Melbourne

12/12/11-16/12/11

Time to travel back in the right direction to resume my travels around Australia; I had my last train journey using my rail pass. It was a long 10 hours back to Melbourne, the third time I had had to do this journey. When I arrived I had a short walk to my hostel located in the north of the city centre, it is one of the biggest in OZ with over 800 people staying in it at one time. My main task was to send a birthday text home back to my sister – the first birthday of hers that I had missed.

On my first full day in Melbourne I decided to stick to the area around my hostel near to the Queen Victoria markets. I first went to visit Melbourne Old Gaol which was the scene of the famous bushranger Ned Kelly execution by hanging. The visit also included a brief stint being locked up in the local police holding cells where the pervious occupant’s writing still adorns every surface. In the afternoon I moved on to Melbourne museum to see the most famous attraction in the entire city – the legendary horse?.

Another fine start to the day as I made my way south back to Federation Square to check out an exhibition that had caught my eye the last time I was down here – Star Voyager in the Centre for Moving Image. The exhibition focused on how space has been seen and portrayed on screen including looking at moon landing footage to big budget motion blockbusters of Hollywood – very interesting to a fan of Si-fi like myself. Later I made my way across the Yarras River to get a view of the city from up above using the Skydeck – this is on the 88th floor of a skyscraper. The views where very impressive from up there, you could see the whole of Melbourne stretching out across the distance. After I walked down to the War Memorial before heading back towards the city via the National Gallery to round off my day in the south of the city.

Hopping on a tram, today I made my way to the coast to visit the famous seaside resort of St Kilda. Here I caught sight of the Spirit of Tasmania waiting to begin its voyage down south. After I walk along the beach and out to the end of the pier I made my way inland to see the creepy smiling face of Mr Moon at the entrance to Luna Park which was closed to a private school function. Here in good old British tradition I had my first Oz fish and chip lunch under the palm trees of the local park. In the evening back at the hostel I went down to the bar to claim my free drink during jam night where people are encouraged to get together and jam using any of the instruments provided, three willing lads managed to perform a decent version of Teenage Dirt bag.

On my last full day in Melbourne I went on a walk along the Yarras River stopping off to visit the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Walking around the ground I saw a small crowd of people assembled around the bowling nets, I wandered over to find legendary spin bowler Shane Warne practising in the nets along which his Twenty20 team mates. While here I also got a view of the tennis courts being prepared for the Australian Open at the start of the New Year. Heading back to base I visited Federation Square for one more time popping into have a quick look around the National Gallery of Australia.