Travels

After almost four month's in Australia, I finally did some travelling outside of Sydney. And actually,in the span of one week I was in three states of Australia.

Trip #1: Melbourne, Victoria
Population: >4 mm
Area: >8,000 sq. km

Cheryl was booked to present her research at a medical conference in Melbourne, so as a good friend, I dutifully accepted the offer to be an adventure buddy in the second most populous city in Australia, just an hour's flight south of Sydney (and took advantage of the free hotel room!) A quick trip for me, as I waited until after work to fly out, so I didn't get to the hotel until after midnight Friday. A small lesson learned: some budget air carriers do not have walkways and require you to walk on the tarmac. I chose the budget flight and after the plane landed safely during a storm, we had to remain on the plane for another hour for safety reasons, as there was lightening risk on the tarmac. One hour is precious when you're on such a short trip, but oh well. I think the cheaper flight was still probably worth it, given that there's only so much you can do at 10:30PM.

The next day was free exploring day! Our hotel was short and scenic tram ride from the City (in Australia, "the city" refers to downtown only) so I purchased a transit card and loaded it up with credits and we rode the tram pretty much right to our first destination: Queen Victoria Market, a bustling setup where you can buy fresh produce, meats, clothes, housewares, etc. etc. etc. From there we checked out the things for sale, had brunch, bought some things (including raw chocolate and a bunch of fresh carrots), visited a few cafes, visited the the National Gallery of Victoria, the gardens (not so impressive in winter, but still nice) and ate way too much food. People watching was fun too, but I was surprised with how little many people we saw. It was a rainy Saturday though, so I suppose many people stayed home cuz of the rain and/or don't go into the city on a non-work day. It actually felt less populous than Calgary. Urban sprawl.

Snaps!

Cheryl, before arms got tired of carrying the stuff we bought

Lots of selection

This Almond Bread was amazing. Drool...

Flowers

Street art

There was this random change purse on the street that some giant must have dropped. No luck in getting it open to get a glimpse/pinch of the giant coins that should be inside of it.

While people-watching at Soul Cafe, protesters marched by. Shark fin soup.

Melbs has a bike share program. Its actually mandatory to wear helmets when riding.

At the instruction of a friend of a friend who we met for brunch, we visited this cool cafe for a very delicious hot chocolate at Brother Baba Budan. Possibly the best store-bought hot chocolate ever (because the absolute best hot chocolate was had when I was a kid, the times on super cold days when we'd come in the door and mom or dad would be making a pot of it on the stove. Cocoa, sugar and milk) Note the chairs hanging from the ceiling. Artsy!

Royal Botanical Gardens. I assume it's prettier in the Spring/Summer rather than now in the Fall/Winter :)

Chinatown. I always make an effort to visit Chinatowns. This one was okay. So far I still like Toronto's the best.

Pre-dinner

Pizza in an alleyway restaurant. What I found kinda cool about Melbourne was how there would be restaurants and cafes in the space between buildings, outside. It wasn't warm naturally since it's winter here now but they have lots of space heaters set up.

Flinders Station, a hub for transport. Trains, trams and buses

We also rode the train to check out a suburb called Brunswick, which was similar to Kensington in Calgary, but I don't have good pics from there, although we did go to this cafe where we at "the best" everything! We knew it would be good because it was so packed with people. 

Overall Melbourne actually felt similar to Calgary mixed with Vancouver. Not nearly as busy/hectic as Sydney but still lively and with character. The similarity combined with the cooler temps made me a bit homesick. I was eating lunch with a colleague today and we were talking about weekend plans. I kind of envied the fact that he was just going to relax at home as usual and maybe catch up with a friend over coffee.

Trip #2: Sailing in Queensland, from Hervey Bay to Hamilton Island.

My second trip was to Hamilton Island up in the Whitsundays in Queensland. I'll write about that in a second post, as this post is kinda long now, and I still need to compile and sort through the photos. But for now, here's a pic of bowline knot that I've been practicing :)

It is rainy and cold in Sydney today. Already looking forward to another vacation!