Liketytrip

With the bright trees of Bright behind us we were a little high as we took on a pretty monstrous 500 km drive down to see the sea again. But, before we made it down to the “second” major city in Australia we had time to pop in to relive the infamous tale of legendary outlaw, Ned Kelly. In true Australian custom a whopping 15 ft high statue of Ned stood proud outside the local shop in Glenrowan, guns in hand, helmet on and legs astride facing off the 10 or so police that eventually brought him and his gang to a bloody end in 1880.

It has never ceased to amaze me how imaginative Australians are with creating history out pretty much anything they can. This tiny town is dominated by the story and the top tourist attractions show off his legend and cash in. The first ever full length movie was said to have been made about the Kelly gang legend here however it was destroyed in a fire and only scraps found to prove it. Yawn! What was far more interesting was the fact we were heading for Melbourne!

They say that you are either a Sydney or a Melbourne lover. After our experience of Sydney I had high hopes for Melbourne and it didn’t let us down at all. I can quite categorically say I am a Melbourne lover.

Melbourne sits on the Northern edge of the spectacular Port Philip Bay which stretches out towards the ocean in the distance as far as the eye can see. It’s a wonderful mix of Victorian and contemporary architecture, old market places, trams shuttling commuters around town and of course the home of the totally misunderstood game of AFL (Aussie Football League), Aussie Rules.

We parked up at a campsite about 8km out of town and ferried ourselves around on the public busses during our 4 day stay in town. On our first day we visited a slightly odd looking new(ish) tower in town with gold leaf in the windows at the top. Another one of those “biggest in Australia” stories followed us all the way up to the viewing area. It gave us spectacular views over Melbourne however sadly the weather wasn’t so good.

We walked through town to meet up with a friend, Lisa, and her friends Tim and Clarissa at a very trendy little fish restaurant in fashionable St Kilda. The vibe on the streets of Melbourne is electric. Very cool buskers (check out this beat box bloke), people of every culture, race and class mix it up in the amazingly decadent chocolate shops which serve pots of liquid chocolate with fruit to dip to accompany your cafe latte :) Mmmmmm

There really is something so much more culturally rich about the town. When you look down Flinders street past the glorious victorian Flinders St station towards, stunning St Paul’s Cathedral on your left with and a 10 ft high glowing figure of Super Mario on the right you know you’re an interesting town.

After our obligatory trip to Ramsay street in the morning (my god that was dull… and very weird with freaky obsessed fans on the bus) we headed out again on Saturday night to watch an exhibition game of AFL with Lisa, her partner Dev and Tim. Our timing couldn’t have been better – the Australia Dream Team taking on Melbourne’s best, Victoria, without all the pressure of points for the league. Dev used to play pretty seriously in the past so we had good coach to tell us what on earth was going on. As kid I used to catch a glimpse of this bizarre game on Channel 4 late at night and wondered what on earth was going on. Well now I do thanks to Dev – I’d be dammed if I’m going to try and explain it all here though, you can check it out for yourself here.

Melbourne has restored my faith in Australia being a little bit more complex than I first thought and I’m pleased. We didn’t quite get the chance to play lawn bowls on the Sunday (a big Melbourne craze, regardless of whether you have grey hair or not), it’s out of season, so we enjoyed a huge brunch instead at an old converted tram station with Lisa before bidding farewell.

We head west now, and then up to Adelaide along what they call the GREAT Ocean Road – it better be.

Check out the pics