The Trip Down South: Melbourne

After my trip to Hobart, Tasmania I got to spend a week in Melbourne. It is a great city that is very artsy and modern. That being said, there is a lot of Victorian history that is in Melbourne and I had a lot of fun being a total tourist for a week.

I arrived in Melbourne on Saturday night, October 22^nd. I got checked into my hostel, and bedded down for the night in a very squeaky bed. On Sunday I just wandered about the city getting my bearings. After using the free internet at the good ol’ McDonalds, I got on the free City Circle tram and went to the Flagstaff Gardens. It was a beautiful day so I sat in the park and soaked in the sunshine. It is starting to get very hot here as summer is just around the corner. I am probably the only odd-ball that is craving cold weather, snow, and a pair of skies.

Monday was much more of a productive day. It started with another trip to McDonalds for internet so that I could catch up on emails, facebook and things like that. Next I went to the Immigration Museum. It was really interesting and a very good museum. They had true stories and accounts of immigrates dating back to the 1800s. After the museum I went to the very famous, Federation Square next to the Flinders Street Railway Station. Federation Square is a very scaled down Times Square, but the same idea. It is a basic meeting place and open lounge area in the middle of the city. It is surrounded by little galleries, cafes, restaurants and things like that. One exhibit on display was ABBAWORLD. For those of you who know me and my love of Mamma Mia! there was no way that I was going to pass this up. It was a little hokey, and cheeky, but still fabulous. They had the original costumes from Abba’s touring years as well as records, albums, and lots of pictures. I had a ball. To wrap up the day I walked to Town Hall. It really is just a beautiful building that stands in the middle of the city. Lots of the buildings in Melbourne are old, rustic, historic and really breath taking.

Tuesday was another very busy day. This time is started with going to the Victoria State Library rather than the very classy McDonalds. After the library I went to the Old Melbourne Gaol, which is the old prison. It is most famous for being the execution sight of the bush walker Ned Kelly in the late 1880s. After the Gaol, I went to the Melbourne Museum and Royal Exhibition building. One of the exhibits in the museum was “The Melbourne Story”. It was a detailed history of the first landing in Melbourne all the way up to present day. It was really interested and very fun to see all of artifacts. I spent the rest of the day there before grabbing sushi for dinner.

On Wednesday, I switched hostels because I was meeting a friend. That afternoon I went to the Australian Museum for the Moving Image. It was very interested, but all of the lights and images started to make you go dizzy after too long. Thursday we were supposed to go on a tour of the Great Ocean Road, but it was full so we pushed that to Friday instead. So on Thursday, we took the City Circle Tram to the Parliament building and walked around the many churches there. St. Patrick’s Cathedral is one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen. It was so regal with its gothic architecture, and tons of blooming flowers surrounding the grounds. I will have to post pictures. Thursday afternoon I walked around the theater district and saw some of the most beautiful theaters in the world I think. Princess Theatre was where Hairspray was playing and it really looked more like a mansion or a palace than a theatre. Pictures will come soon for that too.

Friday was the long awaited Great Ocean Road tour. It was an early morning; we were picked up from our hostel at 7:30 AM. Our day started off with an hour or so drive to Bells Beach. It is a famous surfing spot and I guess there was Patrick Swayze film made about it, but they filmed it in Portland Oregon. It was a beautiful spot and that is where we had morning tea. Unfortunately, there were not huge waves so there were not attractive surfer boys roaming around.

The next stop was the Great Ocean Road archway. The archway is actually a memorial to soldiers of World War I that built the road. The archway that is there today is the third archway that has been built because the others have burned down in bush fires. So in a way, the memorial archway is a memorial to a memorial to a memorial.

After that we drove along the GOR through Lorne and Anglesea, stopped to see wild Koalas and birds and then continued on until Apollo Bay where we stopped for lunch—grilled fish and chips with salad. After a guided walk through some inner land bush territory we went to the Loch Ard Gorge. This is famous because of a shipwreck in the late 1800s. The gorge was breathtaking and the water was the most beautiful colours you have ever seen: a seafoam green that darkened to the deepest cobalt blue. After the gorge, we went to the 12 Apostles.

It turns out that we were lucky that we went on Friday and not Thursday because on Thursday both the 12 Apostles and London Bridge were closed to the public because they were doing bush burning. The 12 Apostles are big limestone pillars in the middle of the ocean. They used to be archways but over time, the arches have fallen away. The funny part of the story is that there never were 12. People named them the 12 Apostles in order to gain a tourist attraction but in fact there were only 9. Since then, one has fallen away into the sea, so now there are only 8.

The last stop of the day was to London Bridge. How clever of a name, but yes it is London Bridge and it did fall down. It’s basically just a large outcropping of the land into the ocean. But in January of 1990 part of it collapsed, so now there is a big gap between the land in the ocean and the mainland. There is a bit of a story as well: Two people were on London Bridge when it collapsed. They were married, and not harmed, but only stranded on the far side of the bridge. Someone saw the bridge collapse and went to the police station shouting, “London Bridge has fallen down!!!” Everyone laughed at him, but he was so worked up about it that one police officer believed him. They called the Melbourne Rescue service but the only helicopter they could get at the time was a Channel 7 news helicopter so in return for the helicopter, they took a reporter and cameraman. When they went to rescue the two people the man and woman hid their faces from the camera. Turns out, that they were taking a sikkie (“sick day from work”) and didn’t want to have their bosses see where they were, also they were married but not to each other. So they were having an affair and didn’t want their spouses finding out.

We got back to Melbourne late on Friday night and went straight to sleep. We had an early day this morning catching the train at 8:40 to Adelaide. Now I am on the train and have been for eight or so hours. Two more to go and I will be in Adelaide!