I decided to go back to Melbourne for a few reasons. The first was that the last time I was there, I felt like I didn’t see enough of the city, as I spent most of the time on excursions into the surrounding area. But the main reason I went was due to the fact that I was heading to Tasmania, and a plane ticket there from Melbourne was a hell of a lot cheaper than from Canberra. My friend Dillon also wanted to go, so at 11 pm on May 29th, we took the night bus to Melbourne. arriving there at the Southern Cross Station at 7 am. I got a solid few hours of sleep on the bus- but I wasn’t able to sleep the entire time; I felt pretty rested but not completely. But who cares, we had the whole day ahead of us in Melbourne.
The first thing we did was walk to our hostel- nomads. That took about a half-hour from Southern Cross and by the time we were checked in and settled, we were 20 minutes away from our place’s free pancake breakfast. So we just waited for that. After this, we headed to Queen Victoria Market that was less than five minutes away. It is the most famous market in all of Australia, but when we went it was almost empty. I suppose that was because it was a Tuesday and early morning but still, it was a little disappointing. We cut our losses and looked for some breakfast. We eventually settled on a cheap but typical Melbourne/hipster café. Pretty good food. I felt like I belonged because I had a nice sweater and clothes on for the Autumn-like day. Really felt like a Melbournite sipping on my hot chocolate. After Brekkie, I took Dillon to the touristy area (Flinders and Swanston St.) to see the sites. There we saw St. Paul’s Cathedral, Hozier Lane, and Federation Square before crossing the river to walk on the other side. After a while we crossed over again and wandered around, somehow ending up in Chinatown. We kept wandering until we got to a nice park in front of the Melbourne Museum. By then it was a little past noon, so we made a plan of what we were going to do. We decided to walk as far north as Melbourne University and then make our way down to the Chinatown area for lunch at this one good restaurant I knew called Go Dumpling! I went there the first time that I visited and remembered that it was a triple threat: good food, cheap, and made fast. So after creating our plan we did just that. Along the way, I really noticed how colorful Melbourne was- literally. The buildings were full of color and with funky designs, some even had trees growing on the sides like 15, 20 stories up. There were also sculptures everywhere and graffiti (the good kind) in almost every alley. We also passed by a dessert place that sold like 20 different cakes and the Emporium which is an insanely huge mall in the city. So we went to both of these after lunch. Afterward, we made our way back across the river to see the Victorian Art Gallery. It was a pretty fancy gallery, but as we were both exhausted from the early morning and walking about 5 miles already, we stayed for only an hour before heading back over the river (again) and back to the hostel, which was about 30-40 minutes away. We got there around 430ish and promptly took a nap.
We woke up around 6ish and soon after headed out again. Unlike the day, where it fluctuated between cool and warm/cloudy and sunny, the night was cold and rainy; but not enough to make walking around unbearable. We went to this place called Holey Moley, a bar/mini-golf place. It wasn’t cheap but not too expensive. For $16.50 we got 9 holes and for $9 we got a beer. It was a really cool place and each hole was designed around a pun and had a unique twist. My favorite was a hole that recreated the living room from the Simpsons. I’d recommend checking it out for whoever goes to Melbourne. Once our game was done we wandered around the streets of the city looking for a cheap place to eat. We ended up eating at a good burger place called Brooklyn Depot. I was still hungry afterward though so I grabbed some Maccas. I scarfed that down as we thought we found a rooftop bar. But to our dismay, it was closed, so we kept walking around looking for one. It was a little rainy and few people were out so we decided to head back instead. Plus, we were still exhausted from the day. We were passed out by like 1030 that night.
The next day we took our time getting up, but we were out the door at around 10. After looking for a Myki card for Dillon and waiting on public transportation, we reached St. Kilda at around 11:30. St. Kilda is Melbourne’s beach area so I assumed it was like a beach town. It was probably because it was winter, but not a lot of people were there0 but I assume that it does get popping. Anyways, the first thing we did there was grab lunch at a kebab place because Dillon had never had a halal snack pack before. I don’t think they have them in the states, but they should. It’s just fries covered with lamb or chicken and then you add sauces (sour cream, sweet chili, and BBQ for me). It’s greasy goodness. After lunch, we walked to the pier and unbeknownst to us, the rocky beach area that serves as a windbreak for the boats was also home to fairy penguins (the same kind I saw at Phillip’s Island the last time I was here0. While most were at sea, some were at home hiding between the rocks. So for the next hour or so, we looked for penguins. Our total count was 10.
We also wanted to see these brightly painted and decorated sheds that Melbourne is known for. We thought they were at the beach in St. Kilda, but after a quick google search, we discovered that they were bathing boxes and were found in another suburb on the beach called Brighton. I guess that’s why they are called the Brighton Bathing Boxes… So with the help of public transportation, we made out way down there. When we got there, we were not disappointed. They were so colorful, vibrant, and photogenic. It is a huge tourist attraction. They were all lined up in a line for a kilometer, so we took our time walking down. I don’t know why these were made or if they have any purpose, but they were nice. After taking a walk on the beach, an uber ride, and then a tram ride, and then some more walking, we made it back to our hostel for a power nap. We rested for about 20 or so minutes.
Around 6 we went to dinner. Since Melbourne has the biggest Greek population in the Southern Hemisphere, we looked for gyros. We ended up at this restaurant called stalactites where their thing was having fake stalactites on the wall. It was pretty busy and a pretty nice place, with meals being around $30. Luckily, they have gyros for $14. After dinner, we went looking again for a rooftop bar but all the ones we found were closed. I think it was due to it being cold out. A few days later, Dillon told me he found one though. After cutting our losses, we walked around and window shopped until 8ish when we came back to the hostel. They had a beer pong tournament going on so we signed up. We were placed against 2 girls from Bavaria who had never played before. Yet we still lost because this one girl had unbelievable line-drive like throws that would always go in. Whatever, it was bullshit- I don’t want to talk about it. After our loss, it was around 10. Seeing how I had to be up in 5 hours, we went to bed. I was up at 3, walked to Southern Cross station where I caught the Skybus to the airport. I was leaving Melbourne and heading to Tassie.