(Sorry no photos...still really slow internet)
Day 1: Melbourne
Having never flown Air Emirates before, we were excited to see what was in store. It was great! Every seat had it’s own TV screen with music galore, tons of movies, TV shows and news at our finger tips. The coolest feature however was the plane cameras. You could click and either view the camera on the front of the plane or one attached to the bottom. So since we didn’t have a window seat we could still see out, I thought that was very cool. The food was great and the whole flight experience was awesome. So enthralled with our entertainment options, Andrew and I only spoke about two words to each other the whole 6.5 hour flight!
We landed at 7:30am, September 23rd Australia time, which was 5:30am Singapore time. Having not slept the whole plane ride, needless to say we were exhausted. We went through customs collected our bags and then found the van we needed to take to the hostel. We were met with quite the temperature change. Australia is just coming out of their winter so there was a distinct chill in the air. I hope neither Andrew nor I get sick from such a fast temperature change. The ride to the hostel took about 20 minutes. Pint on Punt is where we would reside during our stay in Melbourne. Sounds like a pub…which it is. The hostel is built on the two floors above the bar. The reception girl was really sweet and although it looks and smells like and old dorm, it will do just fine. The washer is a HUGE plus! And get this….there is a DRYER! Haven’t seen one of those in 13 months!! Our clothes will actually shrink down to size and not be all stretched out! We are pumped about that.
Not wanting to waste the entire day sleeping, even though we wanted to, we set the alarm for 2pm and took a quick two hour re-energizing nap. We decided to just walk around and see where we ended up. We walked down Fitzroy road where cafes lined the streets and cable cars lined the roads. We stopped for a bit at a pizza place and then continued to walk down by St. Kilda Pier. The site was beautiful, and I’m sure it’s much busier in the summer time.
We called it an early night to ensure we caught up on our sleep and we were excited for what day two had in store.
Day 2: Melbourne
Today Andrew and I decided to make our way into the city center. Only about 15min via the tram, our hostel ended up being in a really great location. We boarded the tram and had no idea how to buy/get a ticket. There was an on board machine but no instructions. We messed with it for a bit before then realizing that it only took coins. So two stations later we had to get off in order to fins somewhere to make change. Once we boarded the tram again, I asked how to work the machine. $7.40 later…we arrived at the city center. We quickly noticed just how many people were there. Everyone was dressed up in either red, black and white, or just black and white. My curiosity got the best of me so I finally had to ask what was going on. The older gentleman told be that the Australian Football Grand Final was the next day and today was the parade of the teams. It was very cool because the two teams in the final are both from Melbourne and only a few miles apart. It’s between St. Kilda (where we are staying), and Collingwood (working class) from just across town. I think it would be a lot like the Rams and the Chiefs in the Superbowl…but the proximity of the towns here are a lot closer. Having some time to kill before the parade, we decided to walk around the Promenade. This was a very cool area of shops and cafes that lined the river. Once 12:15pm came around, we went back to where we got off the tram in order to see the parade.
Not really much of a parade, it was more just the players being escorted down the street in the back of trucks two at a time waving to their fans. All an interesting site to see and I wish I knew anything at all about Australian football.
The rest of the day we pushed our way through the massive crowds and walked around exploring all we could. We spent some time in the famous Federation Square where activities were being held in correlations with tomorrow’s big game.
We then decided to just walk the streets and take in all that Melbourne city has to offer. We heard about a large flea like market, Queen Victoria Central Market. Well, by the time we got there most of the shops were closing up. It was mainly a farmers market and then some souvenir shops that were all selling the same things. We made the long walk back, quickly stopping in Chinatown which was nothing and then sat at a little café to have dinner.
Day 3:Melbourne
The big game! Kickoff of the game was at 2:20pm so we knew we didn’t just want to sit around until then. We decided to go and visit the Shrine of Remembrance, a war memorial to Australia’s fallen soldiers. Originally completed in 1934 to honor those that fought in WW1, where it opened on the 11th day of the 11th month on the 11th hour, which is Remembrance day in Australia. They didn’t think there were going to be any more wars, so the main building is a memorial to the soldiers of WWI. It wasn’t until later that smaller memorials were added to commemorate all the fallen soldiers in all the wars in which Australia was involved with.
The grounds of the Shrine are beautiful and the inside was gorgeous. On the bottom floor for a limited time, they had six Victoria Crosses, the highest honor an Australian military person can receive. Only 94 have ever been given out, and the six on display also had their story as to why they were awarded them which was pretty cool.
We left the Shrine and then headed back to St. Kilda in search of Acland Street, a recommendation from my friend Jessica. This was a really cool area. Bars lined the streets and everyone was decked out in their St. Kilda Saints gear. They even had a big screen set up on the lawn for people to enjoy the game. We walked around for a bit and then took our seats on the ledge of a fountain to watch the game. It was a fun atmosphere to be a part of. I probably would have enjoyed it more had Andrew and I not been to wrapped up in trying to figure out how the game was played. It seemed to be a mix of rugby and soccer and I’m not really sure. A very physical game and entertaining to watch. We left at half time because we were so uncomfortable. We took a walk by the beach before heading back to he hostel. On our way, we noticed the score was now only a point different. When we left, St. Kilda was getting killed. We stopped on the sidewalk to watch the last few minutes of the game trough a bar window. The game actually ended in a draw!!!! Can you believe it? They let a championship game END IN A DRAW!! Well, we later found out instead of extra time, they will just play a WHOLE new game next Saturday…
Day 4: Sydney
September 26th, Andrew and I left the hostel at 7:45am to board our flight to SYDNEY! Our flight left at 9:10am so we were a bit worried about not being there 2 hours ahead of time but the company that picked us up to take us to the airport assured us that we were fine. We made it o the airport at about 8:30am and the line for JetStar was really, really long. I began to freak out a bit and after some waiting they let us along with the others going to Sydney to cut the line. We finally made it to the gate at about 9am and immediately boarded the plane….whew…safe with 10 min to spare J
We landed in Sydney after only about and hour and a half. Our hotel is beautiful and right on Darling Harbor and within waling distance to the famous Opera house. The day was beautiful so we decided to walk around the harbor for a little bit. It is a very cool area and it will be fun to spend some more time here. Later in the afternoon, we walked about 25 min to The Rocks. A really neat area that was built in the late 1800s they had all sorts of little tents set up with people selling handmade things. I wish we would have gotten there sooner because we weren’t there that long before shops started to close down. We then walked along the waterline and got to see the Opera house for the first time, from a distance. It looks different in real life than I would have thought but still such an icon that it was cool to see both that and the famous Harbor Bridge. The air started to get chilly so we walked back to the hotel, grabbed some dinner and then rested up for an exciting day tomorrow!
Day 5: Sydney
Dun dun dun DUN! The famous Sydney Opera house. This iconic Australian architectural marvel was the vision of a Danish architect, Jorn Utzon who won the design contest for the opera house. A building design well beyond it’s technological years was quite the process to build and it went over budget by about 200X! The entire story is quite remarkable and I wish that I could remember it.
Andrew and I arrived at the Opera House and walked around the outside of it snapping pictures for about 45 minutes before we decided to take the actual tour. Taking the tour is the only way to actually get inside. So for $35 each, we began our hour long tour. It consisted of two different videos, a walk through one half of the house (the other is being renovated) and then a look at three different concert halls. Although it’s called the Opera House, opera’s aren’t actually that common here because the size of the theater’s are actually quite small. They host everything from plays, comedians, jazz concerts, ballets and more. Anyone can pretty much rent it out by the day for a hefty price of $15,000 for a larger hall, to $7,000 for one of the smaller concert halls. They just call it the Opera House to simplify it from, “Sydney’s Multi-Purpose Entertainment Venue,” or so I guide told us. They are currently in the middle of an eleven year renovation. The inside although clean, does look quite dated. Because of the shell like shape, the ceilings are fairly low and you have to watch your head when walking near the side of the stairs. The tour was very informative and I wish we had more time here so that we could have caught a show here that interested us.
Later in the day we decided to visit the Sydney Aquarium. The biggest reason for this was the Great Barrier Reef display they have because we were not going to be able to witness the reef in the ocean. It was a very cool set up and they had so many animals there that were indigenous to only Australia. They also had quite an impressive walk through of a shark tank and the biggest stingrays I have ever seen or even knew existed. It was really great and we were glad we took the time to do it.
Day 6: Sydney
For our last day in Australia we wanted to go out with a bang so we saved he best adventure for last. Well...not quite. The wind was let out of our sails when we went to talk to the concierge. The famous Harbour Bridge has a guided bridge climb where you can actually walk up and over the summit of the bridge while looking at the Sydney sites from such a high perspective. We had our tennis shoes on and everything. Then the concierge told us that it was going to cost us $400!!! We looked at each other with sad eyes because we knew we couldn't pay that much to climb a bridge. Disappointed, we decided the next best thing to see would be the Taronga Zoo, or "the zoo with a view." Built on the side of the harbour, the only way to get there is via ferry boat. It really does have a stunning view of the water, the city, and the opera house. The zoo wasn't much different than one at home except they did have a really neat kangaroo exhibit. You actually walk through their habitat with no fences separating you and the animals. They were very calm and pretty lazy when we were there, only one was actually standing up. We had an absolutely beautiful day and we really enjoyed our last day in Australia.
Australia is one of those places that I definitely want to visit again. I would love to go back during their summer to enjoy some of the summer events they have to offer and I would love to see the Great Barrier Reef. Overall, it was such an enjoyable week and I can't wait for our last stop...New Zealand!
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