Sunday I had plans to meet some of my mum’s friends for dinner so I nipped out of class early and headed off to Federation Square to meet Steve and Wendy. Now let me just give you a bit of background on how my mum knows this Aussie couple. I’ll preface it with the fact that my mum has never been to Australia. She meet them on Facebook on an ATP/AI group. And she’d given Steven a reading. So really it was divine that they happened to live in Melbourne, my first Australian city! I think my dad might have been a bit sketched out that I was staying with strangers his wife had met online. Turns out I couldn’t have had better hosts. I was supposed to stay with them Thursday and Friday before class but due to my topsy-turvy arrival I couldn’t. so we settled on a Sunday night dinner.
Now I met them for dinner and we went to this really cool place that apparently only the cool people of Melbourne know about. It’s called Pellegrini's and it’s this cool Italian food place. As we talked they were curious what were my plans for the rest of my stay in Melbourne and where I was sleeping. I was like I don’t know I’ll wake up tomorrow and find a hostel I suppose. They weren’t going to have any of that. So after dinner I grabbed my suitcase, told Charles I’d see him on the weekend and I was off to a cute little suburb of Melbourne.
The next day I was up early to catch a ride to the metro. Steve went by it on the way to work so I was lucky enough to get door to door service. I got to city centre about 8h30 and I was ready to take on the world!
One of the cool places I stumbled upon was Hosier Lane. Where apparently it’s legal to spray-paint on anything… it was really pretty.
I spent a good two hours in the botanical gardens.
Where I found Fern Gully…
Then I wandered over to the Shrine of Remembrance because I was told it offered a great view of the city. And it did but it was a bit foggy and the pictures weren’t that great. I promised myself to go back the next day.
I still had a little time before I had to catch the metro back out to Hoppers Crossing. So I went to the old treasury building. It was cool because you got to talk into the old safes
And I got to see some gold
Not only was it pretty it was really yummy too.
After dinner as I was cruising the internet on my phone I got a Facebook message from Chia-Ning, a woman who was just in the ACP class. We didn’t really get a chance in class to talk but I had given her my card and told her to get in touch. Turns out she wanted to meet up for coffee the next day and show me around a bit.
Now I figured being the introvert that I am that Chia-Ning would get tired of me after a short chat and coffee. Well I’ll preface this with the fact that she calls me while on the metro in and she’s like I’ll meet you in Melbourne Central in a half hour. And I was like cool! Done!
So we met in Melbourne Central under the big clock. And we hung around to see the chiming of the hour. Turns out the clock performs!!
Cute right? Delightful really.
Then we headed past the old jail…
To Victoria market. It was like any other cute market where you could get veggies, meat, souvenirs… anything you wanted really. I’m always a bit jealous of people who have these in their towns because it makes me really want one close to my house.
After wandering through the market we saw the exhibition centre and the little park around it.
Turns out we were really close to Chia-Ning’s flat and she lives in a high rise…so I got to see an amazing view of Melbourne!
Next we went to Saint Patrick’s Cathedral.
By then it was lunch time so I was lucky I had a guide who knew some cool places to go. We ate at Hopetoun Tea Rooms.
Now see it’s mega classy and I couldn’t help but imagine what fun it would have been to be a Victorian lady and get to go to tea rooms all the kind. And all the sweets!!
Needless to say my imagination was in over drive because that’s what it tends to do when I do something cool.
After lunch we wandered to the Shrine Of Remembrance.
I was happy it was a clear day and I ended up getting some really good pictures.
It was getting close to the time I had to make it metro to head out. But I wanted to try and buy my train ticket to Sydney before going… I ended up not having time but that was okay. I ended up buying it that night.
My last night in Melbourne was lovely and relaxing. Usually when I ravel I forget to just relax and take a breather every now and again. The next day I would be up a bit earlier so I could catch my 8h30 train to Sydney.
Melbourne was the perfect city to start my Adventures in Oz. Why? Well it wasn’t over whelming, so I didn’t feel the need to exhaust myself and see absolutely everything because it was easy to see everything at a relaxed pace. Also it was nice to stay with Steve and Wendy and be able to talk about how the class had been. And I had a personal tour guide, Chia-Ning, to show me the little cool bits of Melbourne I would have missed if I’d gone at it on my own.
But Melbourne was only my first stop and the adventure had just begun!
Cheers,
No comments:
Post a Comment