We spent a week in Melbourne, arriving on the train from Adelaide. That was a pleasant enough ride, but not nearly as scenic as the drive along the coast we did later. We thought Melbourne was a great city to live in, a lot like Toronto but with palm trees and better trams. (Melbourne's tram system is called Yarra Trams after its river -- which, spelled backwards, suggests a good name for its route map!) The city is easy to get around, with a lot of nice neighbourhoods (Sydney Road, Fitzroy, Lygon St), and a lively centre with interesting lanes and arcades, and many 19th-century buildings. The two branches of the National Gallery of Victoria (International and Australian) were both free. The Australia Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) has an interesting exhibition on the history of film.
We stayed at the Central YHA hostel for $90, but on our third day it was fully booked
. There are a lot of backpackers' hostels downtown but we called a dozen of them without success. We ended up at the Base BP in the beach suburb of St Kilda's, a half-hour tram ride from the centre. One morning our friends Corrinne and Phil met us for breakfast. St Kilda's was okay, the people at the Base were very friendly, and they even served $5 meals, but it had a pub onsite, and when it closed around midnight the patrons went out in the street and made a lot of noise for a while. That was the only problem.
This paragraph is dedicated to my friends Kim and Owen Earle. On Sunday we went to the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) to watch a footie (Australian Rules football) match featuring the Collingwood Magpies, who defeated a much stronger bird (the Hawks) by a decisive margin. With around 100 000 fans on hand, it was more exciting than matches I had previously watched on television, in a vain attempt to understand the rules.
On our return to Melbourne from Tasmania, we stayed at the Formule 1 Hotel, right at the airport, for $109. We rented a car for three days to see the famed Great Ocean Road heading west from the city as far as Port Fairy, and this was a great way to end our holiday. You could easily spend a week on this route. The coast is known for the Twelve Apostles and other dramatic coastal formations, but there are also a lot of good walks on the inland side of the highway, especially around Lorne (where we also watched a whale frolicking from high on a hill), and again at Tower Hill farther west, which is a very good place to spot a koala. On our last day we did just that, and the koala was walking along a branch from one tree to the next, not just dozing like they usually do. Now Frances was ready to come home without regrets.
Koala
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Victoria, Victoria, Australia
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