Our flight was at 6am in the morning so it was an extremely tiresome start. We arrived at Tullamarine Airport and so we had to catch a bus to the city. We just caught the SkyBus which was an express to the CBD, but it was $28 return (originally $30 but you get a whopping $2 off per person when you buy in a group of four) and later we were thinking whether or not a taxi would have been cheaper (but probably not). Actually, I don't think we even checked whether or not normal buses ran from the airport to the CBD, but maybe it was all just a big scam to get more money off tourists.
Anyway, when we arrived at Melbourne CBD at about 8am, we headed to Docklands for the Sunday markets and browsed around Harbourtown (which I kept wanting to call Laketown). The Docklands markets were alright, it was only about 15 stalls but some of them were really nice. I don't recall anyone buying anything though, since it was a bit pricey and we had just landed so we weren't really sure what to expect with Melbourne shopping. Harbourtown was alright, all their shops were outlets so everything was quite cheap. I feel that Docklands wasn't really that great of a place to visit though, unless you were going for the sightseeing (which still wasn't amazing).
Next up we caught the free tram to Carlton Gardens, where we looked at the Royal Exhibition Building and entered Melbourne Museum.
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Melbourne Museum was probably the highlight of the trip for me. I love museums, and this museum included everything from:
They also had a Mind and Body section that was all about dreams and psychology and optical illusions and things like that that were amazing!
I loved this place, definitely check it out if you ever go to Melbourne.
Since we were around the area, we had lunch at Lygon Street, which is a street that's renowned for it's Italian eateries and cafes. Apparently it's got quite a night life to it too, but it was too far away from our hotel to go back again so we just had lunch at a restaurant there.
Then after that we checked into our hotel and chilled in the pool/sauna (which was disappointing because the temperature didn't go beyond 26 degrees for safety reasons).
For dinner we went to Chinatown, which was literally the cleanest Chinatown we've ever seen.
On Monday we did this Arcades and Lanes Walk that had some street art included, and Melbourne Central as well.
The lanes here are so cute, cosy and pretty and the shops are so amazing!
One particular street we were fascinated with was Degraves Street.
On one half they had shops which were amazing, particularly The Little Bookroom, Clementine's, and Il Papiro. Then on the other half, they had all these cafes/restaurants that were very cosy.
I also bought a $5 DIY paper aircraft model pack:
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We also got to see some street art:
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Then at night we headed to Crown Casino where I won $45 at roulette!
By now we were a little tired because we crammed a lot into the first two days and we had walked around so much. I guess we expected it because our trip was only 3 and a bit days so we shoved everything into those three days. Originally we were supposed to leave at night on Wednesday but they pushed forward our flight to 2pm so that made things a bit worse.
Anyway, first we headed up to Queen Victoria Markets. They're kind of like Paddy's markets but with more variety I suppose and a lot more cooler things (including cafes and churros stands).
From there I bought yet another DIY model, but this time it was a foam Phoenix which turns out to be about 30cm in length:
As well as a little souvenir model of the free City Circle tram 35:
Then we headed to South Bank and South Wharf, which had this really pretty bridge:
We spent hours at the South Wharf DFO but I was so tired I just slept on the sofas outside while the other girls shopped around.
We were originally palnning on going to St Kilda and Brighton Beach after this, but honestly we were so tired we just went back to the hotel and watched My Kitchen Rules like we did every other day.
Also, the transport price system is so bad in Melbourne. They have Myki cards which are like Opal cards, but you need to buy the actual card for $6 and then top it up with more money. I understand that part, but the part I don't get is that it's not at all tourist-friendly. If you don't need the card anymore, you can donate it to "charity" (i.e. they will just resell it). You can't even get a refund for it like in other countries. On top of that, when you load money onto the Myki cards, it expires in either 2 hours or a day (depending on what you purchase), which is quite frankly ridiculous.
Anyway that was my little rant.
Then we headed to some Mexican restaurant called Touche Hombre where I had the most delightful fried chicken wings.
Alas, our last day had come so we were packed and ready to go... except we didn't know where to go...
So we just chilled around Federation Square which, to be frank, was quite boring. I didn't really understand what the point of it was but maybe that's just because we weren't bothered enough to walk more than 50 metres into it and just sat down outside.
We did get to see Flinders Street Station though, which was amazingly beautiful:
All in all, I really enjoyed going to Melbourne. I would probably go back in a few years to see the things I missed out on in this trip, like some more street art, more Melbourne-esque cafes and eateries, St Kilda and Brighton beach, more of the Melbourne nightlife, and especially the Colonial Tramcar Restaurant! That was a bit over budget so we didn't go to that one but I'd really love to experience that one day. I'd also really want to explore more of Melbourne and not just the CBD.
The Melbourne life is so incredibly different to Sydney. Firstly, the streets are amazingly clean. Secondly, the cafes and laneways makes everything so much cosier. Thirdly, the grid layout of the streets makes it so easy to get to places, and probably creates the effect of less traffic and less people in the city (since most people are in the laneways or in other main streets and not just clustered onto one main road like George Street). Fourthly, the trams are cray. We were literally standing in the middle of the road with the tram stopping 20 centimetres in front of us with no barriers. Fifthly, the street art makes everything just a tad cooler.
Next up will most likely be Tasmania, and then maybe Perth after that! I need a job though to pay for all of this so let's hope I get one soon!
Until next time kiddos.
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