As you know, I went to Melbourne this weekend from April 7th-11th! To start my blog off, I learned right away that the way you pronounce Melbourne is not the way that it looks, because it is pronounced Mel-bin. People who are from the United States or other countries usually pronounce it the first way, and Australians get frustrated because that is not the way it is said. Since I want to fit in with the Australians, I practiced days before saying, Mel-bin and not Mel-bourne, in which I got it down perfectly by the time we arrived! Here is a day by day summary of what we did from the moment we left Sydney to the second we landed in Melbourne!
Thursday:
The 6 of us, because Olivia arrived a day earlier, took a shuttle from Sydney University Village to Sydney Airport. Our flight was supposed to leave at 9:15 p.m. and arrive in Melbourne at 10:45 p.m., but when we got to the airport we were asked if we wanted to get on the 8:15 p.m. flight, arriving an hour early. Of course, we said yes so we could get to Melbourne faster! Once getting our boarding passes, we went through security, which by far, is the worst culture shock I have gotten yet. I took out my passport and had my boarding ticket in my hand to give the security people, and they told me they do not check it and I can just put it away. I am so used to showing an ID before going through, that it was shocking to not have to show any identification before boarding the flight. Also, there is no liquid restrictions, and we did not have to take off any clothing like sweatshirts or even our shoes. I started to take off my shoes, and the security person looked at me and said they do not require taking them off. Even though security was a joke and was different than flying in the United States, I realized this is how their culture is and I was safe enough to travel.
As we were sitting at our gate, I wanted to go to the bathroom to see if the toilet water in the airport spun the other way. In my apartment and every place I have gone, the toilet water gushes into the bowl, and does not spin. My friend Rachel told me that the water does not spin the opposite way in the Southern Hemisphere than in the Northern Hemisphere because of the two different Hemispheres, rather in the Southern Hemisphere there is different plumbing than in the Northern Hemisphere. At that moment, my heart was crushed because all my life I thought it was because of the different hemispheres! Hearing this was like hearing that there is no Santa Clause, no Tooth Fairy, and the Easter Bunny is fake. I guess sometime in life the truth has to come out :(. It makes sense though that it cannot be from the gravitational pull because gravity pulls towards the center of the earth no matter where you are.
The flight is only an hour, despite what the airlines said that it would take 1.5 hours. Upon arriving, we got a shuttle and went to our hostel, called Nomads Backpackers. The hostel was really nice, and was my first hostel experience! We had 8 beds in our room, and the 7 of us had the entire room to ourselves except one of the nights. When we arrived, we got ready and went out to the bars for a bit. The bar was called Cookie, and was nothing I have experienced before. It was about 10 stories tall, and at the top, there was a rooftop outdoor bar overlooking the city! It was super nice arriving just a few hours before, and getting the chance to see the city in lights.
Friday:
We woke up and went to the Pancake Parlor, which was our daily breakfast place. Every single morning, we went to this breakfast place because we had coupons for $5 pancakes, which is a really good deal in Australia considering everything is so expensive. The hostel had a stack of these coupons, so every morning we would walk by and grab some before heading out to breakfast. After breakfast, Devin, Rachel, Olivia, and I decided to walk around the city of Melbourne to get a feel for the city. I fell in love with Melbourne right away, but honestly I do love Sydney more. I liked Melbourne a lot because it is a much smaller city than Sydney, and everywhere you go is walking distance. The sidewalks are a lot wider, which reminded some of my friends of streets in France or Paris. The streets are not filled with buses, rather trolleys which are powered by electricity. Since Melbourne is known to be an artsy city, the buildings are a lot nicer than in Sydney, and the atmosphere is not so much in a rush. We came across the Melbourne Library, the Victoria State Parliament, the Melbourne Exhibition Center, different parks full of trees and flowers, and so much more.
Here is the Sydney Exhibition Center:
Here is the Victoria State Parliament:
After walking around the city for a while, the 4 of us headed over to Federation Square. Fed Square as the locals call it, is a true reflection of their city. Right when we walked up, I knew exactly where I was. Every building on the block at some artistic configuration and stood out from the rest of the buildings. At Fed Square, there are a ton of art exhibits, museums, restaurants, and is the focal point of Melbourne. All of the buildings looked really cool and each one was unique from the other. Here are some pictures of Fed Square:
At Fed Square, we went to the Australian Centre for the Moving Image and saw an exhibit on the art of Disney's classic fairy tales called, "Dreams Come True." This was probably one of my favorite exhibits I have ever seen. The exhibition presented the original art, story, sketches, animation drawings, maquettes, and final frame cells from some of Disney's most popular films. The exhibit displaced Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, The Princess and the Frog, and Tangled. I learned that Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the first full length animation fill ever made. Everyone but Walt Disney believed that an audience would not sit through a long animated film without being bored. I guess Walt Disney proved them wrong quickly! It was amazing to see how before computers were used in making movies, that every single part of these movies were drawn by hand. The exhibit displayed the templates that everyone drawing out the characters and scenes had to base their single frame on. I learned that there are 24 frames in 1 second of the movie, and that over 1 million frames were drawn from different people, but only about 124,000 were used in each of the films! I was amazed how different people can draw different frames, but when you put everyone's frames together, it all runs smoothly. It is unbelievable to think that every single motion and part of these original movies were hand drawn, and not computerized. It was also interesting to see that in each section of the different movies, there were alternative drawings to what the characters could have looked like. For example, the beast in Beauty and the Beast was maybe going to be hog or a scarier looking beast. The dad in The Little Mermaid was going to look much scarier and be a shark or whale. Walt Disney was extremely creative in what he put together and the movies and people he inspired for generations and generations.
Once leaving Fed Square, we went and got lunch at a sandwich shop, and then headed to the Melbourne Museum, which is Australia's largest museum, and met up with Adam, Jessica, and Brittany. We got tickets before we left to see the King Tut exhibit, which is only at the museum for a couple months, and then moves to another country. I could not believe that King Tut ruled when he was only 9 years old and then died at 19 years old! The exhibit was amazing displaying old artifacts, tombs, and parts of King Tut's life. It was unbelievable to see the things that these people made that long ago. There was gold chairs that were perfectly built, and the tombs that these people were placed in were amazing. Everything was perfectly made and still in great condition at the museum. There were different things put in King Tut's tomb that you would think would never want to be buried because it was so beautiful.
Once leaving the exhibit, we went through the rest of the museum and saw things like a blue whale skeleton, and indoor rain forest, an insect and butterfly collection, body world, and a display of dinosaur bones. It was an awesome museum and definitely a place kids would enjoy.
Blue Whale Skeleton:
Dinosaur Bones:
Giant Armadillo Shell:
Giant Tortoise Shell:
Afterwords, the 7 of us went out to dinner at a burger place, and then went out for the night in Melbourne for a bit since we were so tired from the day.
Saturday:
We started off our morning at the Pancake Parlor, and then went to the Queen Victoria Market. This market is the largest open-air market in the Southern Hemisphere. There are hundreds and hundreds of indoor and outdoor stalls where you can find anything from clothes to produce to souvenirs, and even to pets and live poultry! We were there about 3.5 hours, and still did not see the entire market. There was a stall that sold live chickens that people could take home and kill for dinner, and even baby ducks to raise and then eat when it gets older!
I ended up buying a few things at the market, but knew I did not have enough room to bring back a lot since I only had a carry on. Guess I will have to buy more when my family comes to Melbourne in June so I can put stuff in their suitcases!
We then went to lunch, and then headed to the Old Melbourne Goal. Once again, I kept calling the Goal the "Go-all" because that is what it looks like. The correct pronunciation is actually jail, because this is how Australians spell jail! The Old Melbourne Goal is a historic prison that was used in the 19th century. Over 135 hangings took place in the prison, including the notorious bushranger Ned Kelly in 1800. The scaffold where he was hanged still stands in the prison along with his gun and suit of armor used by a member of his gang. Each of the prison cells has profiles of prisoners giving a perspective of what is was like to be locked up in the jail, until it was closed in 1929. There are artifacts from the inmates and biographies of famous inmates.
The 7 of us even got to get a first hand experience of what it was thought of how these prisoners lives were. We got locked up in a jail cell with about 10 other people and they shut off the lights for about a minute. It creeped me out knowing actual inmates were in my position at one point in time. I even got to take a mug shot!
Once leaving, we went to dinner at a pub in the center of the city and then went pub hoping at night. It was a great day!
Sunday:
We decided to sleep in a bit since the other mornings we were waking up at 8:15 a.m. The weather on the internet said it was supposed to rain all day, but we lucked out and it ended up raining late in the afternoon. The 7 of us went to the Pancake Parlor, and then we all split up depending on what we wanted to do. Devin, Rachel, and I decided to go to the Treasury Gardens and the Fitzroy Gardens. It was absolutely beautiful and we lucked out because it did not rain the entire time we were there. There was a pond in the Treasury Gardens with baby ducks swimming around!
We found a Conservatory, and decided to go in. The inside was absolutely beautiful and was full of different types of plants. One of the part of traveling I love the most is spur of the moment things that happen to be really fun. This is the inside of the Conservatory including a panoramic view Devin took:
Along the way, we saw this little cottage and decided to walk up to it. This cottage is called Cooks' Cottage, and is the house of James Cook, who discovered Australia. We got the chance to tour the cottage and his garden.
Right when we left, it started to pour. I heard of a museum called the National Sports Museum which displays moments of Australian sport. You can view displays and 3D holograms featuring the careers of some of the famous Australian sports legends. Since I am in an Australian sports class, I thought this would be interesting. I walked all the way over to the museum, but there was an Australian Football League game going on, and therefore the museum was closed. Even though the museum was closed, I got the chance to see the Melbourne rugby stadium. There was a plaque from when the Olympics were held in Melbourne in 1956.
I then decided that it would be cool to take a tour of the Victoria State Parliament building, but of course that was closed too. Since it was raining really hard, there was not much we could do outside. The 7 of us all met at this huge indoor mall, got dinner, and then headed back to the hostel where we played cards for a couple hours. We got in bed at 8:30 p.m., because we had to wake up at 3 a.m. for our flight back to Sydney.
Monday:
Our flight left out of Avalon Airport, which is about 45 minutes outside of the center of Melbourne. Since our flight was at 6:10 a.m., we had to leave our hostel at 3:30 a.m for the shuttle. It was an extremely long morning, but we landed safely back in Sydney around 7:30 a.m. Lets just say right when we got back, I fell right back asleep for about 3 hours :).
Melbourne was an incredible trip and definitely memorable. I had an amazing time exploring the city with my friends and creating memories to last a lifetime. This trip led me to explore Australian culture and another Australian city. I am now back in Sydney for another 9 days, and then head to New Zealand for 12 days! What a hard life I live, right? All I can say is I am extremely lucky :).
As Jawaharial Nehru once said, “We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.”
Heaps of Love,
Heidi
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