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We were excited about coming to Melbourne, we had heard great things about it. First thing after leaving the overnight train was to find our hostel. It was in the CBD so we could walk to it and it turned out pretty nice. We had a 4 bed dorm but for the first 4 nights there we had it all to ourselves. It has a huge kitchen, 2 TV rooms, a dining area with 2 tvs, a pool table, computers and phones, so we were set up. Plus you needed swipe cards to get in everywhere so it was pretty secure.
After our free brekkie we had a little snooze and went out to see what Melbourne was all about. At the end of our street is Flinders station. It's such a huge magnificent building, very victorian looking. We walked to Federation Square, which has a great vibe, people hanging about, little bistros, big arty buildings, and the river right beside it. There was a festival starting at the weekend so they were setting up a carnival, rides and games. We found out that it was Melbournes Moomba water Fest .
On the otherside of the river are the Botanical Gardens, these are ment to be much better than Sydneys, or any other, but I don't see how. They are completly gorgeous, but you just can't get Sydneys location anywhere else. We wondered about for several hours, a lot more focus on plants and conservation than Sydneys, and we saw many birds and even turtles in the river.
At the weekend we attended the water fest, and it was just magical. The firework display was the best I had ever seen. It was set up on several rafts placed between 2 bridges a mile apart. We were at one end of the bridge so we saw the whole thing, it was all senquinised. Amazing.
We went to Victoria Market on Sunday, the market was huge, selling alsorts of clothes, shoes, Australiana and lots of kangaroo skins and cow skins! How weird. You could get some great bargains there.
After the market we took a walk to Carlton and Fitzroy. These are suburbs of Melbourne just north of the cit. We had been to Fitzroy earlier in the week, but hadn't really looked around properly. Fitzroy and Carlton are very cosmo looking suberbs, what I imagined Melbourne to be like. Each shop looks amazing and draws you in, and the cafes each have their own appeal, with seating outside on the pavement watching all the passerbys. As you walk down the road the fragrance in the air is coffee bean, it smells gorgeous, and I don't even like coffee.
We were thinking of staying in Fitzroy when we first came on tuesday but due to the lack of backpackers and that everything we wanted to do/see was in the CBD or close to it we decided not to. I am glad though as Flinders street hotel is a great place. Like mentioned before we had the room to ourselves until Friday when an Israli couple came in. They were a little strange. All they wanted to do was go out drinking, but I guess it's more like a holiday for them than us. They would have just finished their service and after going through that for a couple of years, maybe having to kill people than why not! They left and the same day 2 Irish lads came in. This hostel is full of Irish, these lads have been in Melbourne for 3 months, just came back from Fruitpicking.
We have signed up for this site where you exchange working for people for board and food, and have had a lot of interest. A couple in Queensland working on Farms, and loads others in NSW. We are looking forward to these as it'l be totally different and living with Aussies will be cool. It's amazing how many people have actually chose us to come and stay with them.
We have taken in a few museums and art galleries in Melbourne. The immagration museum, on tuesday, which is a big building with a lot of information on display. A lot of it was pretty boring but there was some interesting aspects of it as well. Just amazing that 1 out of every 4 people are born overseas, even with the tightest immagration system.
I really enjoyed going to Melbourne Gaol, to think so many people were hanged there, and the noose that henged Ned Kelly along with all the others still remains hanging. When we bought our tickets, the lady told us about a special event they were holding today, for an extra $3 we could tour the holding cells and 2 actors take us around as if we were arrested. It seemed pretty fun, so I said yeah, Richard wasn't so keen and dreaded it, but he enjoyed it in the end.
It wasn't on for a while so we walked around the jails first, reading about all the dangerous people, and you could actually see their head casts. When the jail was open they believed you could tell if a man was harmful or a criminal by the shape of their heads, so after each person was hanged, these heads were chopped off and sent to be cast. Ned Kellys cast is in there along with everyone else. He is placed in prime position in the hallway at one end. A woman came in and shouted very loudly that we needed to go for our experience tour, Richard walked very slowly and looked at several other things, I got the impression he was trying to miss it! hehe
When we bought our tickets we were given chanrge sheets with our criminal offence on. It was so funny as Richards offence was distributing pornography, he hated this as he thought he would get picked on. I was changed with abusive and dangerous behaviour. The 'constable' was real scary and treated us just like we were criminals, hearded us around like sheep. The holding cells were only closed in 1994 and kept as they were from them. We had to follow orders, and there were a couple of Germans who couldnt speak english and had a translater, and the 'sergent' was yelling at them as they werent doing as they were told. They didnt seem to mind and found it quiet amusing. We then had to be searched, arms up, bend down, run our hand through our hair etc, before being taken into our cells. My cell had seats, apparently 10 to a cell, only 3 people slept on the bench seats. Richard was in the drunks cell. No seats or anything so it'l be easier to hose down. There was soo much graffiti in his cell too. Violent, disturbing works that arrestees had wrote. Quite abusive. It was a great experience as I doubt, or hope, we will never be arrested for real.
Finally we fitted in a tour of the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground), it was great. I'm no cricket fan but I still found it amazing. It was being changed over from Cricket to Aussie Rules footy,only happens twice a year so that was a pretty cool thing to see. They lift the cricket picth and surrounding area out, and lay other grass in which is better for the winter conditions and Aussie Rules. We got to go everywhere, on the pitch, in the locker rooms, where th players watch the game from, in the members stand, (takes 20years to become a member the list is that long), member lounge, libary. It was great. Also, we were told that the guy who invented Aussie Rules, went to Rugby Schoold in England, and wanted a winter sport for Australians and thought Rugby was too rough so came up with Aussie Rules. We felt like proud parents. Hehe.
We were excited to leave Melbourne, we didn't take to it as we did Sydney but we had such an adventure ahead. We booked a campervan for 10days and drove down the Great ocean Road and into the outback! What Australias all about! We just needed to get out of cities for a while.
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