Melbs

March 9th/10th - Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Driving into Melbourne was not as bad as we had feared. Because of the tram system they have a strange rule called a 'hook turn' whereby to turn right you have to be on the inside lane, but we were staying in a suburb on the outskirts of the city so there weren't any of these there,

We stayed in a suburb called Kensington and were staying with a guy called Ben from AirBnB. He was actually away with work so we had his apartment to ourselves for most of our stay, The balcony looked out over the racetrack and the apartment block had a gym we could use and its own coffee shop - I just hope our eyesore of a campervan parked outside didn't bring down the tone of the place too much!

Our first day there we went into the city centre and did a walking tour. Melbourne was quite similar to Adelaide as in there was a lot of Victorian architecture and arcades. We learnt about the history of Melbourne and its rivalry with Sydney and also about Ned Kelly. We saw some beautiful old buildings and parks, Chinatown, the local gaol where Kelly was interred and visited some 'laneways' - little back alleys with quirky cafes, bars and shops. It turns out that Melbourne is a bit of a foodie heaven, and after several recommendations from our guide and witnessing some amazing looking places to eat we jointly decided to blow the budget on eating out!

Flinders Street Station

Exhibition Building

Victorian Arcade

There was also a lot of street art with a whole lane dedicated to it, and a road called AC/DC lane! Melbourne was particularly busy because they had a bank holiday fesitval on with lots of family events and a fayre, but also it was the build up to the Australian Grand Prix due to be in Melbourne. 

Street art

Flinders station next to the more modern Arts Centre on the left

AC/DC Lane!

After our tour we ate our packed lunch before heading to the Melbourne Museum where we met Deepa, a friend from university and who I went travelling in the USA with. We saw the exhibition on Aboriginal history in the museum, and then had some dinner and drinks before watching a fireworks display down by the river (it was the end of some festival they had on there).

The next day we headed to the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) where a member of the committee gave us a tour of the stadium. Our cricket knowledge is pretty rubbish, especially our Australian cricket knowledge, but we were fully aware when he was just taking the piss out of the English cricket team... We saw the stadium, the press conference room, the changing rooms and all the rooms the teams use before a match, There were also several galleries with memorabilia and important items and we were told about the history of the MCG and cricket in Australia. It also turns out that the waiting list to become a member is ridiculous - you need to be nominated and then wait about 30 years or something!

Around the outside of the stadium there were statues of Australian cricketing and sporting legends - the above is Shane Warne

The stadium

The dressing room/ team room

The view from the balcony of the MCG - in the distance is the city, but to the left there are lots of tennis courts that they use in the Australian Open - their sporting facilities available for training were amazing

Afterwards we went downstairs to the sports museum which looked at each of Australia's big sports and at the history of the Olympic Games, which was really good but we were getting a bit tired by this point!! We headed towards one of the laneways and sat and had some brunch and a coffee which was sooo tasty! That afternoon we just had a bit of a wander and did some shopping, before heading back.