Weekend Trip to Melbourne (Pronounced Mel-bun)

Me, my roommate Caitlin, and our friend Steph planned our Melbourne trip a month and a half ago or so and it finally snuck up on us! We had a packed weekend that was extremely relaxing and we saw some amazingly gorgeous scenery as well.

Our trip began Thursday night with our train to the Sydney Domestic Airport. It's weird to think about, but I've become used to flying because of my time over here and I think that I quite enjoy it. Except for my right ear, which doesn't like to pop and I have to wait for it to do it by itself. If I try to, I just sit there, blowing while holding my nose until my face turns red, without any success. But yeah, we arrive in Melbourne after a 1.25 hour flight and take a taxi to our hostel, Urban Central, which ended up being one of the best hostels any of us had stayed in. There was complimentary rice/pasta that you could make in the kitchen, it was just the three of us in a huge room, the security was good, everything was clean, and they had free breakfast in the morning too! We get situated in our room, plan out what we want to do the next day and head to bed.

On Friday, the plan had been to wake up at 9 to get breakfast and then make our way out into the city. Wellll, that did not happen. We woke up around noon. Despite our late start, we all agreed that it was really awesome to sleep in because generally we don't get to sleep in very much - if we miss breakfast at I-house, we miss the chance to make our lunch, so you actually end up missing both meals. After we freshen up, we walk into the main part of the city (only about ten minutes away from our hostel) and then catch a tram to the Shrine of Remembrance.

The Shrine of Remembrance is Victoria's (the state/province that Melbourne is in) memorial to their fallen heroes. It was very serious business. Like I've mentioned before, I know a lot of how Australia was affected by World War 1, which is probably why I considered it to be so serious and intense. Have I said that Australia suffered the highest casualty rate of any country in WW1? At the memorial, they have an eternal flame, some statues, a garden, and the Shrine itself. Inside are rows upon rows of medals bestowed upon Australia servicemen and there is also a crypt that has some flags and plaques. There was one really interesting room - the top is like a pyramid with the top cut off so the light can shine through, and directly below it is a plaque bearing the words: "Greater Love Hath No Man." Apparently, on the 11th hour of the 11th day in the 11th month (Armistice Day, when WW1 basically ended) the sun is shining directly on the word "Love." Does that give you tingles? It did for me. Military industrial complex aside, I think the supreme sacrifice people give for their country is absolutely gorgeous and is no small thing to throw aside.

We got a cab from the Shrine of Remembrance to basically the other side of the city to see Dralion, the Cirque du Soleil show that was playing. We had really good seats - we were on the second level, so we didn't have to strain our necks to look up when they were doing aerial stunts and we were directly center stage. I don't have any pictures from the show itself because they don't allow you to take pictures, but man, it was a fantastic show. I had only seen some snippets of Cirque du Soleil on tv, but it doesn't compare anyway. Some of the things people can manage to do it just incredible - this one girl, she was like rubber. At one point, she was standing on one hand on a post and lifted her legs up behind her and was using her feet to move her head. Unbelievable. Some of the other main acts included people falling onto trampolines and then running up walls, a man juggling 6 balls at one time all the while doing crazy acrobats, people doing flips through hoops, a girl and a guy flying around holding onto each other but not supported by any wires except the ribbons they were flying around on (this part was supposed to emulate two lovers, but we did some research later and discovered that the pair was actually brother and sister! we felt a little grossed out), and then a bunch of girls standing on their tip toes on top of one another while the bottom girl was standing on a glass bulb. Seriously, I was amazed and awed and had a fantastic time. I haven't been to an animal circus in a long time, but I think that human circuses are probably way cooler - this way no animals are treated cruelly and you get to see the outer limits of what human bodies are capable of.

After the show we got some dinner at an italian restaurant and while the food was okay, the service was slightly lacking. They told us, when we came to Australia, to absolutely not tip because it the waiters and waitresses get paid enough that it's not expected. But when we were out, it sure seemed like it was expected! We asked someone about it here at I-house, and he said that if you're at a classier restaurant, you tip anywhere from 5 to 10%. Whoops. We definitely didn't tip but we felt it was slightly deserved because of the attitude we got. We returned to our hostel and although we originally had intentions of going out, we decided instead to go to sleep - we were going to have to get up very early for our Saturday trip.

When we told people we were going to Melbourne, a common comment was that we had to do the Great Ocean Road, so that's what our Saturday consisted of. We woke up at 7 am for breakfast and then got picked up at 8 am for our tour. The Great Ocean Road stretches I think around 250 km, but we ended up driving around for 600 km on the tour. It was inspired by the Great Pacific Road (I think that's the name) in California by an Australian who was working there. Technically, the Great Ocean Road is the longest war memorial in the World, because it was built in memory of all the fallen soldiers. What happened is that Australian who visited California came back and wanted to see the same thing built to go around Victoria's coast line, so he talked to the local government about it and said it would be a way to give returning soldiers jobs and the opportunity to be with their mates again. Really, I think that the dude just wanted the road so he was willing to swing it whatever way he needed to get it, but I'm not about to talk smack about a war memorial.

The tour takes us to Bells Beach, where most of the international surfing competitions are held in Australia and the beach name that was used in Point Break (it was actually filmed in Oregon or Wisconsin or something like that). We stopped at the memorial arch for the Road and checked out the beach right by it. The coast line is absolutely fantastic - there are cliffs and rocks that the water breaks against and I really think it's nature at it's finest (and potential deadliest). We visited this place that has a lot of wild koalas (it's illegal in Victoria for humans to handle koalas) and parrots - we got to feed the parrots and my guess is that people have been doing it for quite some time, because the parrots would just fly up onto your hands, shoulders, head, ears, etc. After lunch in Apollo Bay, a popular vacation destination for Victorians, we went for a walk in the rainforest at Mait's Rest. Now, when you think of rainforest, you think hot and sticky. No. Not here. It was actually colder in the rain forest than it was out of it. Apparently carnivorous snails live around where we were walking, but I couldn't find any, even after attempting to do an impromtu carnivorous snail mating call. After our trek in the rainforest, we went to the main attractions of the Great Ocean Road - the Twelve Apostles. The Twelve Apostles are rock formations that are out in the surf area of the ocean - it is postulated that they were once part of the land, but erosion from wind and water eventually separated everything. They were all quite magnificent to see. Then we visited a gorge known as the Loch Ard Gorge, after a ship that crashed right outside of it had only two survivors, whom seeked refuge in the gorge. The final stop on the tour was the site of the London Bridge. It has since fallen down (it collapsed in 1990), but Lee, our tour guide told us an interesting story:
A couple had just finished walking over the bridge to the other part of the rock formation when the bridge suddenly crashed down into the water below. Luckily, the group of school children that were behind them had yet to walk onto the bridge so they didn't plummet to their deaths. Now, the couple stuck over on the other side had no way of getting back to the main land and it was starting to get cold and dark. Someone had run down to the police station to see if they could call a helicopter in but they were all being used elsewhere except one, which was on a training exercise for flying in bad weather (did I mention it was stormy?) Well, the local news station decides it wants to cover the story of the London Bridge collapsing and instead of having the helicopter fly out to help the people, it went to pick up the local reporters first and then over to the people. But, the couple doesn't want anything to do with the news (you'll find out why later!), so the reporters get back in the helicopter but the couple isn't allowed in the helicopter because they're not insured! So they have to wait for a rescue helicopter and finally they get off and into the parking lot and they just take off! Turns out, the guy was taking a sick day/extended weekend from work and BIG SURPRISE HE WASN'T THERE WITH HIS WIFE!! He was there with his mistress!! Hahaha.

So we get back from the Great Ocean Road around 10 pm and our plan had, once more, been to go out (there was a bar in the bottom floor of our hostel!) but once we laid down on the floor, we were like, ehh, let's go to sleep. So, we plan our day for Sunday with a 8 am start.

We actually get up at 830 am. We eat breakfast, shower, check out (we leave our luggage in the hostel) and then catch a tram up to the Queen Victoria Market. Getting around Melbourne is actually really easy - there are trams that come every 5 or 10 minutes that go in any direction you could want and I think that they had a metro and bus system, but we never had to use them. The Queen Victoria Market is like the Eastern Markets on crack. There were so many stalls! After a row or two of them though, you realize that it's mostly all the same stuff - just different prices. We shopped around for some souvenirs and then caught a tram down to Federation Square, which had some crazy glass arts buildings and a big courtyard that people were just chilling in. From there we walked to the Eureka Skytower, which has the highest viewing platform in the Southern Hemisphere and the only 'edge' experience. We rode an elevator up to the 88th floor and got a really cool view of the city - I was able to spot our hostel and the Queen Victoria Market and the Shrine. The city proper of Melbourne seemed just way smaller from up so high! The edge experience you basically go into a glass box and you are moved out from the building 3 meters. You can look straight down through the bottom to the street below - it didn't scare me or even make a little bit of adrenaline pump. I think that having jumped out of a plane at 15000 feet has made me a little impervious to lesser heights. We left the Sky Tower and then caught a tram to St.Kilda, which is right next to the beach and has a really eclectic community. We got some dinner, then walked around on the two main streets - Fitzroy and Acland. Fitzroy has a lot of restaurants, and Acland street is known for it's bakeries and nightlife. We got some tasty treats from the bakeries, took a few pictures and then headed back to the hostel to pick up our bags and make our way to the airport.

Overall, we decided that you could spend at least a week in Melbourne and not even on sightseeing - there were some really cool looking places in St.Kilda that we would have wanted to go check out if we had had some more time. We really had a great time there because everything just fell into place - the hostel was clean which left us feeling refreshed and ready for the day, Cirque du Soleil was awesome, the Great Ocean Road was an adventure, and moving around the city was very stress free. It was fun though, being in a city and not really knowing anything about it and just figuring things out as you go. I can't wait to do it again when we visit Canberra!