The Mel-bourne Identity
Trip Start
Jun 15, 2008
1
15
36
Trip End
Jun 15, 2009
Melbourne,
Victoria,
Australia
Saturday, August 2, 2008
We decided to get the train from Sydney to Melbourne, partly because it was cheaper and partly because I was sick of flying. After all, the Distance between Sydney and Melbourne on a map was tiny so the train journey should be easy - WRONG. We knew before we set out that the journey would take 11 hours. Leaving at 7:30 in the morning arriving in Melbourne at 6:30 that evening. But in your head 11hours is nothing. We had magazines, we had cards and we had just purchased a travel version of connect 4 so we were set. Plus we also had the amazing Aussie countryside to gaze at out the window if we got bored of everything else so this journey was going to fly bye
Eureka tower
. OH John you are so naiveOne hour in - bums start to get numb, two hours in -you've read all your reading material, three hours in - all areas of your bum are numb so no matter where you sit there is no relieve from the numb bum pain, four hours in - After 40 games of connect 4 you start to lose your mind, 5 hours in - you never want to look at another playing card in your live, 6 hours in - Blinded by the sun as it slowly cooks us through the trains window, 7 hours in - Announcement tells us we are running two hours behind schedule(Will to live slowly fades), 8 hours in - like a trapped animal in the zoo start to pace up and down the carriage as you question your sanity for choosing an 11 hour train journey instead of a one hour flight,. 9 hours, 10 hours, 11 hours, 12 hours, FINALLY after 13 hours on this godforsaken train we arrive in Melbourne. I step out of the train with a confused feeling "Just how big is this country?"
Answer: BIG
We only had a few days in Melbourne. Friends from home had been living and working there since May so we were going to meet up with them and hopefully crash at there place for a few days as Australia was turning out to be pretty harsh on our Bank balances. They were living in St. Kilda, a sea side suburb of Melbourne, popular with back packers. St kilda turned out to be pretty cool, it reminded me of Salthill in Galway with its little amusement park, Lunar park. This place was a joy to see, some of the rides were like something you would see on Craggy island, just hilarious but the kids on them seemed to be enjoying themselves.
Melbourne from the boat
Now you know as well as I do when you meet up with some mates you haven't seen in a while there is only one thing to do and that is to have a few drinks. On our first night n Melbourne we were introduced to Goon, which is basically a 4 liter box of wine and it only costs 15 dollars or about 10 Euros - RESULT. But after a few hours of drinks and a trip to the beautiful south bank area of Melbourne, home to an Irish pub called "O'Brien's", myself and Caroline had to call it a day (or a night as technically it was 1am) as that days traveling had taken its toll on us. We left the others to party the night away as we made our way back to our friends house for some badly needed sleep.
We were in Melbourne for 5 nights but I wont give you a day by day guide of what we did. All I can say is that it is a beautiful city with a great night life, but unusually it does not have that many landmarks. There is the Eureka tower which is the tallest viewing platform in the southern hemisphere, there are a few sports stadiums but thats about it. What are lovely in Melbourne are the trams. There seems to be trams running up and down every street you come across in Melbourne and it gives the city a very retro European type feel which is only compounded by its cafe culture. Cafes are everywhere especially around the city center.
Up Eureka tower
We did go up the Eureka tower for a look(Which incidentally is pretty expensive at 16 dollars each) and it was pretty cool to get a birds eye view of the city. We also took a boat trip down the river which cuts through Melbourne but apart from that we didn't do too many "Touristy" things. Just chilled with old friends and new as we also ended up meeting up with people we had met in Asia
We spent two nights in our friends house and three in the Cooee Hostel in St kilda which was more like a hotel than a hostel. Again like Sydney, we didn't get to do everything we wanted in Melbourne (Like taking part in the "Neighbours" night, where you get to meet cast members from the soap and listen to Dr. Karl's band sing) but like Sydney we plan on coming back to Melbourne so hopefully we will get to do everything then.
