Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Hey all
I know it's only been a few days since we last wrote a blog, but we are in a hostel tonight which has internet access so I thought I'd make use of it and update you all on our time in melbourne, before we pick up our campervan tomorrow and drive to Sydney.
We have just spent the last 5 days in melbourne, and have had a brilliant time. melbourne is such a cool city, there's so much to do and the city has a great vibe about it. We arrived here on Tuesday eve after driving the final leg of the Great Ocean Road and met our friend Vicky, who we had met on the tour of the outback. The day we arrived was the Melbourne cup day, which meant that the streets were full of people in dresses and hats and suits coming back from the races - it was a spectacular sight, especially as we hadn't realised that the cup was SUCH a big event, and it really is true when they say that it's the 'event which stops the nation.'! Vicky showed us around melbourne and we went to the Eureka tower which is the tallest building in melbourne, where they have an observation deck at the top. The views over melbourne were great, especially as it was night time and we could see the whole city lit up - it was only a shame that we were seeing it on our first night, and we were still orientating ourselves so didn't quite know what all the different buildings and areas below us were! After the tower we went to melbourne casino as it's supposed to have a good atmosphere on cup day. That was certainly true, and after I had finally been let in after being ID'd we spent the first 15 minutes just walking around the place which is absolutly HUGE and admiring all the outfits and hats which the women who had been to the races were wearing (well, Vicky and I were atleast!) We stopped for a drink in one of the bars, and bought a 'giant cocktail' to shre which was so big, the glass was taller than the span of my elbow to my hand! We had a really good night soaking up the atmosphere and talking to the very drunk Australians who were out celebrating their winnings.
On our first full day in Melbourne we still had the hire car, so we decided to have a road trip to the beach via the neighbours set. We were lucky enough to turn up at the set when there was no filming and so could walk around and take photos infront the the houses ( it was very cool standing and posing outside karl and Susans house!) and Phil chatted to the security guard whilst Vicky and I got very excited about the fact that we were stood on Ramsay street! We finished our road trip by driving down the coast to a place called Arthurs Seat, which was supposed to have a chairlift up to an observation point which has really good views of melbourne nad the coast. Unfortunatly, the chair lift wasn't working when we got thre so we just drove to the top, had a picnic looking at the view, and then drove back down again! The view was really good though so we didn't mind driving all the way there, and as the weather still wasn't that good we couldn't have gone to the beach so it didn't matter too much.
We spent the next few nights at our friend Andrea's house, who I volunteered with in tanzania, in the suburbs of melbourne. It was really good to see Andrea again, and lovely to stay with her. We spent the first evening chilling out and having dinner, which was a welcome change from our hectic traveling schedules! The next two days we spent in the city centre and, although it tipped it down and was freezing for both days, still managed to have a really good time as there's just so many different things to do and the atmosphere is great. We did all the 'sights' of melbourne like St Pauls cathedral, flinders street station, federation square, queen voctoria market and the botanical gardens and also visited two of the art galleriens (partly just to shelter from the rain!) Melbourne has a real cafe culture and we also spent quite abit of time in the little cafes that are down the different side streets which was lovely, although as half the time we were sheltering from the wind and the rain it felt like a cold winters day in England! Melbourne is really geared up for tourists and they have a free city tram and bus, both of which have commentry about the city as you're going round. We used the tram quite abit to get to places we needed to go, but on our second day of sightseeing we did a whole loop on the tourist bus just ao we could shelter from the rain and eat our sandwiches in the dry - I really felt like a budget traveler at that point!
On Saturday Andrea took us out to the Yarra valley as her dad owns a winery there. We stopped via another winery en route so we could compare, and the wine gallery had an art gallery attached to it so we went there before the tasting so we could feel that we had doen something cultured with our day! Visiting Andreas dads winery was really good fun, and such a treat to have a 'personal touch' as we were the only people there! Andreas dad didn't quite stick to the normal wine tasting measures though, and gave us about half a glass of wine for each tasting, so needless to say I ended up feeling not too good later in the evening! The wine tasting was a really fun day, not only for the tastings but also for the views - the yarra valley really is beautiful, and we were so glad that we had been able to see not only the city and the beach, but also the countryside during our time in melbourne. To finish off the wine tasting, Phil, Andrea and I went out in melbourne on Saturday night with some of Andreas friends. After a false start where Phil got refused entry to a bar because he was wearing 'flipflops' (I protested that they were brikenstocks and even had backs in them so were almost shoes - but to no avail! Phils response was simply 'but I'm English!') and we had to go back home so he could get changed, we had a really good night.
We spent our final full day in melbourne in st Kilda, a beach town just outside of the city. I instantly fell in love with the town, it is a really cool, trendy area with lots of cafes, vintage shops and on the day we were there there was an arts and crafts market. It was a great place to spend a Sunday, and we wandered along the beach, tried the different cafes and checked out the market.
I'd best sign off now as Phil made me promise to make the post short, and I seem to have not done as I'm told....!!!!
Hope everyone is well and looking forward to reading your posts on the message boards
Love Cat and Phil xxxxx
- comments