Melbourne - Frozen Sunday (no chocolate on top)

In our efforts to equally bring rain to each country we visit, we stayed true to ourselves and brought rain and cold to Melbourne as well. We were told more than once that there has been a terrible drought in Oz for years, and now it won't stop raining. We just wanted to say, "You're welcome."

We got up early on our second full day (we are pretending the first night and morning didn't happen), only to get caught in terrible rain and cold weather, which prompted the following thought:

Dear Melbourne: It is summer, not winter. Please act appropriately. Love, Talia and Rony.

Talia was very depressed at this point: Not only did we miss out on a full half day in the city, where we planned on going to the Queen Victoria Market that we had heard so much about, but now it was raining on us without end.

We headed out to Nehalat Benyamin, I mean, St. Kilda's Esplanade, to check out the local artists crafts. A lot of it was similar to what we have back home, but some of the stuff was different and awesome, like this guy who made really funny mugs with funky expressions.

Every few minutes it would rain and then stop and then rain and then stop, so that was fun. We had originally planned on going to the botanical gardens in St. Kilda's as well, but it was raining too much to really be outside constantly, so we caught a tram to get all the way into the city (this was halfway between us and where we were staying).

As a side note, Melbourne has a nice tram and train system where you pay for public transportation in one card - that is, you can use the card for the tram, train, or bus. You can either buy a 2-hour card or a daily card, which is actually less than 2 rides, so if you know you're going roundtrip, it's definitely worth purchasing. This makes the decision-making process a lot nicer, seeing as you don't have to have transportation considerations, so you can change plans at any time if you need to.

We hopped on a tram and were going to go to the Queen Victoria Market, which we knew was only open until 4 on Sunday, but it was raining really hard, and Lonely Planet wrote that it's an open air market, so we saw no use in going. In retrospect, what they meant by "open air" was "no walls, but covered and dry."

We got off the tram at Flinders Street and broke out our Lonely Planet guide (which was actually Fay's Lonely Planet guide that she graciously lent us) to see what alternatives were in the area, like museums. Talia was entirely too depressed with the weather to go to an art museum, so we decided to go to the Aquarium instead.

Best decision EVER.

First of all, our suggestion to you whenever you're traveling, especially if you're on a budget, is to pick up every single free tourist guide you can find. They often come with coupons that can save you tons of money. In our case, we had a 20% off coupon for the aquarium, which saved each of us about $6.50 (Australian and USD are almost exactly the same now).

We started walking towards the aquarium, which is not far from Flinders Street Station, but it was raining so hard and we were getting so wet that we ended up taking a tram one stop to the Aquarium. Again, great thing to have that daily pass. (Otherwise, these little rides would really add up, each one being around $3.70 each).

We knew the Aquarium would have fish (duh) and sharks (ooh!), but as it turns out they also had PENGUINS! Real, live PENGUINS! That already made it worth it. There were incredibly awesome and incredibly gross sea creatures, and the visit was so much more fun than we thought it would be.

And also, we had previously wondered where all the Israelis were. We found them at the Aquarium.

We finished at the Aquarium around 3 pm, during which time the skies had cleared up and it was only drizzling a bit, so we decided to power-walk to Queen Victoria's Market and see if we could catch the end of the market day. We did, and it was pretty cool, but we would have liked to spend more time there. We may go back next Sunday, when we're back in Melbourne (we're spending the next few days in Tasmania), but if the weather is good enough, we are planning on going out of the city a bit to see more nature.

After the market, and eating a bit, we knew we couldn't go to the other gardens we planned on going to, so we just decided to walk up and down the streets of the city, since it's so gorgeous. At Fay's suggestion from the day before, we forewent the large streets and walked through the tiny, picturesque alleys that reminded Rony of Paris. Again.

Eventually we ended up in Bourke Street Mall again, but this time there were less people so we were able to peak at the Myer's display windows, and it was really awesome. This was after walking through all of the Myer's department store (three buildings and lots of floors!!). It's like going to Macy's, we think, in caliber.

Throughout the past 2 days, and especially while on this street, we reached several logical conclusions about Melbourne and its inhabitants:

1) The city of Melbourne did not get the memo that it is summer
2) The people of Melbourne did not get the memo that it is cold
3) The people of Melbourne have this odd way of standing in formations behind each other when waiting to enter or see something. We hear these are called "lines" or "queues"
4) Melbourne LOVES strip clubs and sex shops

While walking around the streets of Melbourne, we came across a few Max Brenner's. Since it's known as "our place" we decided to stop there for a quick cocoa before heading home. Just in case you wondered, it's even more expensive in Melbourne than Israel!

Since the sun sets late here in the summer, we realized it was late and we had to get back to our nice home... oh, wait! It's not our home. But it felt like it. And we had a nice last evening with our host and had to go to sleep to catch an early bus to the airport.

Bye bye Melbourne, see you in a week.
Tasmania, here we come!

Pics from Melbourne:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=582350&id=906005363&l=d2f2924314