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...