Flying to Melbourne was relatively straightforward. Apparently for domestic flights no-one cares about seeing your passport or how much fluid you take on board. The flight was 1 hour 15 mins, and they gave me drinks and a quiche on the aeroplane. Exciting!!
The commute from Melbourne airport to the city centre was not at all difficult- I went on the Skybus and they transferred me to the hostel. I then discovered that I was staying at a building site. After accidentally trespassing on the building site whilst trying to enter the building, I finally made it to the front desk. The hostel itself is not bad-when they have finished the building work it will be fabulous. I met one of my roommates, Tom, and went for a walk around the river with him. The Melbourne run was happening on the Sunday, so we had to avoid the various 10km signs. Melbourne is a beautiful city, very cosmopolitan and almost European. There are lots of little side streets with cafes spilling out into the street, which were great for coffees and breakfast.
I met Kat in Federation Square and we wandered into China Town for dinner. Our plan had been to follow the locals to find a good eatery, but the place they went to was packed so we chose a slightly less busy eatery for goyza and curry. We then met up with the people Kat had been on tour with and went to the cinema to see Toy Story 3 in 3D, which was great although did make me feel a little travel sick.
Saturday started with coffee and croissant in Federation Square while watching the sunrise, before a walk through the Royal Botannical Gardens. It was a lovely way to have a proper girly catch up before walking to the Victoria Markets. Here you could buy virtually anything you could want and quite a lot that you didn’t want. As with all Aussie shopping centres, there was a fabulous food court where we had souvlaki and Turkish bread. Turning back on ourselves, we went to the Tim Burton Exhibition in the Museum for Moving Arts. It was well worth a visit- I had no idea just how many films he had been involved with. In the afternoon, Kat went to a rugby match. As I still don’t really understand the rules of rugby league, I offered to be the scout and to find out how much a trip up the Eureka Tower would cost. This turned out to be slightly more difficult than anticipated, as the tower I had been shown was not the tower I needed to be at. Thus I spent a considerable amount of time standing in front of glass doors hoping they would let me in, before giving up and having a coffee and a cupcake.
Melbourne is famous for its shopping, and I did enjoy mooching around and looking at things that were well beyond my budget. I did balk at the idea of going into the Gucci shop in my hostel kit of jeans and a t-shirt…I thought it would be a bit too obvious that I had no intention of buying anything.
After the rugby, Kat and I met for dinner in a tapas bar that was recommended in the Rough Guide. Even at the relatively early time of 5:30pm, it was heaving, so we were lucky to get a table. The food was excellent- scallops, sea trout, croquettes, zucchini fries, oysters… The one down side was the cost of the alcohol, but we decided it was well worth the expense. We had managed to find cheap tickets to see Calendar Girls at the theatre, so enjoyed a great giggly night eating ice cream and watching slightly senior women take their clothes off.
Sunday began with breakfast in a gorgeous café tucked into one of the side streets. I had French toast with strawberries, while Kat had the Eggs Benedict. Even at 8:30am, the place was busy, so we knew we had found somewhere good. We then went up the Eureka Tower (88 floors in 30s) to get a true panorama of Melbourne. This view was particularly good because we could see people starting the Marathon down by the river. No, we weren’t tempted to join them!
My weekend in Melbourne went too quickly. I think I needed a couple of days extra to really relax into the city. It is well worth a visit for anyone who is fairly close by. Particular thanks to Kat who arranged her tour around me- it was lovely to see her.
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