Melbourne, where you're encouraged to walk down dark alleys

I don’t know if any of you had heard about the Chile volcano eruption, because it wasn’t really affecting the US, but 2 days before we were supposed to fly to Melbourne a bunch of flights were being cancelled. The ash cloud from the volcano had drifted all the way over to Australia and it was causing a bunch of problems. Luckily, our flight to Melbourne wasn’t cancelled and everything went according to plan.

The flight over was pretty brutal, a kid in the row in front of me was screaming the whole time. That’s not even the worst part though. The mom of the screaming child decided to breast feed him…and I’m guessing he was at least 3 years old. Gross.

We got into Melbourne around 7 PM on the 23^rd and promptly decided to go walk around the city because we only had 4 days there. We stopped at this little Korean restaurant and I had some delicious kimchi and beef. I can’t remember the name of it because there were literally hundreds of Asian restaurants in Melbourne. One block will have at least 5, but there were some blocks that were genuinely all Asian restaurants. They all pretty much look the same and serve the same stuff…so the trick is finding the one that’s better than the rest.

We did some more walking after dinner by the shopping mall. One thing I noticed was that everyone was very dressed up and fashionable, apparently that’s how most people in Melbourne are. The city definitely had a metropolitan/Sex and the City vibe. We also found our first Starbucks and discovered that Burger King is called Hungry Jack’s here. Oh, and the McDonald’s have legitimate cafés inside them. With pastries. Even their fast food is classy.

The next day, which was the 24^th, we had a field trip to Rod Laver Arena, which is where the Australian Open is held. We were supposed to actually go down onto the arena floor, but Miley Cyrus was having a concert there that night, so we weren’t allowed. Thanks, Miley. Besides that setback, it was actually really cool and we still got to go on Margaret Court, one of the outdoor courts within the complex. The guide said that last year 650,000 people went to the Australian Open, which is pretty amazing. They’re redeveloping the area, and once it’s finished it will be one of the largest sports complexes in the world.

 Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton...quite the line up.

 

Margaret Court holds about 6000 people. 

 

Me in the area where they do interviews after matches. I obviously won my match.

 That's Nadal's signature right in the middle.

Our next tour was at the Convention and Exhibition Center, which was on the other side of town. We walked along the Yarra River, which runs right through Melbourne. The Convention Center was neat simply because it was rated 6 green stars for how energy efficient it was. Otherwise, it was just a convention center. After the tour we rode a cable car(they have cable cars all over the city) to the Queen Victoria Markets, where they had a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables as well as souvenir type things.

The river was a lovely shade of brown.

And now, an introductory course to the nightlife of Melbourne.

Before we left the hostel, I went to the front desk to ask where the best places to go were. She told me to just walk down alleys and we would find plenty of good bars. She was completely right. We would just listen for music/people talking, and sure enough we would stumble on a crowded bar. Our first stop was Section 8, a small outdoor bar, where we met this kid who kept talking to us about basketball. He said that Kobe Bryant was the next Michael Jordan. Haha, that’s a good joke. The next bar we found, we were just walking down the street and there was a door open with stairs leading down. We decided to look and see if anything was down there, and it turned out to be a bar called Seamstress. It seemed really neat, but the crowd was a little bit older, so we moved on.

Our next find was Ding Dong Lounge (yes, I know it sounds ridiculous) and it was down an alley in Chinatown. It turned out to be a rock bar, and there was a concert with 3 bands playing that night. As I was standing in this bar, listening to the band, I kind of had an ‘aha’ moment. I kind of always had this idea that I would like to be involved in the music industry, but never thought it was really feasible. But, it just felt right being at this club, listening to this band I’d never heard of. It renewed my drive to pursue a job in the music industry. So, thank you Melbourne and the Ding Dong Lounge for that.

Fun Story: After the show was over we decided to head back to the hostel, and on the way back we decided to go down one more alley. This one was different than the rest because the alley had several twists and turns…looking back, it was pretty sketchy. At the end of this grafitti covered alley though was The Croft Institute. We didn’t go in, but made a mental note to try and go back. The boys went back the next night and said it was themed like an old hospital with beakers, hospital beds to sit on, etc. Pretty crazy find.

At the time, we thought this looked like Will Smith. Now, not so much.

We stopped at one last bar that night that was close to our hostel. We didn’t stay long, but once again, it was unmarked except for a few people standing outside. Some of these places you would never know existed if it weren’t for the faint sound of music coming from a doorway.

In short, the nightlife of Melbourne is excellent.

Ok, so I know I promised this post would contain pictures/commentary on Phillip Island and the Great Ocean Road, but this post is already pretty lengthy, so the next one will be about those two places.

-Haley