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On our first day in melbourne we decided to stroll the streets and walk around the city. On first inpressions, we thought Melbourne was a fantastic city which is so layed back and chilled. As Melbourne is the city for food lovers, everywhere we went people were drinking coffee, eatting sushi, or just generally relaxing with friends over a glass of wine. The city was littered with resturants, cafes, delicatessents, markets and bistos, which meant that the atmosphere there was lively and bubbly. Everyone was really friendly and helpful, it was such an amazing city to spend time in. Melbourne is also very scenic as the yarra river bisects the city, thus making the city very pretty to view.
Even though Melbourne is a huge city with an impresive skyline, it still holds great character with all its cobbled alley ways and little side streets. Our first stop was to Flinders lane which is a cluster of allyways that have great resturants and boasts some fantastic, funky shops that were very hippy looking. Me and matt loved these streets as they were so entertaining to look around. They offered something different to whats on sale in the average high street shops. Block Arcade was also great to stroll around as it is a bustling lane filled with an endless staem of caffiene fiends. From walking around the city we concluded that Melbourians are addicted to coffee as they lesiurely drink it all day. I reckon Matt would fit in well in this city as he too is addicted to caffiene !! If we had money, then i think we would have been high on coffee all day but as we are poor, we stuck to water !!
Melbourne is also known as the best place in Austrailia for shopping which is an assumption that i agree with. Three huge long streets (Swanson, Collins and Bourke street) boasts hundreds of shops ranging from high street retail shops to elegant and upmarket European boutiques. It took us hours to walk these streets and off every main high street there are adjoining little streets that consist of hundreds of hippy and arty shops !! Therefore Melbourne is truely an unbeliveable place to shop as it caters for everyone likes and preferances. During each visit to Swanson Street, we visited the state library which is a grand and beautiful building that offered free internet. We took advantage of this free service on several occassions. However there were 2 high streets in Melbourne that were our favourite places to stroll around. Brunswick street is probably Melbournes liveliest street. The street consists of funky eateries, retro clothes shop and an array of cheap and entertaining pubs. This street had a great atmosphere and you never got bored walking around. Another interesting place that we loved was Lygon street which is Melbournes italian capital. The street consisted of italian bistros, exclusive fashion boutiques and lots of icecream parlours. Everyone in this street was dining, sipping cappucinios and just generally soaking up the atmosphere. In Lygon street we treated ourselves to a luxurious ice cream that was truley scrumptious. If anyone was planning on visiting Melbourne then my advice would be too visit these streets. They are unmissable, as they are the heart of Melbourne and they are what Melbourne stands for !! They have so much character and atmosphere and they are full of hussle and bussle !! Another magnificant place we visited was the Queen Victoria Market, which is undoubtably the grand dame of all markets. The market was massive as there was a different building for each food type. It was the master of all markets and it was so cheap which was a big bonus for us. We stocked up on all the fresh fruit and veg money could buy. We bought three punnets of strawberries for 80p, it was that stupidly cheap. Me and matt were in our element there and it was definately a highlight of Melbourne. Everyone was so friendly and there was so much variety on offer. During our stay in Meblourne we visited many of the cities attractions. A star attraction that we throughly enjoyed was the Melbounre aquarium. We saw huge stringrays that weighed approx 33 kilos (bet they could have killed you instantly if they attacked you). We also saw massive grey nurse sharks, leopard sharks and turtles. During our visit we also viewed a shark feeding where the divers would swim and hand feed the sharks and stingrays. It was a huge aquarium and we saw some beautiful and exotic aqatic life but for us the sharks and stingrays were the star attraction of the trip.Another wicked sight of the city was the crown casino and entertainment complex, which is situated beautifully alongside the Yarra River. On one of the evenings we decided to dress up respectively and take a trip to the Melbourne casino which used to be the biggest in the world. We agreed that we would spend $20 in the casino, and to cut our losses if we lost it all. The casino was very grand looking and was glitzy, sparkly and very Vegas like. It was huge inside and had hundreds of slot machines and poker tables. We safely stayed at the slot machines as we were to poor to be at the card tables. The slot machines there ranged from 1c-10c a go so we spent may hours by the machines. In all, we won approx $8 so we were chuffed with our winnings. Watching the big guns at the poker and roulet tables was also great fun as people were spending hundreds of dollars per minute. What struck us as odd was that about 60% of the people in the casino were Asian. Apparantly they dont drink very much, but they love to gamble. They were betting ridiculous amounts of money and did not seem too bothered when they lost it all. Australia in general has a problem with gambling and after that night it is evident why. We left the Casino at about 1am with some change in our pockets so we were very satisfied with our success. Next time we are in a casino, it will be in VEGAS baby!!!
As melbourne is know for its art and comedy, we decided to go to a comedy club one evening. The performance that we saw consisted of three comedians (one which was Irish) and they were all fantastic. One of the comedians was voted the funniest man in Austrailia in 2005 and he did not dissapoint. All of them were so funny in different ways and me and matt were crying from laughing so much. The night was brilliant and we will for sure be visting more comedy clubs in future.
Other places that we visited was The Docklands which was a lively and upper class area that offered stunning views and some galmourous looking resturants. A central feature of Melbourne was a place called Federation Square and it was an explosion of steel, glass and abstract geometry. It is a brand new development and was very impressive to look at. The design of the area was very modern and arty and it was a great place to stroll around and eat your food!! Cultural events take place there daily so we witnessed a few funky dance peformances. On one visit to Federation Aquare we was star spotting and saw Holly Volance (Who used to be in Neighbours). She was filming something and she walked past us many times. Matt could not take his eyes of her and at one point I think he was drooling like a dog. I had to drag him away from where she was as he was so star struck !! After 5 days in Melbourne, we decided to leave and head to the surburbs of RAMSAY STREET !! As I am a dedicated Neighbours fan i could not wait to visit Ramsay Street. It was half hour away from the city and when we arrived there I could not belive that it was an actual street where normal people lived. It was quite sureal to see as it looks just like a normal residance street !! Also the street looks so much smaller in real life compared to what it looks like on TV. Sadly they were not filming so we did not see any of the shows stars. We had our photo taken in front of each house and then decided to leave. Was so cool to go there thou and i could not belive that normal residents live there !! Our next stop was to Phillip Island which is a little island off Melboune that is home to the smallest Penguins in the world. They are approx 30 cm long so they are tiny. Matt loves penguins so he was very excited about visiting there again !! We went to the penguin parade at sunset and took our place in a purpose built ampphitheatre that allowed us to see the penguins up close and personal. At about 8.30, we started to see these tiny pengiuns emerge from the sea and waddle up to their nests. They were so cute to look at and there were thousands of the tiny creatures. In the complex, they had built a platforrm that overlooks the penguins so we were literally about 20cm away from them. They would waddle up the sand banks in their groups and then they would each preen themselves ready for when they visit their lady penguins in their nests. However for such tiny animals, they were so noisy and loud. The sounds they were making were deafening. When they reach their nests they mate with their lady friend and they were also very vocal when love making. It was hillarious as you could not hear yourself think as all the penguins were making such a racket (they were obviously having a good time !!!). It was a great experince to see these animals, and i can see why Matt loves them so much. It was an excellent parade and they are truly magnificient little creatures !! Very Horney but nonetheless amazing (like Matt really, ha ha !!) We loved our stay in Melbourne, for me it has been the highlight so far of my travels. It was an amazing city that had so much to offer. Howver the one crazy thing about Melbourne was the weather as it was so unpredictable. We never knew what to wear in the days as the weather changed so dramatically. In one day we had four seasons, the day started off as 39 degrees of hot sunshine, then by mid day it dropped 11 degrees and then it poured with rain for the rest of the day. The weather was just mad, but it did not bother us at all as we are used to that kind of weather !! Well I have hoped that you have enjoyed reading this, sorry it has taken so long to write. I like to go into detail as you probably have noticed so it takes me a while to write. I will put the next installment of sydney on very soon. Take care all, hope everyone is OK and we hope that the weather back home is not as bad now !! We hear you have had some very freaky weather !! Love you all, miss you. Amy and Matt x x x x x x x- comments