March 21-27, 2001 - Melbourne, Australia
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| Flinders Street Station - Melbourne, Australia |
The expensive train ride (A$11) to the airport was uneventful as was the flight. They actually served us some hot meal for lunch but the service was not too friendly. We landed in Melbourne an hour and a half later with cloudy skies and scattered showers. I decided to book into Hotel Bak Pak, which turned out to be a good choice.
They have a giant 10-foot mini-movie screen in a small mini theatre showing different videos each night. Other facilities seem to be fairly clean and well kept. After getting myself oriented, I walked into the city and checked out some local stores and eateries.
It was Karaoke night down at the pub and my dorm mates and I watched some of the people sing. All in all it was a good atmosphere. Sasha scored with a Danish girl named Maya while another Danish girl just kept taking drinks from my cup. She was totally trashed.
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| Queen Victoria Market - Melbourne, Australia |
Next day, rain, rain, and more rain. It drizzled, showered, and poured all through out today in Melbourne. People in the hostels were getting a little antsy about being inside. Many people ventured out anyway but I stayed inside for a bit reading and figuring out what to do.
I went to the Melbourne Film Festival and saw a full-length movie in addition to an hour and a half of short films. Some of the short films were really good but some of them were just plain weird.
The weather continued to be doom and gloom for the next few days. Sasha and I went to the Museum of Victoria to see some artworks before heading to Hungry Jacks for lunch. Hungry Jacks is Burger King, except they couldn't use it before when they first got to Australia because it was taken already. They finally bought the name in the past few years and there are now Burger Kings in Australia but the Hungry Jacks stayed with the name.
I met up with some of my new dorm mates - Frank from Ireland and Tony from England. We went to a hotel's pub to play some pool, and again, I got my ass kicked by the pommie. Tony's a pretty funny guy. He likes to poke fun of the Americans and me and I do the same to him and the Brits. He's also pretty good with the guitar and listened to some of my mp3's while trying to learn the cords. I hope he has the Britny Spears song down by now.
I also met up with another Aussie named Tony. We went to eat at a Chinese eatery while Tony kept practicing his Mandarin with me. We went to see the movie Quills. The movie was actually really good but I was a bit disturbed by the subject.
I joined pommie Tony and Frank to see a football (soccer) match between Finland and England at a local pub. The pub was packed with Brits - mostly pissed and having a good time. The game came on and they started singing a song in which the lyrics is made of one word - "England". They are such a creative bunch. They also have a chant almost as creative as the song - it goes "Come'on England" (repeat several times).
Finland scored the first goal and the pub was a little subdued after that but people still kept the spirit up by singing the England song and chanting. Finland was getting outplayed the entire match and was finally scored on by an English player. The whole pub just roared in cheers and more singing and chants. The atmosphere was fairly festive. England won 2-1.
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| Melbourne cityscape from St. Kilda - Melbourne, Australia |
While in Melbourne, I also headed to St. Kilda, a small seaside town with boardwalks and piers. They have craft markets on Sundays along an inland road from the ocean. Numerous walking and running paths crisscross the shoreline and a clutter of shops lined the interior road.
The weather still sucks and I really wanted to get out of here so I've been going to various hostels to see if there are people offering rides heading west. I also looked into tours but they're fairly expensive.
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