Melbourne #5 (Jan and Pete’s visit), Victoria, Australia

Melbourne #5 (Jan and Pete’s visit), Victoria, Australia

15th February – 18th February 2018

After a very late night of blog writing and catching up with posting them online, we had quite an early morning the next day. I got up around 8.30ish and had a shower and got ready, before I dragged Joe out of bed too.

Once we had eaten some breakfast and we’re ready, we got on our bikes and head towards the station. We had already planned on going into the city in the morning to meet Jan and Pete when they arrived, but I had a message from Matthew saying he was in the city and asking if we wanted to meet for a drink, so we set off earlier.

We got into the city just before 10. We met Matthew at the station and walked towards Southbank, where we found a cafe and sat down for some breakfast. As we had already eaten some cereal at home, before we left, we only had some toast, with a drink, but it was nice to have a catch up. After chatting for a while, Matthew sneakily got up and paid for the bill, which was very kind of him!

Once we were finished with breakfast, we walked along the front, having a photo on the way. After walking along Southbank, we made our way to Flinders Station, where we said our goodbyes.

After saying goodbye to Matthew, we had a little bit of time to wait, as Jan and Pete were still on their way from the airport. While we were waiting, we bought some mykis, so that Jan and Pete could get the train with us and then sat in Federation square, watching the world go by.

Quite a bit of time had passed, and their transfer still hadn’t arrived. As it was getting quite sunny where we were, we started to walk towards the hotel anyway, just in case they had arrived and hadn’t had chance to message us. Just before we arrived, we got a message to say they had just got into their room and needed some time to shower and freshen up, so we sat in the lobby, while we waited.

Once Jan and Pete were ready, we text them to say that we were there, and they came down to greet us. It was really nice to see them, but it felt so strange that it had been seven months since we had last seen each other – it didn’t seem that long at all! We went up to their room while they gathered their last bits together, before setting off for the day.

As we got carried away chatting, we left it pretty late to get to the train, so we had to rush a little but managed to get onto the train, just in time. We were heading to Williamstown for the day, to meet Mo and Mark and introduce them to Jan and Pete.

When we got off the train, we walked towards the centre of town, where Mo and Mark were waiting for us. As it was getting quite late into the afternoon, we went straight for lunch. We had already decided on fish and chips, from a local fish shop that Mo and Mark have been to before. The food was really good, and it was really nice of Jan and Pete to treat us all.

After we had eaten lunch, we went for a walk along the pier, towards the city skyline. We enjoyed the views and chatted along the way, before walking back along the front. We walked by the shops and cafes and ended up in one for a coffee (or milkshake in mine and Joe’s cases).

Once we had finished our café break, we walked further along the front, before heading back to the train station. We didn’t really have a plan for the evening, we just knew that we would be spending it with Jan and Pete. As we had no set plan, Mo invited us back for dinner at home – we weren’t very hungry at this stage, but we were going to stop in Yarraville anyway to show Jan and Pete where we have been living, so the offer was very kind of them.

After getting off the train, we walked through the park, showing them the area. We chilled out for a little bit when we got home and had a chat. Everyone, especially Jan and Pete, were getting tired so we didn’t want to make the night too late.

Even though we still weren’t hungry, we ordered a couple of pizzas between us from the takeaway and enjoyed them with a glass of wine.

Shortly after dinner, once we had done the washing up, Mark dropped the four of us off at the station (me and Joe had to go up because our bikes were parked there from the morning ride). We showed Jan and Pete the centre of Yarraville and into the little garden, before it was time to say bye and let them get their train back.

After riding back home, we got our bags packed for our mini road trip down the Great Ocean Road, before chilling out and watching some TV, and then heading to bed.

The next morning, the alarm went off at 5.45am, so that we could get up and ready and get to the hire car in Seddon. Luckily, as we really struggled to get out of bed so early, Mo dropped us off on a nearby street. We found the car and did the necessary check and got the key, before driving home to load everything into it.

Once the car was loaded and we were ready to go, we drove to Yarraville station, to pick up Jan and Pete. I don’t think any of us were overly impressed with the early start, but it meant that we could make the most of the day.

While we were driving towards Torquay, for our morning surf lesson, I realised we were earlier than we needed to be, so we decided to make a pitstop in Geelong for some breakfast on the front. We found a café overlooking the seafront, so sat in there, but as it was so cold, we couldn’t actually enjoy the view as we wanted to be indoors.

After a quick breakfast, it was time to carry on to Torquay. We got to the surf shop, just in time for our lesson. We checked in and the man behind the counter couldn’t believe Jan and Pete were having a lesson too!

Whilst we were checking in, Joe moved the car, as it wasn’t in the correct parking zone. Once we had checked in, we were told that we had to follow in the car up to the beach, as the van wasn’t coming back at lunch (when our lesson finished), so Joe had to bring the car back.

When everyone was ready, we followed the van to Point Addis beach, where it was packed! It took us a while to find a parking spot, and when we did it was a bit of a distance from the beach, but that didn’t matter. We only needed water with us, but I took the GoPro too. We had to walk to the van to get a wetsuit each, before walking down to their trailer to get a surf board each.

Once everyone was kitted up, we walked onto the beach for our lesson. The instructor couldn’t believe how busy it was, but I guess it was perfect surfing weather. The lesson began on the beach, where we had a safety and strategy talk. We drew our own surf board in the sand before practicing the movements a few times.

After having a few practices, we were allowed into the water, so we grabbed our boards and off we went. I wasn’t off to a great start and really couldn’t not get up on the board, even when I did manage to catch a wave.

Even though I was struggling so much, Joe managed to get up on his board first and I was so happy for him. I kept trying but it was like my legs were stuck to the surf board! After a while, the instructor swapped my board for a bigger one, which apparently was sturdier to help my balance and it really worked! Once my board was swapped I was like a pro and managed to ride loads of waves! Joe managed to ride a few more waves, but Jan and Pete just loved body boarding.

Me and Joe were determined to try and catch the same wave, at the same time, but it was a struggle. Either one of us would do it, or neither of us. It was time to get out of the water, so we only had one more wave to go. We got ourselves ready and luckily, we managed to both catch the same wave – it was a perfect end!

Once the lesson was over, we moved onto the beach before washing the boards and returning them to the trailer. After giving all of the equipment back, we walked back up to the car to get changed – which was a challenge in itself!

After we were all ready, we got back into the car and carried on our journey down the Great Ocean Road. We didn’t have to drive very far, until we got to Anglesea, where we decided to stop for lunch. We had to drive around a little bit to find a good place with space for us, before we ended up back at the place we started. We were all very hungry after surfing, so we were keen to get some food.

After eating lunch, we carried on our journey, making a few view stops along the way. One of the stops included Aireys Inlet, where we got out and had a walk along to the lighthouse. The views were stunning and well worth the stops.

Urquhart Bluff Lookout

Eagle Rock Lookout

Aireys Inlet

Once we left Aireys Inlet, we had another few view stops, including the Great Ocean Road sign, before getting to Lorne, where we stopped to do a food shop. Time was getting on quite a bit, and we were all starting to feel tired, so after the food shop, the plan was to drive straight to the cottage where we were staying.

Memorial Arch

Mount Defiance

As we were driving through Lorne, it reminded both me and Joe of Wanaka, in New Zealand, except there wasn’t a lake, it was the sea instead. We carried on driving, before stopping, as there were koalas in the trees on the roadside. We stopped to have a look, but it was quite well hidden by branches. We took some photos, before carrying on towards the cottage. As we went around the bend, Joe noticed one up in a tree – it was a great spot, as it was lower down and much clearer, although it was a worrying find, as Joe was the driver! After having a look at, and taking photos of the koala, we carried on driving with no stops until we arrived at the cottage.

Knowing that the cottage was in the middle on nowhere, we knew we wouldn’t have any signal in there, which we weren’t bothered about… until we got there. When we arrived, I had instructions of how to get the key from a lock box, however the lockbox we needed, was open and there was no key in there, so it wasn’t a great start. We had a look around the floor and tried the doors, before me and Joe had to get back in the car and drive back down the road to find some phone service.

When we finally had some service, I rang the company number that I had, but the office was shut. There was an ‘emergency number’ on the answer machine message, which I rang. However, that went to voicemail three times and I didn’t see the point of leaving a message, as they wouldn’t be able to get in touch with us when we drove back up to the cottage. After waiting a little bit, I tried the emergency number again and left a message, but I wish I didn’t. Once I hung up I realised I had left the wrong number, so I had to ring back a second time, leaving the wrong number again. By the third time, me and Joe were both laughing so hard, it was probably impossible to understand and I ended up telling Dennis’ (not Derek as Joe was ‘100% sure’ it was) voicemail how much I needed the toilet and couldn’t get into a bathroom so needed help – I didn’t quite sound as angry as I wanted to!

As I had rung this number multiple times and got no answer, we decided it wasn’t worth waiting, so we drove back up to the cottage to see how Jan and Pete were getting on.

Luckily, when we got back, Jan and Pete had managed to get inside. Apparently, the owner of the cottage turned up as Pete was trying every door handle in the place and Jan was wandering around looking in windows – they must have looked very dodgy. The owner said he doesn’t usually have anything to do with the cottages, and that someone else manages them, but fortunately he had a spare key to let us in.

When we eventually got in, we found that one of the units hadn’t been cleaned. I wasn’t happy at this point because we had a struggle to get in, and then it wasn’t ready for us. Jan said she wasn’t bothered about it not being cleaned for us and said that they didn’t mind staying in that part, but I didn’t think it was fair.

Trying to not let that ruin our trip, we settled in and sat on the balcony with a drink and a pack of cards. We played a few rounds, before Pete started the BBQ up. We drank wine and ate food, before we went inside, as it was getting a little chilly.

Once we were inside, we got the dessert out and swapped the cards for Yahtzee. It wasn’t like Yahtzee that we had been playing though, it was much more competitive and I wasn’t on my game at all!

After a few games, we stayed up chatting and before we knew it, is was 1am, so thought it would be a good idea to go to bed.

The next morning, we treated ourselves to a lie in. However, at 6, I could hear Jan and Pete moving around downstairs but couldn’t figure out what they were doing. It turns out that they could hear noises on the balcony so got up to check that there weren’t any people out there; luckily, it was just animals. I woke Joe up because I was worried that there was something wrong, but he wasn’t interested and just rolled over.

Once I heard Jan and Pete go back into their room, I fell back to sleep, and we slept in until about 9. We got up and ready, but as we hadn’t brought any shampoo for a shower, I had to cope with my straw hair. When I got up and ready, I started to feel a little rough – it had been a long time since I’d drunk that much wine and stayed up that late!

After we had got ready, we sat on the balcony for a while, while we waited for Jan and Pete to get ready. For breakfast, as I was a little tender, me and Joe shared a cereal bar and some fresh orange juice.

After we had had something to eat, we packed up and loaded the car. We were running a little late, but we didn’t think it would matter, as they had messed us around so much. The owner came in to collect his key and we were on our way.

As we left the cottage, we started our journey back down the Great Ocean Road towards the Twelve Apostles. It didn’t quite go as straight forward as that, but that made the adventure better. Along the way, we saw a sign for Cape Otway Lighthouse, so me and Joe decided to detour to see it.

What we didn’t realise, was that it was a twelve kilometre drive down the road to get there. We carried on going anyway, and took a few koala stops along the way.

When we got to the lighthouse, we didn’t realise that there would be a charge to actually see the lighthouse, the signs mentioned a fee, but it didn’t indicate that it was to get in, I was under the impression that you just had to pay to go up, in the lighthouse. We paid anyway and went into have a look around.

Inside, there was some really interesting information about the lighthouse and the history of the area. We wandered around, before going to the café for cake and a drink – not the healthiest of starts to the day, but it was tasty. After our snack, we walked to the lighthouse and went inside to go up. The views were really good, and we could see right down the coast on both sides.

As time was getting on, again, we needed to move on and get to the Twelve Apostles. We drove back down the twelve-kilometre road, with another koala visit, as it was so close to the road. When we got back on the Great Ocean Road, we drove straight there, with no stops. During the drive, we all ended up napping (apart from Joe – just about); I felt really bad about it, but I just could not keep my eyes open!

We finally arrived at the Twelve Apostles and it was packed! We got out of the car and wandered under the road, to the viewpoints. As it was so busy, we had to wait a while to get a good photo spot, but it was worth it.

It was funny to watch everyone doing the same thing: waiting their turn for a good photo spot, getting up on the ledges to see the view properly, getting their selfie sticks out, etc… and we were just as bad as everyone else!

 

We took loads of photos, before driving further down the road to Loch Ard Gorge. When we first arrived at the entrance, we were rejected, as it was too full. We carried on driving before Joe decided to turn around and wait in the bay on the other side of the road. We got back to the bay and fortunately, they were reopening the entrance, so we could get in!

When we got parked up, we got out and had a look around. I didn’t realise how big Loch Ard Gorge was, and as there were so many walks, we had to choose which routes to take. We did some of the walks, looking at the landscapes and reading some of the stories about boats that were shipwrecked in the gorge, before heading down to the beach.

We stood on the beach for a while, watching people taking photos and getting wet by the incoming tide – it was quite entertaining. It was that entertaining, we ended up staying there much longer than we should have done.

After people watching, we decided we better start to make our way back, as it was getting late and we were at least three hours away, and we needed some food (we still hadn’t eaten properly yet). There were a few options that we could have taken, but we decided to drive to Lorne, which was one hour fifty minutes away, and stop there for dinner, as we liked the look of it on the way through on the previous day. On the way to Lorne, I spotted some kangaroos and as Joe was desperate to see one, we stopped and took some photos.

Once we arrived in Lorne, we stopped and had some food on the front, before leaving there at 9pm. We probably left it a bit late, but we were having such a good time, we really weren’t ready before. We drove towards the city to drop off Jan and Pete, but that also took us an hour and fifty minutes, so we were pushing it to get the car back on time.

After dropping off Jan and Pete, I managed to extend the car booking for fifteen extra minutes, so that we didn’t need to rush. We got home and dropped our things off, before returning the car. It was a little bit of a rush, but we got back in time and Mo came with us to drive us back, which was so kind of her, as we were preparing ourselves for a half an hour walk.

Once we were home, we sorted some of our things out and tidied up a little bit, before going up to bed.

After another late night, we were up at 8, ready for our final day with Jan and Pete. I had a quick shower, before waking Joe so that he could get showered too. While we got ready, we threw some things together, for Jan and Pete to take home for us – although when I say we, it was mostly just my things.

Once we were ready, we rode our bikes up to the station and got the train into the city. We got there for 9.30ish and walked up to meet Jan and Pete in their hotel, sneaking into the lift to get to their room.

As they were ready when we got there, we didn’t stay for long, before heading out for some breakfast. We stopped in one of the laneways for food; we sat in the street by one of the cafés. The food was so tasty and was just enough to last us a while.

After breakfast, we walked to Southbank, as we had tickets to go up the Eureka tower. We checked into the tower, and went up in the lift to the Skydeck, with a buzzer that would go off when it was our turn to go out onto ‘The Edge’.

By the time we got up there, the buzzer went off, so we did the edge experience first, before looking around at the other views. We looked at the main landmarks around the city from up high, before heading back down to the ground.

The Edge

Once back on the ground level, we walked along the river and through the park, to the MCG. We walked up there and around the stadium, before heading back into the city to see the Vic Market. We walked about forty-five minutes to the market, to find out that it was shut on Mondays! I felt a little guilty as we had walked so much for it to be closed, and we still had lots more walking to go.

From the market, we walked towards the State Library, to begin a free walking tour around the city, starting at 2.30.

When we got to the library, there were already so many people there ready for the tour – I’ve never seen a free walking tour look so busy! There were that many of us, that we had to be split into two groups. Our tour guide was called Desmond: he had lots of really interesting facts and was great to listen to.

The State Library of Victoria

The first part of the tour was about the history of the city, in a nutshell. The aboriginals have been in Melbourne for over 40,000 years and it wasn’t until the Europeans arrived 183 years ago that Melbourne started to develop as the city it is today. Melbourne became very rich from the gold rush, so much so that in the 1880s, it was the richest city in the world, for a very short period of time.

As the tour began at the library, Desmond started the tour by telling us the history of where we were stood. The library is an example of a gold rush building – one of the buildings inspired and built during the gold rush time. It is the ‘tallest’ building in Melbourne, as it has more stories than any other building – a little fun fact Desmond liked to share. Outside of the library are three statues: St George and the dragon, Joan of Arc and Sir Redmond Barry. Apparently, no one in Melbourne knows why St George and Joan of Arc are there, but there are theories that it’s to keep England and France happy at the same time.

​The statue of Sir Redmond Barry is the most important, outside the library. He played a big role in making the library what it is, as well as helping the University of Melbourne and the Melbourne hospital. In addition to all of this, he was the judge at the trial of the famous Australian, Ned Kelly.

From the library, we started to walk towards the Old Melbourne Gaol. On the way, we passed the Old Magistrate Court, which was in use in the 1870s. The Old Magistrate Court is now part of the RMIT campus. Another part of the campus, at the other end of the street, has a large green blob looking sculpture on the top; apparently this is to represent the brain and show creativity, although I couldn’t quite see it myself.

Old Magistrate Court

According to Desmond, Melbourne has the world’s largest urban tram network, as there are more trams than in any other city in the world. The tram system is so big, the cars turning right must stay to the left until the road is clear.

Next, we arrived at the Old Melbourne Gaol, which is also now used as a university campus. In the 1840s, the youngest criminal, Michael Crimmins stayed in the gaol for six months, at the age of three years old! Apparently, he was idle and disorderly.

Old Melbourne Gaol

The most famous Australian criminal, Ned Kelly also spent some of his days in the gaol, before he was executed. Ned Kelly was a bush ranger (similar to a cowboy or highwayman). However, he wasn’t hated by a lot of the Australian people, as he was known for giving to the poor and taking from the rich; he was seen as a bit of a hero. He would rob banks instead of people and one day found an open vault, so burnt all of the mortgage papers inside, leaving people with nothing to repay.

Kelly worked with three others and was the most wanted man in 1880 from the British Empire. He and his men went on the run for a year, before giving up and locking themselves in Glenrowen Hotel, in the state of Victoria. A shoot out eventually broke out between the bush rangers and the police, leaving Ned Kelly as the only surviving bush ranger. He managed to survive by hiding back and wearing a huge iron suit over the top half of his body (which is currently displayed in the State Library for people to visit for free). He was finally shot in the legs, caught and brought to Melbourne.

When on trial in the Old Magistrate Court, Ned Kelly was giving the death sentence. The judge, Sir Redmond Barry said to Kelly “May God have mercy on your soul”, to which he responded, “I’ll see you in hell when you get there”. Redmond Barry then died twelve days later; some think it is a coincidence, however he had ongoing lung infections. Ned Kelly’s last words, before he was executed, were “such is life”. According to Desmond, the 2003 version of the film of his life is a good one, but I hadn’t even heard of Ned Kelly before this tour.

We carried on walking through the streets of Melbourne, to Carlton Gardens. On the way, we saw lots of Victorian era architecture, which covers a fifteen-kilometre radius around the city.

Victorian era architecture

When we arrived at Carlton Gardens, the first thing we talked about were the trees, as they have huge silver bands around them. Desmond began to tell us about an animal called the ‘drop bear’ which climbs up trees and jumps on people passing by, especially if they have food. He went on about the drop bears for a while and went into some detail, explaining that the bands are to stop the bears from climbing up into the trees to do this. He pointed up at the tree we were under and said there was one in that tree, and then asked people with food in their bags to move away from the tree. We thought it was a bit strange, as we had never heard of these before, which made sense when he said that they weren’t real and it’s a joke Australians tell travellers, as everyone thinks Australia is a big scary place with lots of dangerous animals.

Drop bear proof trees

The bands on the trees, are actually to stop possums from climbing up, but they don’t work, as apparently the ‘bear’ he pointed at, was a possum, but it wasn’t moving at all, so I wasn’t fully convinced about that either.

After the jokes of the drop bears, we went on to learn about the history of Australia. Indigenous people has been on the island for over 65,000 years, before the English found it. In 1788 Captain James Cook arrived in Botany Bay and found the east coast, and seeing all of the beached and palms trees, he thought it looked a lot like the south of Wales, so name it New South Wales – I’m not sure where he got that from.

Once Australia has been found, the Brits started to come over, and there were three main reasons. The first was that they had just lost the United States to revolution, the second was that they needed somewhere to put their convicts, as prisons were full, and the third was that they didn’t want France to move over and settle first.

In 1835, Melbourne was founded. Melbourne was never used as a convict’s colony, and it wasn’t founded by the British. A man called John Batman, who was Tasmanian, but originally from Britain, came over to the island and bought some land from the aboriginals. He first thought that he had bought land from Melbourne city, all the way to the Great Ocean Road, and when he went home and told his friends and family, they did the same. In turned out in the end, that he didn’t own the land, as it was owned by the Crown in London, and he couldn’t have bought it off the aboriginals. It took a year, but eventually, a settlement was drawn up in New South Wales, and the British settlement began in 1836.

In 1880, the Royal Exhibition Building was created, which was amazingly only 45 years after Batman arrived, meaning that it didn’t take long for Melbourne to become a global city. The building was built to hold the international exhibitions at the world fair, that year. It was a little different to what Paris built for their exhibition centre, nine years later, as they built the Eiffel Tower.

Royal Exhibition Building

In 1901, Australia were a federation, meaning that they were now self-governed from Britain, but they did not have independence. It was the sixth biggest country in the world and had no capital city, so the Royal Exhibition Building became a little bit like the original Parliament House. Their new flag was created inside the building, and was shown to the public, for the first time, from the building.

The Royal Exhibition Building didn’t really have many more uses than this, so in 1948, there was a vote in the Town Hall, whether to keep or demolish it. It also cost a lot of money to maintain. The building was saved by one vote, and in 2004 was the first building to be put on the UNESCO list, so it cannot be destroyed anymore. Other than hosting some of the Olympic games in 1956 (the first Olympic games out of Europe and America), the building doesn’t have many uses, so it is closed for most of the year.

As the state of New South Wales covered the majority of the east coast, and the authoritative figures were mostly up in Sydney, in 1851, Melbourne asked if they could separate from NSW, and become their own state. The people in Sydney didn’t really have much say over this, and said they it was the Queen’s decision, so that they should do some sucking up to her. Not long after this, the state of Victoria was formed, naming it after the Queen at the time. Eight years later, the north of the east coast did the same thing, naming their state Queensland, again sucking up to the Queen to get permission to separate.

Only two weeks after the separation of the state of Victoria, the gold rush began. This raised lots of suspicion that people knew the gold was there and didn’t want to share it, so waited until after they were separated to ‘discover’ it. The 1850s was the time of the gold rush and it was one of the biggest gold rushes of all time. The day before the gold was found, there were forty police men in Melbourne, two days later thirty-eight of them had resigned to go to hunt for gold.

Melbourne quickly became the richest city in the world and in the 1880s, there was more champagne in Melbourne city than there was in the whole of France.

The rush didn’t last an awfully long time, as in 1893, the depression hit, and the collapse began. At this stage, Sydney became the biggest city in Australia and remains that today.

After spending some time in Carlton Gardens, we began to walk again, heading towards the Parliament House of Victoria. This is where the state parliament sit and is another example of a gold rush building. For about twenty-six years, the Australian government sat in the Parliament House of Victoria, as there was a fight after the federation in 1901, about who should be the capital city. As neither Melbourne nor Sydney could choose, it was decided that they would pick a middle point and build a planned capital city: Canberra.

Carlton Gardens

Canberra was built from scratch and was finally ready in 1927 after the war and the depression were over. During this time, Melbourne was a temporary capital city for a few years, which is why the Parliament House was used.

On top of the Parliament House of Victoria are the flags of Australia, the state Victoria (which has Queen Victoria’s flag on it), and the aboriginal flag (which has black to represent the people, red to represent the earth and yellow to represent the sun).

Parliament House

From the Parliament House, we walked down Bourke Street, which is directly opposite. All of the streets in the CBD run parallel with the river, but the sizes of the streets alternate: there will be a main street which is 99 feet wide, and then the next will be 33 feet wide and will take the name of the main street, with ‘little’ in front of it, for example Bourke Street and Little Bourke Street. The CBD is a rectangular shape and is one mile long and half a mile wide.

The name Melbourne came about, as the man Richard Bourke, who was a governor of New South Wales, was given the job of naming it and chose to name it after the British Prime Minister William Lamb, Lord Melbourne – some more sucking up to the Brits. The original name of Melbourne was actually ‘Batmania’, after John Batman who founded the city.

From Bourke Street, we walked towards Chinatown, which was on Little Bourke Street and its surrounding laneways. The decoration was beautiful and I had hoped there might have been some sort of celebrations still going on from the New Year, but there wasn’t unfortunately.

From Chinatown, we walked towards the Q.V. Centre (Queen Victoria) for a break. We walked via Lonsdale Street, which holds the third biggest Greek community in the world. The street is decorated with the Greek symbol for infinity.

After a little break, where we got an ice cream, we carried on the tour, heading towards the street art laneways. The street art in Melbourne is all done legally, apparently and people have to apply to the government for a permit, if they want to paint the walls. Due to the need for a permit and the fact that it is legal, street art is different to graffiti. We had a look at Stevenson Lane, where there was some artwork, including stencil art of Ned Kelly.

Ned Kelly stencil art

Desmond pointed out a few of the secret bars in the area which looked good, but I’m not sure I would find my way there easily without a guide.

Once we had looked at the street art, we walked towards Bourke Street Mall, which is the outdoor shopping centre in the CBD. In the Bourke Street Mall, is a Myer department store, which was the biggest department store in the Southern Hemisphere when it was built in 1914. Apparently, Australians like to brag a lot about being the biggest and the best at things in the Southern Hemisphere, but the Southern Hemisphere only holds 10% of the world’s population, but they don’t tend to tell people that part.

Next to Myer is the Old Post Office building, which again is another gold rush building. The building is beautiful both inside and out, even though it is now a building owned by H&M.

H&M

From the Bourke Street Mall, we walked through some of the laneways in the city. The laneways are the spaces between building and there are 230 of them altogether. We walked through the Royal Arcade, before getting to Block Place and the Block arcade, where there is the same dome as in Milan, with the same design and architecture, which I had never noticed before. We walked down Centre Place, which is apparently one of the best café laneways and ended up at Degrave Street, where we had eaten breakfast that morning.

We walked past Collins Street, which is a bit like the financial district in the city. Desmond also told us about the Vic Market, which is the biggest open air market in the Southern Hemisphere but it doesn’t open on Mondays – which we had already learnt.

After walking through the laneways, we walked towards Flinders Street Station, which was finished in 1890. Flinders Station is named after Matthew Flinders, who was the first person to circumnavigate the country. Once he had done so, he reported back to England. Flinders was the one to name Australia, Australia, as it means the land of the south. There is an urban legend that Flinders Stations was actually intended to be built in Mumbai and someone got things mixed up. The theory evolved from the fact that Melbourne and Mumbai are closely related alphabetically so it could have got mixed up that way, but Mumbai was known as Bombay back when the station was built, so it isn’t likely that this is true.

Opposite Flinders Station, is Federation Square, which was finished in 2002, to celebrate 100 years of federation. There were 170 designs entered into a competition to design the square and the design that it is now, was obviously the winner but there is a lot of controversy about it. A lot of Melbournians were disappointed when they first saw it and some still don’t like it now. It is listed in the top ten ugliest buildings in the world, but the design was based upon Australia, in the best way the artist could see. The colours on the buildings are to represent the indigenous gum trees and the big open space in the middle is to represent the outback. Lots of people have different opinions about Federation Square – I just wouldn’t like to have been the designer and got this much negativity about it.

As we crossed over the bridge to Southbank, we had a look at the MCG, which is the tenth biggest stadium in the world. According to Desmond, most locals think it is the best place in the city, and it hosts cricket and footy throughout the year. The MCG holds the AFL grand final, which is now a public holiday in Melbourne. Melbournians have two public holidays for sporting events: the AFL grand final and the Melbourne Cup – this is something other Australians aren’t happy about.

As we crossed over Swanston Street, into the arts part of the city, we looked up the road and could see the Shrine of Remembrance at the top. Apparently, this is something that can be seen from the middle of Swanston Street, which is the main street, all the way down. The Shrine of Remembrance is to remember those who fought in the war.

We entered the arts area, where Hamer Hall is, the Melbourne Opera House (which doesn’t compare to Sydney’s). We were next to the Arts Centre, which was built in 1984. The Arts Centre has waves around the base to represent the ballerina’s tutu spinning. It also has a huge spire coming out of the top, as the architect was worried that people wouldn’t be able to find the centre. It is still incomplete to this day, as it should have shiny copper around the base, but this got too expensive.

We walked onto the top part of Southbank, where we had a beautiful view of the skyline. We were by the Yarra River, which was named, as the aboriginals would say ‘yarra yarra’ whenever anyone asked them what it was. Yarra means water and when aboriginals repeat the same words, it means ‘lots of’.

When we turned around, we could see the Eureka Tower, which is actually the tallest building in Melbourne (not the library). The design of the Eureka Tower was based on the rebellion in the gold rush. The Eureka rebellion achieved democracy for the city, meaning that two years later Melbourne achieved an eight-hour working day. The blue and white stripes on the building represent the Eureka flag; the 24 carat gold plates represent the field where the rebellion happened; and the red stripe represents the blood that was spilled.

The tour ended here, with Desmond telling us that Melbourne is still voted the world’s most liveable city, for seven years on the run. He did also say that it is only one magazines opinion though, so it is not a secure vote. Melbourne will never get a perfect score however, and the main reason for that, is the weather and the fact that it’s a city which can have four seasons in one day.

After the tour, we walked back to Federation Square and sat in the rooftop bar for a drink. We had a lovely view of the city, although it was quite windy up there, which made it a little chilly.

Once we had all finished our drinks, we got on the free tram outside Flinders, to Docklands. We had dinner on the pier, in a restaurant called the Wool shed. The food was really tasty, and the views were great too.

After dinner, we got the free tram back to the city centre and went to Jan and Pete’s hotel to collect a few things we had left with them. We sat in their apartment for a little bit, before saying our goodbyes and heading back to the station.

We got our train back to Yarraville, before collecting our bikes and riding back to the house.

When we got home, we sorted a few bits out, before heading to bed. It was another late night, in comparison to what we were used to, but it was worth it.

It was sad to say goodbye to Jan and Pete after such a short space of time, but we made the most of the time that we had, and we were on the move non-stop. We got to explore places that even me and Joe hadn’t got around to seeing yet, and it was great to see it all together. It’s back to work for me, before more adventures next weekend!

To travel is to live, Katie x

2 Replies to “Melbourne #5 (Jan and Pete’s visit), Victoria, Australia”

  1. We had just the best time, thank you😍😂😘! So happy to be part of your blog! Excellent note taking from that walking tour, I only remembered half of that!!! Shame you lost the videos of me and Pete surfing those high rollers…🏄🏻‍♀️🏄🏻‍♂️😂😂😂. Looking forward to your next adventure. Lots of love 😘xxx

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