I finally made it to Melbourne!

It’s funny how 24 hours can seem so much longer. I convinced myself in Sydney airport that I would be on a flight and in Melbourne by the evening… so having to cancel that, stay in Sydney for another night and get a 12 hour train the next day made Melbourne seem forever away. But if anything, it made seeing the city even greater.

By the time I got off the train, found the hotel, showered and hit the city it was already dark. The picture above is from the following day and the first full day in the city. Below are the first two shots I took in Melbourne and my first views. We headed to the bright lights across the river in the hope of finding a nice atmosphere and a place to have a much needed beer. We didn’t actually stop anywhere in the shot below, we ended up crossing back over the water and to Flinders St, a popular street with a lot going on after sunset.

Exploring in the dark.

Snapping some art along the way.

The following day…

 

What I love about Melbourne and noticed fairly quickly is the little narrow streets filled with cool cafes, bars and restaurants. It really does give off this European vibe that I have heard about frequently during my interactions down the east coast. It makes the city unique and different among the larger cities Australia has to explore.

You can see already the street art that brightens up the concrete walls that would be pretty intimidating otherwise through these narrow passageways. Street art is very common in Melbourne, and due to the amount of pictures I took of the art dotted around the city I have added this to a street art post similar to the one I have from the Blue Mountains. That will be published very soon.

It was fun to walk the streets, take in the architecture and get a little lost in what is a much bigger city than Brisbane which is where I’m currently based. I mean it took a while to get my bearings in Brisbane so for Australia’s second largest city I would need a lot more than a couple of days to find my way around. But getting lost is all part of the fun.

After seeing images of the skyline from friends on Instagram I decided that I would head back onto the same walk I did last night in the darkness. I wanted to see Melbourne in all it’s glory on what was a perfect day to do so.

The Yarra River runs right through the city and is fairly lively making it a great place to head if you aren’t familiar with Melbs. From here you get some great photo opportunities and a very pleasant walk, with plenty of places to stop for a drink or a bite to eat.

Sadly however our time in Melbourne was short because of flight cancellations. Have I mentioned that yet? What, ten times already?! Okay okay, sorry about that. But that explains the fairly short post and limited photos. So with this in mind we got on a tram down to St. Kilda, a suburb on the coast just south of the city centre.

St. Kilda

Now this was somewhere I hadn’t heard about before heading to Melbourne. But it was close enough to get the tram, roughly 30 minutes or so from the city centre. Now what is cool about Melbourne is that they offer a free tram service within the very centre of the CBD, however the tram network extends beyond that. Similar to Sydney’s Opal and Brisbane’s Go cards, Melbourne uses a myki card to get around. This can be bought and topped up at convenience stores.

Upon leaving the station we headed straight for the beach and pier. From the pier you could get great shots of the skyline and despite not hearing much about Melbourne’s coastline, it was very pleasant. It cannot rival Sydney for beach life, but I didn’t even know the beach was this close and therefore a pleasant surprise.

‘No trespassing’ the sign reads. But trespassing to where?!

Heading back to dry land we took a look around the neighbourhood. We were first greeted by the famous (and creepy if you ask me) clown face/thing at the entrance to Luna Park. Did you know that there were in fact five Luna Parks in Australia, but only two are still in operation? I didn’t until now. I didn’t know there was one here! Sydney has the other, close to the Harbour Bridge.

It seemed to be closed, however the roller-coaster was still going around the track with two people standing up the whole time way. These were either workers disregarding health and safety measures during test runs or people that broke into the park. Either way, pretty ballsy.

The suburb seems to have a bunch of nice bars and restaurants to choose from, and I will definitely head back here to enjoy some of them next time.

Christmas is coming!

And back into the city. We spent the rest of the afternoon just looking around however we didn’t venture far. We went to see a band on the evening and look around the streets and this building below in particular stood out. Pretty cool looking.

So although brief, I had a great time in Melbourne. It would have been longer and more in depth however I just didn’t have time due to unforeseen circumstances. However I have some street art to upload as well as a trip down the Great Ocean Road, so this isn’t the last of it. More to come!

I also plan to work in Melbourne when my current contract runs out in March, which will see me through to September and when my working holiday visa expires. So this wasn’t a goodbye, just a see you soon…

---

 

Thank you again to all my followers and regular readers, and hello to you if you are new to my blog!

New to this site? Click here to visit my About My Blog section

Want to keep up with my travels? Click here for my Travel Diary

Want to introduce yourself and your blog and discover new ones? Click here for my meet and greet page.

Happy blogging,

Sam