Day 141 (LaTrobe University) - Bendigo, Victoria Australia

With only a few weeks left, I was finally able to get to Melbourne (btw: it's pronounced Mel-bin, not Mel-born). Took the train Friday morning and got into the city at 9:30am.Big cities like this scare me. So many people all over the place, I just get so overwhelmed.Thankfully my tour guide, James McLean, met me at Southern Cross to give me a tour of Australia's favorite city. First stop: the Melbourne Museum. Melbourne is known for having the biggest tram system, so that was our main means of transportation for the day. We took full advantage of the free entrance admission into the museum for students. I got a quick overview of Melbourne's and Australia's history at the museum, as well as a tour of the dinosaur exhibit and extensive animal taxidermy section. Leaving the museum and heading back into the city we stopped at this giant cathedral.I always feel so awkward touring in churches, it feels so weird. I did find it humorous that across from the gigantic Catholic Cathedral was this small Lutheran Church. We didn't stay there long before we started walking back to the central downtown district so I could pick up souvenir requests for friends back home. On the way we stopped in front of the Flinders Street Station, the central railway station of the suburban rail network of Melbourne, where I could take a "travelers" pic. During the entire time we were in Melbourne it was raining on and off, making it somewhat annoying being wet all day long.

After the souvenir shop we headed to the docklands for lunch. It's basically a pier with a bunch of restaurants, shops, and apartment on it. Apparently this new shopping area was built in hype of this large, and I'm talking massive, ferris wheel that was put up as a tourist destination.But when they built it the metal buckled in the heat so they were currently fixing it. Faulty construction seemed to be a reoccurring theme in Melbourne. Built a ferris wheel, it breaks, fix it. Built Southern Cross train station, doesn't allow proper ventilation of the fumes, have to fix the roof.

Following lunch we headed to the hotel which was in Richmond, a suburb outside of Melbourne. We had to take a train to get there. Upon checking in we got dressed up for the footy game that night.Because we were sitting in the Melbourne Cricket Club section we were required to wear a collared shirt, no ripped jeans, and no runners. We had some time to kill before Jacq came in from Bendigo to go to the footy game with us, so we went to Eureka Tour. Once again, we used our student discount and some coupons we scored from the hotel to access the observation floor 88stories high. On top there was this "cube," which is a box that starts inside, then moves outside, overhanging from the building. With windows on all sides, it's pretty freaky. Because it costs an extra $10, and you can't take cameras in it, we decide it was a no-go. We stayed at Eureka Tour for over an hour and a half, getting our money's worth. It was also cool because we got to see the city in light (well, in cloudy rainy weather) and at night all lit up. We picked up Jacq from the train station and headed to the MCG for the footy, but with 60,000 people all trying to get into one building it was a little chaotic. Of course we took some trams to get out to the MCG, which was an adventure in itself. Thank goodness James and Jacq seemed to know what they were doing because I had no clue what trams to take or how to do it.

The footy match was intense because the two teams, Geelong and St. Kilda, last played each other in the grand final (championship) last year. Our tickets were general admission, so we could sit pretty much anywhere we wanted.With the rain coming down the front row seats were available, so that's where we sat. We were all by ourselves except for these two 11 year-old boys who sat in front of us. They were cracking us up with their comments and cheering.We decided to go for St. Kilda because that's who the boys in front of us were going for and they lost to Geelong in the grand final. Except for the weather it was a lot of fun, especially when St. Kilda came back in the second half and beat Geelong.

On Saturday James and I went to the aquarium. The first exhibit was the penguin exhibit, which could have kept me entertained for hours - the penguins all have so much character. I was a little annoyed because of all the kids and parents pushing through and being somewhat obnoxious.Listen, I paid just like all you did, and just because I'm not three foot tall doesn't mean I still can't stand in the front and look at the fish! The next best part was the sharks and gigantic manta rays they had. We were lucky to see the scuba divers feeding the sharks, which they said only happens a few times a month. After the aquarium we headed to the Victoria Marketplace, which is a typical marketplace. If you want to get cheap souvenirs, this was the place to go.I was excited to find an authentic Aboriginal shop where I bought a painted canvas.I wanted to get a real Aboriginal piece of artwork, but it's so hard to tell if it's real or not due to the mass number of venders selling things.But when we found that shop it was all legit. While at the marketplace and other souvenir shops I kept seeing these statues of Ned Kelly, and not knowing anything about him James took me to the library where they had an exhibit on him. That trip was an adventure in itself: we couldn't take our bags into the library so we had to put them in a locker, then we had to walk to the back of the library, take the elevator to the fourth floor, take the stairs to the fifth floor, and go to the complete opposite end. It was worth it though - we got to see his armor and gun on display, as well as other pieces of memorabilia. Here's a quick blurb thanks to Wikipedia: Kelly was born in Victoria and clashed with the Victoria Police. Following an incident at his home in 1878, police parties searched for him in the bush. After he killed three policemen, the colony proclaimed Kelly and his gang wanted outlaws. A final violent confrontation with police took place at Glenrowan on 28 June 1880. Kelly, dressed in home-made plate metal armour and helmet, was captured and sent to jail. He was hanged for murder at Old Melbourne Gaol in November 1880. His daring and notoriety made him an iconic figure in Australian history, folk lore, literature, art and film

Finally it was time for me to head back to Bendigo. I went back to Southern Cross where I just made the train heading back. Now in Bendigo, I'm super exhausted and sick. I have to give a shout out to my wonderful tour guide who did anything I wanted to do and lead me around Melbourne. Never complaining or saying anything as I took "traveler" shots, James put up with me in bad weather and for two days, thanks buddy!