing too and the tastiest we had since arriving into Australia. We also did a stop at the Melbourne Museum and got our first insight into the varied landscapes of Australia and even did ourselves a Rainforest Walk. We also got our first insight into the Aboriginal ways of life and their history in Australia before and after the Europeans arrived. The whole experience was interesting since we hadnt done a museum in a little while now, however, we found it to be quite disorganised and that did make it all a bit frustrating because it was a shame finding out that there were more parts to the museum that we just did not have the time to appreciate. In a nutshell, the museum was more of an exhibiton for a bit of science, natural history, environmental issues, human evolvement, biology, zoo-ology, australian history, politics, art.....you get the idea; all a bit disjointed and a serious lack of focus.

We did some more sightseeing of the city including a surprise viewing of the AFL team as they were due to be playing the Finals at the weekend. Screaming girls and one of the players named 'Ricky' wasnt cool, so we got out of the mayhem and saw an open air exhibition of photos from the sky around the world. The exhibition is called 'Earth From Above and sound familiar to some. It takes a look at things on Earth from a different perspective. In fact it was the same exhibition as the one that toured Birmingham while we were at uni, but they had a different selection of photos so it was nice to look at them all again.

We later followed the river walk of the Yarra and over the bridge to the MCG - the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which is comparable to Lords in the UK. Here we took in the all the sports memorabillia, but whats a visit to the grounds without stepping inside? We didnt know they had timed tours and that these had actually finished until we got there, so at my insistence I convinced Tim that we should just ask to go inside even if its to the glassed bit inside so that we can just see inside the stadium. So in Tims poshest of accents, he asks a guy that clearly is a patron there and low and behold we wangled ourselves a free tour of the stadium, inside the stadium function rooms and the grounds, down the aisles to the grass and even stand in the Patron and VIP sections! Sweet!

So after putting a smile on Tims face with the MCG thing, it was time for a smile on my face - that meant a shopping spree!!!For work clothes, of course, or so that was the plan and in the end it was Tim who manged to get fully kitted for work, and me, I got the one pair of shoes. Boo!

All good though, I still had a glass of wine to hand, and my scarf! We finished Melbourne after much investigation as to whether or not we could live here and get a job. In a word, No. It just wasnt as finacially feasible as Sydney. So a bus back it was and time to get ourselves sorted with a roof over our head and a job. Not before a stop over in Kings Cross though!

written by

Priya&Tim on October 2, 2006 from Melbourne, Australia

from the travel blog: Cheeky Round The World Trip

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