This morning I got up earlier so I could make sure I showered before I headed out. It's really strange because I know there are a lot of people in the hostel but I rarely see anyone in the hallways or the bathrooms. I think the next morning at 6am was the most amount of people I had seen at one time in the bathroom. There were 3 other girls in the toilet. Anyway, after I showered and got my shit together, I headed downstairs. I still needed to figure out how to get to St Kilda and I didn't want to buy the tourist mikey pass ($14). The card is only $6. I asked the lady at the tour desk about it and she said that I could just go into a 7-eleven and buy one. She said I needed about $10 on it if I wanted to use it for the day. Well, I really just wanted to get down and back from St Kilda so I just put $5 on it.
Before I bought the mikey card, I went to check out the Queen Victoria market. It is the largest open market in Australia I think. There was a lot of stuff there. Pretty much anything you needed, including pets. There were souvenirs and nice clothes and jackets, as well as food and drinks. I bought an apple and orange for $1.75 AUD. The apple was a Rosada apple I think and it was grown in Australia. I ate it later when I was walking around St Kilda and it was one of the best tasting apples I have ever eaten. It was so sweet and fresh and yum. I saved the orange for later and ended up having to eat it before we crossed into Adelaide. It was very juicy and good as well. Money well spent!
I went to find the tram to get to St Kilda. It was tram 16. I got confused even with my map. I did end up finding it though. But I couldn't figure out how to tell which way it was going. There were some men walking around in orange traffic vests that said customer relations or something so I asked them. They were helpful I guess. They said with the $5 on my card it will only allow me to go and come back within a time span of 2 hours but that there were 7-elevens in St Kilda if I needed to add time. They also told me I needed to cross the street to get to the tram I needed to be on.
When I got on the tram, I tapped my card against the scanner thing and it made a loud beep sound. I sat down and starred intently at the tram route posted on the top of the tram. I still wasn't entirely sure where I needed to get off. There was one that said Luna Park and I knew I wanted to go there at some point so I decided I would get off there. At first I couldn't figure out the stops the tram was doing. Then I realized not all the stops were on the tram route but that each stop also had a number. I couldn't see the name of the tram stops but I could see the numbers from where I was sitting so that was helpful.
When we got to Luna Park I got off the tram and scanned my card again. It was 11:10am so I needed to try to be heading back around 1:10pm to make sure my card would still work.
Luna Park was closed unfortunately. In the winter it is only open on Saturday and Sunday. It's an amusement park and the entrance is this huge clown face where you walk in through the mouth. Kinda creepy. Nice to take a photo of though.
The beach was right there as well so I decided to go walk along the beach. It was really pretty. Did some more writings in the sand photos. Walked along the pier. From the pier you could see a really pretty view of the city. Also, Mars said you're supposed to be able to see penguins there but I couldn't see any. Campbell informed me later that if you go about half an hour after sunset you can usually see them because that is when they feel safe enough to migrate across the beach. Oh well.
Mars told me to get fish and chips somewhere over there. It definitely wasn't going to be on the beach! It was $26 AUD! Crazy talk! I walked along Acland street which both Mars and the travel agent guy had told me was a good culture street of Melbourne. There were some really old and beautiful looking houses. There was a cool pair of houses that I wanted to photograph and the guys living there walked out while I was taking a photo so that was a bit awkward, but I didn't care too much either. I think they were like WTF are you doing weirdo but meh. I then began walking up St Kildas street which leads back to the city. There was a small Italian place that was offering fish and chips for $10 so I sat down and ordered that. It was actually really good. Maybe the best fish and chips I've ever had. The fish was very fresh and nice. Everyone working there spoke Italian and there were like gangs of Italians outside ha. It was pretty funny to see.
After lunch it was already past 1:10pm an I wasn't sure if my pass would still work or not. I couldn't find a machine to check it either (they have these some places you can just scan it and it tells you what's left). I could see the city and I knew Mars had said it was about an hour walking so I just decided to walk it.
I think that was a good choice because I got to walk through Albert Park which was beautiful and also had a great view looking back at the city which is a good and different view to see. There were a lot of swans here as well. Ever since Aunt Sandys and Uncle Jos with the swans I still don't really like them. They're mean.
I passed a sign at one point that said it was 4.9km to Melbourne's city center. Not bad, about 3 miles. I also got to stop at the Shrine of Remembrance on the way back into the city.
When I got back into the city I think I had about an hour or maybe a little longer before sunset. I walked down DeGrave street, a street both Mars and the tour guy recommended as a very typical Melbourne street. It was pretty cool. There were a bunch of restaurants with seating outside as well. It was busy.
I then found the Block Arcade and Royal Arcade. The shops down these lanes looked very high end so I didn't really shop but I did walk down them. They're pretty fancy. Then I walked back down china town and Greek town and beads back to the hostel.
At this point I realized Mars and I hadn't set a point in time when we would be meeting. I got on the Internet and Facebook messaged her. My Internet at the hostel said I had 40 minutes left. I hoped she responded! She ended up responding and letting me know she would just come to my hostel and meet me outside at 7pm.
She took me to Hardware Lane. It's a street where there are a bunch of restaurants and they try to get you to go to their restaurant by offering you different things. Mars said its cool because you can essentially bargain for your meal and what you are going to get. The first place offered a free drink and mars said she wasn't sure because we might want more than 1 drink. The next place was tapas and we had just had tat. The place after that we ended up sitting down and eating at because they offered a free appetizer to share (we got breads/dips and garlic bread because mars thought it was 1 entree each), and a free drink so we just had to pay for our main dish. Mars got chili crab and literally got all the meat out of it that she possibly could. I think she was eating it for an hour. It was funny. I surprisingly enough, got pasta with chicken and avocado. It was penne in a garlic sauce though so its not the same as Asian noodles. There was a group of business men that sat down next to us and one of the guys was very intrigued by Mars. He kept talking to her and listening to what she said. Mars tends to draw people in. She's so easy going and lovely. Mars paid about $50 for dinner and I put in $20. I should have put in $24 but Mars wouldn't let me.
After that we walked to another rooftop bar. I can't remember what it was called. A lot of people know of it though. There is a complex that has a lot of restaurants and bars in it, similar to the B.O.B. Cookie was one of the restaurants. There are booths that are like train cars so you can have it open or closed so it can be more private. It was a cool concept. We went up to the roof though. The bouncer guy was into Mars right away. He was talking to us for a while. His name was Chris. Everyone is apparently named Chris now. This was also a rooftop where you could see some of the city buildings. It was pretty. Still not very high though.
We drank some mulled wine which wa $8 a small glass. We each had a glass slowly while chatting and then we headed back earlier. Maybe around 11 instead of 12. Saying bye to Mars was sad again because I love her but hopefully I'll see her again! No tears this time.
When I got back to the hostel the guys weren't there yet so that was nice. They got back a few hours later when I was already in bed. I was anxious for my tour to start the next morning! Bright and early!
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