Anyway... I had four days off from Uni the weekend before last and decided to head down to Melbourne (pronounced Melbne in Aussie) with some of the other EAP kids.
As is tradition, a journal of my explorations in Melbourne...
Day One
My friend Shannon and I left straight from Uni Wednesday the 15th for the airport to catch our flight at 5pm. We got there quite a bit early and ended up being able to switch to the flight at 4. After a little more than two hours, we landed in Melbourne and began the task of finding our hostel in St. Kilda. Luckily for us, a shuttle took us from the airport to the center of the city where we caught a tram that took us right to our hostel. Another stroke of luck; the hostel messed up on our booking and accidently put us in an all girls six bunk room for the first two nights instead of the coed eight bunk rooms we had expected.
After settling into the room, and putting warmer clothes on since it was about 20 degrees cooler in Melbourne than it had been in Brissy, Shannon and I worked on our papers. Yes, papers. We had a short essay on an Australian habitat of our choice due on Friday so we managed to set out a little bit of time each day to work on them. For dinner, we found a hole in the wall Indian restaurant called Lentil as Anything that lets you decide how much you want to pay for your meal. We shared a plate of the most amazing curry ever then went back to the lounge area of our hostel and played giant Jenga while listening to a guy playing guitar and singing until Christina arrived; she had taken a later flight. Once she showed up, the three of us sat and listened to the guy performing then went upstairs to our rooms for an early sleep.
Day Two
Woke up early to do some more work on my paper. I'm such a good student :) Christina, Shannon, and I got some delicious coffee and wandered around the main street of St. Kilda. Once we were done with coffee, we bought a few day passes for the tram and headed to Brunswick St. to do some shopping. Everything was too expensive for our wallets, but we had fun looking through all the clothes. After a eating an amazing panini for lunch, we decided to try and find the Tim Burton Exhibit. We weren't quite sure where it was, but we figured the museum was a good place to start. Turns out, the exhibit was on the other side of the city from the museum so we hopped on a tram and got off at the convention center, which is not where the exhibit was either. We asked one of the ladies who worked at the convention center how to get to the exhibit and her directions took us in the wrong direction. So we got off yet another tram and waited for the one that would take us in the right direction. Then it started raining on us! :P We took shelter in the play equipment at a park right next to us and waited. Fortunately, the rain only lasted about ten minutes. The next tram we got on took us to Federation Square; the heart of the city... and the location of the exhibit! yay! Our next few hours we occupied by Edward Scissorhands, Jack Skellington, and the Mad Hatter along with some lesser known characters spawned by the strange mind of Tim Burton. Our day had made us quite hungry so we headed "home" to the hostel and cooked ourselves some pasta; an inexpensive staple in the diet of anyone traveling on a budget in a foreign country.
I suppose I've made it sound like we spent most of the day helplessly lost in a city none of us had ever seen before, but we took every wrong turn as a new adventure. We even intentionally spent time wandering around the streets of Melbourne taking in all the sights. The graffiti in Melbourne was fun to look at. For the most part, instead of names of gangs or profanities, they are works of art. It became part of our weekend to be on the look out for interesting graffiti everywhere we went. Also a big part of my weekend... coffee; I'm addicted and Melbourne has the best cappuccinos ever!
Day Three
I finished writing my paper right after I woke up and sent it into my professor for grading. Shannon was not quite done yet, so Christina and I made our way to a cafe for a nice cup of coffee. And what did we do while we were at the cafe? We studied for our midterms!!! Shannon met up with us a short while later and the three of us stayed there until about one before deciding to head into the city for some more explorations.
My homestay had suggested that I visit the Queen Victoria Markets during my stay in Melbourne, so that's where we went. It was sort of late in the day, as far as market hours go, by the time we got there so a lot of the vendors were breaking down there stalls, but all of the food vendors were still going full force. Since we hadn't eaten for a few hours, we bought a huge loaf of bread and some fancy cheese and sat outside filling our very happy bellies. We were so full from our little "snack" that we didn't have to eat dinner that night. We did however, have room for some tasty cakes from a bakery near our hostel.
Day Four
Since we missed out on most of the shopping at the markets, we got an early start wanting to get the full experience. Basically, the markets are a massive swap meet and everything sold there is heaps cheeper than in regular stores. So... naturally... we did all of our souvenir shopping there. After far too much time shopping, we visited China town, which was a lot smaller and cleaner than any China town in America.
Our last stop of the day was the Victoria National Gallery, home of the largest suspended stained glass in the world. On our way there, we passed a street performer who looked extremely familiar. We stopped to watch him and later found out that he was the guy staying in the bunk below mine back at our hostel. We also passed Melbourne's version of the Eiffel tour (at least, that's what I'm calling it) and a really cool rainbow high rise; its windows were all different colors. There was a bit of confusion in finding the right streets, because Melbourne doesn't feel the need to use street signs at every corner and they can't decide on just one name for a few of their streets, but at last, we made it to the gallery. The glass was amazing. We entered a large empty hall, walked right to the middle, then lay down and gazed upward. The entire ceiling was covered in a mosaic of glass; it wasn't as breathtaking as the cave of glow worms, but it was pretty amazing to see.
Day Five (sort of...)
Shannon and I had to wake up at 6:30 in the morning so we could get to the airport in time for our 8 am flight; I really do love having to rely on public transportation :P . That's all there is to say about sunday.
Cheers, Jessie
As is tradition, a journal of my explorations in Melbourne...
Day One
My friend Shannon and I left straight from Uni Wednesday the 15th for the airport to catch our flight at 5pm. We got there quite a bit early and ended up being able to switch to the flight at 4. After a little more than two hours, we landed in Melbourne and began the task of finding our hostel in St. Kilda. Luckily for us, a shuttle took us from the airport to the center of the city where we caught a tram that took us right to our hostel. Another stroke of luck; the hostel messed up on our booking and accidently put us in an all girls six bunk room for the first two nights instead of the coed eight bunk rooms we had expected.
After settling into the room, and putting warmer clothes on since it was about 20 degrees cooler in Melbourne than it had been in Brissy, Shannon and I worked on our papers. Yes, papers. We had a short essay on an Australian habitat of our choice due on Friday so we managed to set out a little bit of time each day to work on them. For dinner, we found a hole in the wall Indian restaurant called Lentil as Anything that lets you decide how much you want to pay for your meal. We shared a plate of the most amazing curry ever then went back to the lounge area of our hostel and played giant Jenga while listening to a guy playing guitar and singing until Christina arrived; she had taken a later flight. Once she showed up, the three of us sat and listened to the guy performing then went upstairs to our rooms for an early sleep.
Day Two
Woke up early to do some more work on my paper. I'm such a good student :) Christina, Shannon, and I got some delicious coffee and wandered around the main street of St. Kilda. Once we were done with coffee, we bought a few day passes for the tram and headed to Brunswick St. to do some shopping. Everything was too expensive for our wallets, but we had fun looking through all the clothes. After a eating an amazing panini for lunch, we decided to try and find the Tim Burton Exhibit. We weren't quite sure where it was, but we figured the museum was a good place to start. Turns out, the exhibit was on the other side of the city from the museum so we hopped on a tram and got off at the convention center, which is not where the exhibit was either. We asked one of the ladies who worked at the convention center how to get to the exhibit and her directions took us in the wrong direction. So we got off yet another tram and waited for the one that would take us in the right direction. Then it started raining on us! :P We took shelter in the play equipment at a park right next to us and waited. Fortunately, the rain only lasted about ten minutes. The next tram we got on took us to Federation Square; the heart of the city... and the location of the exhibit! yay! Our next few hours we occupied by Edward Scissorhands, Jack Skellington, and the Mad Hatter along with some lesser known characters spawned by the strange mind of Tim Burton. Our day had made us quite hungry so we headed "home" to the hostel and cooked ourselves some pasta; an inexpensive staple in the diet of anyone traveling on a budget in a foreign country.
I suppose I've made it sound like we spent most of the day helplessly lost in a city none of us had ever seen before, but we took every wrong turn as a new adventure. We even intentionally spent time wandering around the streets of Melbourne taking in all the sights. The graffiti in Melbourne was fun to look at. For the most part, instead of names of gangs or profanities, they are works of art. It became part of our weekend to be on the look out for interesting graffiti everywhere we went. Also a big part of my weekend... coffee; I'm addicted and Melbourne has the best cappuccinos ever!
Day Three
I finished writing my paper right after I woke up and sent it into my professor for grading. Shannon was not quite done yet, so Christina and I made our way to a cafe for a nice cup of coffee. And what did we do while we were at the cafe? We studied for our midterms!!! Shannon met up with us a short while later and the three of us stayed there until about one before deciding to head into the city for some more explorations.
My homestay had suggested that I visit the Queen Victoria Markets during my stay in Melbourne, so that's where we went. It was sort of late in the day, as far as market hours go, by the time we got there so a lot of the vendors were breaking down there stalls, but all of the food vendors were still going full force. Since we hadn't eaten for a few hours, we bought a huge loaf of bread and some fancy cheese and sat outside filling our very happy bellies. We were so full from our little "snack" that we didn't have to eat dinner that night. We did however, have room for some tasty cakes from a bakery near our hostel.
Day Four
Since we missed out on most of the shopping at the markets, we got an early start wanting to get the full experience. Basically, the markets are a massive swap meet and everything sold there is heaps cheeper than in regular stores. So... naturally... we did all of our souvenir shopping there. After far too much time shopping, we visited China town, which was a lot smaller and cleaner than any China town in America.
Our last stop of the day was the Victoria National Gallery, home of the largest suspended stained glass in the world. On our way there, we passed a street performer who looked extremely familiar. We stopped to watch him and later found out that he was the guy staying in the bunk below mine back at our hostel. We also passed Melbourne's version of the Eiffel tour (at least, that's what I'm calling it) and a really cool rainbow high rise; its windows were all different colors. There was a bit of confusion in finding the right streets, because Melbourne doesn't feel the need to use street signs at every corner and they can't decide on just one name for a few of their streets, but at last, we made it to the gallery. The glass was amazing. We entered a large empty hall, walked right to the middle, then lay down and gazed upward. The entire ceiling was covered in a mosaic of glass; it wasn't as breathtaking as the cave of glow worms, but it was pretty amazing to see.
Day Five (sort of...)
Shannon and I had to wake up at 6:30 in the morning so we could get to the airport in time for our 8 am flight; I really do love having to rely on public transportation :P . That's all there is to say about sunday.
Cheers, Jessie
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