Melbourne Day I

Settling into our hotel in Melbourne after a long as, full on day.  We arrived in Melbourne just past 8:00 this morning after leaving Sydney just past 7:00.  I slept during the short flight (no surprise, considering I was up at 5:35 after going to bed at 12:30), but even still we managed to see and do quite a bit in our first day here!

Flying in Australia is very different than flying in the US.  While I wouldn’t say security is lax, I would compare it more to a pre-9/11 atmosphere than what we currently experience back in the States.  With our flight scheduled to depart at 6:55, I would have expected to get to the airport by 5:00AM if I were in the States.  Australians, on the other hand, don’t get to the airport until very close to the departure time.  With ‘the house’ only a few minutes from the airport, it was decided we would order a cab for 6:00AM.  While it put me on edge a bit, I went with the flow because I knew I would appreciate the extra sleep.

We got to the airport around 6:15 and were through security by 6:25.  Our gate ended up being just about the furthest possible, and we did begin to hurry a bit, reaching the plane as they announced ‘final call’.  We got on (and were in row 2) to find the plane mostly empty even as when we checked in, the seat selection had indicated it to be a full flight.  Over the course of the next 15 minutes, the plane filled up as more people boarded after us – so much for ‘final call’.

The flight was short (and uneventful) and I enjoyed sleeping for a bit.  We landed in Melbourne around 8:20.

An Airbus A-380 at Melbourne Tullamarine International Airport.

Straightaway, we caught a bus to the Southern Cross Train Station in the CBD.  We lucked out with our hotel location, which ended up being only a block from the station – we dropped our bags and were off to explore the city by 9:00.

Melbourne is very, very different from Sydney.  With atypically wide streets for a city, arranged in a large grid of super blocks, the feel is almost not of a city at all.  Within the superblocks are laneways and smaller streets, some of which are covered in graffiti.  Trams run in the centre of most of the large streets (Melbourne has one of the largest tram networks in the world – with more than 200 miles of track), and despite the skyscrapers which lend to a ‘city’ feel, the sheer width of the streets makes things feel more open than in any other city I have been in.

We started off by wandering east across the city, wandering down laneways and dodging trams as we went.  We stopped into Federation Square, a massive development near the Yarra River, which plays host to large gatherings every-so-often, but was pretty dead space when we walked through.  The city’s visitor centre is located there, so we popped in to grab some brochures.  Afterwards we went across the street to St. Paul’s Cathedral and wandered inside before walking by the magnificent Flinders Street Train Station on our way to find brunch on a laneway.  We stumbled upon Issus on Centre Place, a grungy little laneway off of Flinders, and had an excellent meal to set us off for more exploring.

Breakfast of backed eggs, spinach, potatoes, and chorizo at Issus.

After eating, we headed back across Federation Square and walked along the River for a bit before peeling back into the CBD and walking east along Flinders to catch the City Circle tram to facilitate in our efforts.  The tram, a free tourist service, runs in a loop around the rectangular grid of the CBD and out on a spur to the new developments in the docklands just outside the CBD.  The tram (an old heritage car from the 1930s) was packed for the trip, but it was a better alternative than walking as it began to drizzle.  The tram ride is narrated, and we got to see quite a few sites on the eastern and northern edges of the city (Parliament, the old Gaol, etc.) before heading off into Harbour Town.

We got off at the last stop before the tram turned back to the city and wandered around a bit, getting pictures from the wharf looking back toward the city.  We then went and caught a city circle tram back into the city, getting off at Melbourne Central to check out the ‘Old Shot Tower’ in the mall.  The tall brick tower, a relic of old Melbourne, was built over a century ago to produce shot for rifles  Molten lead would be hauled up to the top and then dropped, dispersing into droplets and cooling before it landed at the bottom.  While the area around the tower was lost in the 1960s as ‘slum clearance’ which seemed to happen in every city around the world at that time, the tower was saved and today sits in a 20-storey glass atrium in the heart of the Melbourne Centre mall.

From Melbourne Centre, we went across the street to the State Library.  An imposing building, we were treated to quite a bit more than we expected when we went up to the top of the ‘dome’, getting to look out over a light filled reading room modeled on the US Library of Congress.

Looking into the reading room of the Victoria State Library.

There were also some exhibitions in the lower storeys of the dome, and I got to learn a bit about Victoria (the state which Melbourne is in) and one of the most famous people to come out of Victoria – Ned Kelly, an infamous bushranger from the 1860s. 

Outside of the State Library.

We stopped in the café at the library for an afternoon pick-me-up before heading across the street to tour the Old Melbourne Gaol.

Afternoon Chai at the State Library.

The Melbourne Gaol, opened in the 1841, was home to 136 hangings until the time it closed in 1924.  The cellblocks which remain and are open for touring date from 1858, and are incredibly beautiful (while utilitarian).  The gaol was set up very well for touring and interpreting the heritage, and I can see why it was voted the ‘best heritage and cultural tourist attraction in Australia’.  One of the exhibits was all about Ned Kelly (who was incarcerated and hanged there in the 1880s), and I learned more than I had at the library earlier in the day.

After we toured the Gaol, we went next door to the Police Lock-up, which operated from 1908-1994 in a remarkably unchanged building.  The lock-up experience included a simulated arrest and detention, which was quite an entertaining and interesting way to experience the building.

Upon leaving the gaol complex, we headed back west across the city to check into our hotel.  On the way we stopped for a snack at Lord of the Fries, a vegetarian and vegan fast food chain in Melbourne.  Amanda had been there many times before, and assured me that her non-vegan friends enjoy it as well.  We got a box of nuggets, onion rings, and chips.  I didn't really enjoy the nuggets, but the rings and chips were good.

Our box from Lord of the Fries, coverd in aioli - a staple condiment in Australia.

We settled into the room and then struck out across the city in search of a drink before dinner.  Amanda knew of a rooftop bar in the heart of the CBD which came with rave reviews, so we headed over to the ‘Rooftop Bar and Cinema’ on Swanston Street.  After trekking up seven flights of stairs we had high expectations, but all were surpassed as we settled in next to a heater with pints in hand, underneath a massive movie screen jumping between clips of old music videos as music poured out of the speakers, surrounded by the lights of the skyscrapers of the CBD, high above the streets of Melbourne.  We sat for over probably around two hours soaking in the sights and sounds (and another pint), enjoying the culture of Melbourne.

The view from the rooftop bar.

And the other side.

After we had our fill (and were quite hungry as it was pushing 9:00), we headed back down the stairs to the now crowded streets.  We made our way to Chinatown and found a Japanese restaurant which suited our fancy.  With Amanda being vegan, choosing a place to dine can be a bit of a challenge, though it turned out Melbourne is quite an accommodating city to the task.  I had sushi as a starter and some deep fried fish skin (a surprise when they brought it to us, but I decided to be adventurous), and we split a big plate of stir-fried veg.

Fried fish skin - which just tasted like fried.

From dinner we headed across the street and down a little laneway, Coors Lane, in search of Berlin, a bar Jimmy had recommended.  We found it on the second floor of a little building, but it seemed to have closed, so we went down a flight to House of Maximon, which turned out to a fun quirky-little place to continue the night.  We didn’t stay too terribly long as we had another stop we wanted to make, and it was getting a bit late.  The next place we went was a small bistro, Triim, on a laneway off of Bourke where we enjoyed some divine cocktails.  I had a basil and strawberry, which was quite a fantastic combination.   We headed back to the hotel, but stopped off down the street at a pub called the Bottom End to finish off the night.

We covered a lot of ground today, and saw most of what we wanted to see in the CBD – tomorrow we will head north of the city to explore, and Sunday will be for the south!

Refresher phrase of the day –

_______ as – combined with any adjective, as acts a modifier to emphasize ‘a lot’ or ‘very’ (ex, long as mean s very long).