The guys were flying home today so we decided to split up. I went over to the Queen Victoria Market after breakfast for a little by myself just to walk around and also to get another doughnut... the things were addicting. When I was walking around part of the market we initially missed (it was that big) I passed this guy selling wine. They had some in bottles but most was just in barrels. The company was "ReWine." Basically, if you brought your own wine bottle you got $2 off the price of the wine. It was an awesome concept. Recycling can only do so much; reusing is where it is at. So he let me try some of the wines (yes, this is at like 10am) and I was talking to him about things to do in Melbourne and also about the company (very eco-friendly). After all that I decided to get this Spanish wine that was incredible. Wine in hand I headed back to the hostel.
Gina and I found out about a craft fair in St. Kilda and figured we would take the bus to check that out. St. Kilda is a suburb of Melbourne with a beach (if you can even call it that), a boardwalk, a bunch of stores, and Luna Park (an amusement park). It was real cold, especially by the water. We walked around for a while looking at the craft tents. There were a bunch of people selling jewelry, pictures, clothing, and even cutting boards and other woodwork. I got another souvenir from that craft fair. We walked down to the beach and it was pretty disappointing. There was debris everywhere--bottles, garbage, etc. Pretty depressing. We didn't really know what else to do there so we just headed back to the city to continue our adventures for the day.
By the time we got back to the city we were definitely thinking about lunch. We decided to go back to Lygon St. (the Italian area). When traveling, do as the locals do. With that in mind, we followed a bunch of people into the busiest Italian restaurant on the street. The food was real good, but still nothing like home. After lunch we walked around more parks and saw a group of like 100+ people on speed bikes drinking beer. Yes, very bad combination. I went up to one of them and asked what they were doing and it was something like a skidding competition. It didn't really make sense when he was explaining it but we stayed and watched for a little. Basically, each person had a turn to race up to this line and then they had to skid on their tires and the person who skid the farthest won. It was interesting to say the least. We definitely didn't stay too long. We continued our walk and passed the Melbourne Museum which pretty much looked like a rubix cube. We just continued to wander around and made it back to Federation Square all the way on the other side of the city. We walked through the back alleys of the Square and saw the most amazing graffiti that I had ever seen. During my time here I have come to realize that Australians see graffiti as art, not destruction. It was pretty cold so after that we just decided to head back to our hostel.
The Melbourne Underground Film Festival was going on the entire time we were in Melbourne and we were planning on going to the closing night on Sunday. However, when we found out how far away it was and that transportation was somewhat unreliable we just decided to stay in and drink the wine I got at the market. We called it a pretty early night since we had to wake up early and check out on Monday.
I tried to wake up extra early on Monday and find a post office to ship the gift that I got for my parents. It is somewhat large and is going to be difficult to get home. Long story short, the post office wouldn't ship it and I couldn't find the FedEx that I got directions to. So about two hours after I left I returned to the hostel and Gina and I proceeded on our last day of Melbourne adventures. Initially we were going to take a bus down to the Docklands area but we realized that we really didn't have enough time. So instead we headed down to our favorite area, Lygon St, once again for some gelato. It was pretty fabulous. I got a Toblerone flavor and Gina got lemon and blood orange. When we were done we walked around the outskirts of the city a little, saw the huge rock climbing wall, saw the restaurant "Witches in Britches" (which we initially thought was Witches and Bitches, the sign wasn't too clear) and then walked back to our hostel because it was time to catch the bus back to the airport.
The ride to the airport was easy, but once we got to the airport there were plenty of problems with my luggage. They made me check my bag and the gift I got for my parents and I was convinced the latter was going to get destroyed. Luckily it got to Sydney undamaged and we were able to get on the train and head home after a long weekend of traveling. Or almost a week of traveling...
And it was going to be 3 days until I was back in the Sydney airport...
Well, that's Melbourne. Finally.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
Where's the little guy/Roald Dahl: Melbourne part 3
On Saturday we made sure to wake up early again to get our free brekky. During breakfast we decided that we were going to go straight to the AFL (Australian Football League) game from the hostel. The title of this post comes from a comment made while getting ready for the game. Long story short, we started calling Chris "the little guy" and later "Roald Dahl". Anyway, we all got ready and jumped on the free tram to the Melbourne Cricket Ground. We had to walk a little to the stadium but it was pretty awesome. The game was actually really intense. There were fans of both teams with huge pompoms on their respective sides of the field. People were all dressed up in team apparel and such. Not much different from a normal football game. The Hawthorn Hawks and the Essedon Bombers (much more badass than the Sydney Swans...). We wanted Hawthorn to win, or so we were told. The Hawks had a significant lead into the 4th quarter an then they just blew it. The funny thing was the Hawks had the ball at the end but I wasn't sure when the end was! I don't understand sports that have timers that count up instead of down. So it was like hot potato, I didn't really know exactly when the game was going to end, only that it was ending soon and that they had to score soon! But they didn't and it was depressing, I guess. But overall it was definitely the most fun sporting event I've been to here. After the game we hopped on the same tram and went back to the hostel to figure out our plans for the rest of the day.
By the time we got home we were all pretty hungry and thought about dinner plans. We decided to go check out the Greek Precinct and Chinatown. When we got there, Chinatown was definitely more festive and decorated but we decided that we have enough Asian food in Sydney and we should branch out. We stopped at this small Greek place and had souvlaki and other typical Greek food. It was pretty good, but probably nothing like what Shannon got to eat this summer.
Well after dinner we decided to go to... the Velvet Underground! Starting to see a pattern? We had no idea what to do at night so the VU was a good place to start, as always. When we got there, no one was in the bar. I mean, besides us there were maybe 3-5 other people. It was odd. We decided to play some kind of drinking game and after much deliberation we decided on speed quarters. But it was more like speed 10 cent coins with smaller than normal shot glasses. So, it took a little getting used to. We stocked up on jugs (pitchers) before happy hour ended and then continued to play for a while. I think it was about 10pm when the bartender said it was last call. Let me remind you this was on Saturday night. But we were basically unfazed since we had already thought ahead. We stayed there and about 15 minutes after the staff left a guy came down looking to have a drink. He was pretty pissed to see that it was closed but we started talking to him for a little. His name was Brian and he was from Ireland but he had lived in Australia for a while (mixed Irish and Australian accent, awesome.) He told us about this bar he works at so we decided to go there that night. So after finishing off our jugs we headed up to our room to get ready to go out.
Brian told us to go to the Melbourne Central Shopping Centre and then to the Lion Hotel (in Australia bars are very often called hotels). It was really cool. When we got there, a live cover band was just starting. Some jackass tried climbing onto the lighting fixtures by the band and he quickly got tackled by the bouncers. (Later we learned that he was an American and it was his birthday, making this shenanigan even worse.) We saw the bartender pouring this weird shot that we later found out was called the blue waterfall or something. He lit a bunch of alcohol on fire in a cup and then poured the flaming alcohol into a shot glass and then covered it with the glass and then the person taking the shot inhaled the smoke from the alcohol burning. It looked totally unsafe and unpleasant and way too confusing. The guys left not too long after being in the bar and Gina and I left to go to a different bar after a while. The other bar kind of sucked so we called it a night and went home.
Andddd that was day 3.
By the time we got home we were all pretty hungry and thought about dinner plans. We decided to go check out the Greek Precinct and Chinatown. When we got there, Chinatown was definitely more festive and decorated but we decided that we have enough Asian food in Sydney and we should branch out. We stopped at this small Greek place and had souvlaki and other typical Greek food. It was pretty good, but probably nothing like what Shannon got to eat this summer.
Well after dinner we decided to go to... the Velvet Underground! Starting to see a pattern? We had no idea what to do at night so the VU was a good place to start, as always. When we got there, no one was in the bar. I mean, besides us there were maybe 3-5 other people. It was odd. We decided to play some kind of drinking game and after much deliberation we decided on speed quarters. But it was more like speed 10 cent coins with smaller than normal shot glasses. So, it took a little getting used to. We stocked up on jugs (pitchers) before happy hour ended and then continued to play for a while. I think it was about 10pm when the bartender said it was last call. Let me remind you this was on Saturday night. But we were basically unfazed since we had already thought ahead. We stayed there and about 15 minutes after the staff left a guy came down looking to have a drink. He was pretty pissed to see that it was closed but we started talking to him for a little. His name was Brian and he was from Ireland but he had lived in Australia for a while (mixed Irish and Australian accent, awesome.) He told us about this bar he works at so we decided to go there that night. So after finishing off our jugs we headed up to our room to get ready to go out.
Brian told us to go to the Melbourne Central Shopping Centre and then to the Lion Hotel (in Australia bars are very often called hotels). It was really cool. When we got there, a live cover band was just starting. Some jackass tried climbing onto the lighting fixtures by the band and he quickly got tackled by the bouncers. (Later we learned that he was an American and it was his birthday, making this shenanigan even worse.) We saw the bartender pouring this weird shot that we later found out was called the blue waterfall or something. He lit a bunch of alcohol on fire in a cup and then poured the flaming alcohol into a shot glass and then covered it with the glass and then the person taking the shot inhaled the smoke from the alcohol burning. It looked totally unsafe and unpleasant and way too confusing. The guys left not too long after being in the bar and Gina and I left to go to a different bar after a while. The other bar kind of sucked so we called it a night and went home.
Andddd that was day 3.
You had me at free drink: Melbourne part 2
On Friday we all woke up early (mainly because we were getting free brekky) and then decided to walk around the city. We started with Queen Victoria Market again and it was HUGE! There were vendors selling everything from tourist-y keychains, one-of-a-kind paintings, leather jackets, sweatshirts, etc. It was awesome. I was able to snag a few souvenirs during that trip. Gina was able to find real Australian Uggs for a steal. There were so many vendors selling Uggs, we were bound to find some inexpensive ones. Through the journey we got separated from the guys so we just reconvened at our hostel, dropped off our purchases, and continued our walk around the city.
We walked back down to Federation Square, Flinders Street Station, and then along the Yarra River. Near the Flinders Street Station there was a group of people handing out these brochures and when they saw us holding a map and looking a little lost one of them came right over to ask if we needed help. She gave us this map of the free tram and bus system in Melbourne. It ended up being really useful later in the weekend. We got lunch in this little food court and then we split up--the guys went to this 360 degree observation tower looking over the city and Gina and I walked over to the Olympic park and the Royal Botanic Gardens. The Olympic park was huge and they were still building on it! There were stadiums for tennis (the Australian Open), football (AFL), soccer, rugby, etc. We ran into this guy and he asked us for directions (maybe we are starting to look like locals!!) but when he heard our accent he got really excited that we were from America. He asked if either of us was from California and Gina is. He got even more excited because he was "half Australian and half Californian." We didn't really know what to say to that because it sounded pretty ridiculous. We then crossed the street (Batman St) over to the Royal Botanic Gardens. It was incredible. There were a bunch of different sections, like the rainforest section, the grey section, the rose gardens. The were ponds and benches set up everywhere. It was one of the most peaceful places I have ever been. We walked around there for a few hours and took lots of pictures. By the end of our walk we realized we were very far from our hostel, but that free bus map came in handy. There was a bus stop right outside the gardens so we searched it out and took it part of the way back. We met the guys back at the hostel, they had spent the day roaming around the city as well and they went to the casino, which is apparently the biggest one in Australia. I wish I made it out there but we only have so much time.
By the time we got back, we definitely had to start thinking about dinner. We decided to head to Lygon St. (the Italian precinct) for some food. The walk from our hostel was really short. When we got onto Lygon St. we realized that it wasn't just Italian food; there was plenty of Thai, Indian, Chinese, etc, also. But we had our minds set on Italian. We passed a few places and then the owner of this one restaurant was standing outside and pretty much cornering people and convincing them into coming to eat there. He told us we got a free drink with dinner. We were convinced. That didn't stop him from talking. They had typical Italian food and I got risotto. I was a little disappointed but I was very happy to be eating Italian food finally.
After dinner we decided to head back to our hostel and check out the happenings at the Velvet Underground before going out for the night. Andddd it was karaoke night! Usually karaoke is terrible, but most of the singers were actually really good. Not surprisingly no one in our little group wanted to perform so after a few drinks we headed up to our room to get ready to go out. Gina knew someone in Melbourne so he decided to take us all to Chapel Street where most of the nightlife is. We had to take a taxi so I called one from the hostel but they never asked me how many people we needed to ride. So when the taxi got there all 5 of us piled into the taxi no problem. Well, about 10 minutes into the ride the taxi driver asks us how many people are in the car and we tell him and he pulls over the car and says he can't take this many people. That would have been nice to know before we got in... So two of the guys got out without knowing where they were and got another taxi. That was an interesting way to start the night... Once we got to Chapel Street we couldn't get into the first place we went to because there were too many guys in the group (bars around here are weird like that). So we went to a different place that was more like a pub than a club. The decor of the pub was quite interesting, almost Witches Brew-esque (for my New Yorkers). As per the suggestion of one of the Aussies we were with, we all tried this house beer, Fat Yak. It was amazing. It kind of tasted like a sweeter Blue Moon. We had a few drinks there and then Gina and I headed back to the first bar we tried with Gina's friend and the guys decided to call it a night and head home. Gina and I hung out at the first bar for a while talking to the Aussies and learning more about stuff to do in Melbourne and the rest of Australia. We went home not too long after getting there because we knew we were going to be waking up early the next day.
Ok, so that was day 2...
We walked back down to Federation Square, Flinders Street Station, and then along the Yarra River. Near the Flinders Street Station there was a group of people handing out these brochures and when they saw us holding a map and looking a little lost one of them came right over to ask if we needed help. She gave us this map of the free tram and bus system in Melbourne. It ended up being really useful later in the weekend. We got lunch in this little food court and then we split up--the guys went to this 360 degree observation tower looking over the city and Gina and I walked over to the Olympic park and the Royal Botanic Gardens. The Olympic park was huge and they were still building on it! There were stadiums for tennis (the Australian Open), football (AFL), soccer, rugby, etc. We ran into this guy and he asked us for directions (maybe we are starting to look like locals!!) but when he heard our accent he got really excited that we were from America. He asked if either of us was from California and Gina is. He got even more excited because he was "half Australian and half Californian." We didn't really know what to say to that because it sounded pretty ridiculous. We then crossed the street (Batman St) over to the Royal Botanic Gardens. It was incredible. There were a bunch of different sections, like the rainforest section, the grey section, the rose gardens. The were ponds and benches set up everywhere. It was one of the most peaceful places I have ever been. We walked around there for a few hours and took lots of pictures. By the end of our walk we realized we were very far from our hostel, but that free bus map came in handy. There was a bus stop right outside the gardens so we searched it out and took it part of the way back. We met the guys back at the hostel, they had spent the day roaming around the city as well and they went to the casino, which is apparently the biggest one in Australia. I wish I made it out there but we only have so much time.
By the time we got back, we definitely had to start thinking about dinner. We decided to head to Lygon St. (the Italian precinct) for some food. The walk from our hostel was really short. When we got onto Lygon St. we realized that it wasn't just Italian food; there was plenty of Thai, Indian, Chinese, etc, also. But we had our minds set on Italian. We passed a few places and then the owner of this one restaurant was standing outside and pretty much cornering people and convincing them into coming to eat there. He told us we got a free drink with dinner. We were convinced. That didn't stop him from talking. They had typical Italian food and I got risotto. I was a little disappointed but I was very happy to be eating Italian food finally.
After dinner we decided to head back to our hostel and check out the happenings at the Velvet Underground before going out for the night. Andddd it was karaoke night! Usually karaoke is terrible, but most of the singers were actually really good. Not surprisingly no one in our little group wanted to perform so after a few drinks we headed up to our room to get ready to go out. Gina knew someone in Melbourne so he decided to take us all to Chapel Street where most of the nightlife is. We had to take a taxi so I called one from the hostel but they never asked me how many people we needed to ride. So when the taxi got there all 5 of us piled into the taxi no problem. Well, about 10 minutes into the ride the taxi driver asks us how many people are in the car and we tell him and he pulls over the car and says he can't take this many people. That would have been nice to know before we got in... So two of the guys got out without knowing where they were and got another taxi. That was an interesting way to start the night... Once we got to Chapel Street we couldn't get into the first place we went to because there were too many guys in the group (bars around here are weird like that). So we went to a different place that was more like a pub than a club. The decor of the pub was quite interesting, almost Witches Brew-esque (for my New Yorkers). As per the suggestion of one of the Aussies we were with, we all tried this house beer, Fat Yak. It was amazing. It kind of tasted like a sweeter Blue Moon. We had a few drinks there and then Gina and I headed back to the first bar we tried with Gina's friend and the guys decided to call it a night and head home. Gina and I hung out at the first bar for a while talking to the Aussies and learning more about stuff to do in Melbourne and the rest of Australia. We went home not too long after getting there because we knew we were going to be waking up early the next day.
Ok, so that was day 2...
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Take my scissors, but not my ID: Melbourne part 1
This past weekend I went to Melbourne (pronounced more like Melbin) with Gina, Ean, Jeff, and Chris. I left Thursday morning with Gina and the guys met us there Thursday night. The title of this post comes from one of our first somewhat ridiculous experiences during traveling. In the airport, they never once checked my ID when I was getting on the plane. Not to get my boarding pass, not to go through security, not to go on the plane. They did, however, take away my tiny safety scissors. Seriously? Oh, airport security.
Also, who would have known that the Melbourne airport isn't in Melbourne? There are two different airports and I figured they were like JFK and LaGuardia--both very accessible. I was very wrong. The other Melbourne airport, which was actually in Avalon, was about an hour from the city. It was like flying into MacArthur airport or something. We booked the hostel that we did because they had a free airport transfer but of course it was from the other airport. Well, live and learn I guess.
After the flight and hour bus ride we arrived at the Hotel Discovery, a hostel in the central business district. We had a 6-bed room and it was dorm style (communal bathroom). The beds were actually pretty comfortable and nothing was falling apart, so it was promising overall. Luckily we were traveling with guys who also have some pretty low standards.
Before the guys got there, Gina and I decided to walk around a little bit. There was a market, the Queen Victoria Market, right by the hostel so we decided to walk through there first but it was starting to close down (at 2 pm!). There was a food court there though so we stopped and had some lunch before continuing our adventures. As per the recommendations of a friend we walked down to Federation Square. There were a bunch of awesome buildings; it was definitely really artsy. We past some shopping malls but they were RIDICULOUSLY expensive. We didn't even bother stopping to go shop. Just past Federation Square was Queen Victoria Garden (detecting a pattern yet?). It was really pretty and we were exhausted so we ended up just laying down in the grass for a little while. Eventually we decided to get up and head back to the hostel and wait for the guys to arrive. Once we were all settled in we decided to go get some dinner. We walked back in the direction of Federation Square because we passed a lot of restaurants but by the time we got there most had stopped serving food. So, we ate at this Italian place run by Asian people with Australian accents (multicultural at its best). We headed back to get ready to go out. However, by the time we got back the buses and trams had stopped running, and even if they were running we would still probably have a problem because of our unfamiliarity (later we realized they were really easy to figure out). So, we decided to hang out in the hostel bar, The Velvet Underground. It was techno night and there were probably a total of 15 people there including us. We just observed some crazy people dancing, watched this one creepy guy walk around aimlessly talking to himself (more stories about this guy coming), and planned out our next few days. We called it an early night so we could get up early on Friday to start another day of adventures.
Well, that's Melbourne part 1. Much more to come hopefully tomorrow, but now its definitely time for bed.
Also, who would have known that the Melbourne airport isn't in Melbourne? There are two different airports and I figured they were like JFK and LaGuardia--both very accessible. I was very wrong. The other Melbourne airport, which was actually in Avalon, was about an hour from the city. It was like flying into MacArthur airport or something. We booked the hostel that we did because they had a free airport transfer but of course it was from the other airport. Well, live and learn I guess.
After the flight and hour bus ride we arrived at the Hotel Discovery, a hostel in the central business district. We had a 6-bed room and it was dorm style (communal bathroom). The beds were actually pretty comfortable and nothing was falling apart, so it was promising overall. Luckily we were traveling with guys who also have some pretty low standards.
Before the guys got there, Gina and I decided to walk around a little bit. There was a market, the Queen Victoria Market, right by the hostel so we decided to walk through there first but it was starting to close down (at 2 pm!). There was a food court there though so we stopped and had some lunch before continuing our adventures. As per the recommendations of a friend we walked down to Federation Square. There were a bunch of awesome buildings; it was definitely really artsy. We past some shopping malls but they were RIDICULOUSLY expensive. We didn't even bother stopping to go shop. Just past Federation Square was Queen Victoria Garden (detecting a pattern yet?). It was really pretty and we were exhausted so we ended up just laying down in the grass for a little while. Eventually we decided to get up and head back to the hostel and wait for the guys to arrive. Once we were all settled in we decided to go get some dinner. We walked back in the direction of Federation Square because we passed a lot of restaurants but by the time we got there most had stopped serving food. So, we ate at this Italian place run by Asian people with Australian accents (multicultural at its best). We headed back to get ready to go out. However, by the time we got back the buses and trams had stopped running, and even if they were running we would still probably have a problem because of our unfamiliarity (later we realized they were really easy to figure out). So, we decided to hang out in the hostel bar, The Velvet Underground. It was techno night and there were probably a total of 15 people there including us. We just observed some crazy people dancing, watched this one creepy guy walk around aimlessly talking to himself (more stories about this guy coming), and planned out our next few days. We called it an early night so we could get up early on Friday to start another day of adventures.
Well, that's Melbourne part 1. Much more to come hopefully tomorrow, but now its definitely time for bed.
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