Melbourne!

[Brought to you by Sarah...] A three hour flight from Cairns to Melbourne, and the humidity drops by 55%.  Ahh... On the flight down we were treated to views of the famous Australian outback, with some nice red earth among the brown.

We arrived in Melbourne to weather about 21 degrees and a lovely cool breeze.  Heavenly!  It was New Years Eve, and we planned to head for the public event sites and check out what was happening.  But first a wander through the city for some of the sights.  It was a beautiful, sunny evening and the light was lovely.

One of several, pretty Euro-style churches found around the city.  Unlike sandstone Sydney, there are many "bluestone" buildings in Melbourne.

A wander through Chinatown.

Prost!

And of course nothing says Chinatown like... the Hofbrauhaus!  For just $24 AUD ($25.40 CDN) you can have one litre of supposedly German beer.  We just couldn't do it, especially after being in Munich earlier this year and paying only 6 or 7 Euros for beer at the original venue.

The biggest, downtown street - Swanston - was closed off for pedestrians to wander freely down to Federation Square where many of the NYE events were being held.

Melbourne had three live event sites for the midnight countdown (plus a fourth that celebrated with fireworks at 9:30 so that people could take their kiddies out early).  Federation Square was jam packed with revellers even at sunset.

We then headed for the event site at Fitzroy Gardens; not as busy as Federation Square but still a nice crowd with an enthusiastic if mediocre DJ.

Before the rest of the crowd arrive.  Yes, I am wearing a jacket - yahoo!

At midnight we enjoyed the multi-million dollar fireworks display, set off from the rooftops of multiple highrises across the city, with 499,998 of our closest friends.  It was no Sydney, but still pretty impressive for us!

After a slow start the next day, we headed out for a big walk around the city.

Our hotel, above a pub that was sadly closed until February, as it had a good craft beer selection and classic boy scout memorabilia.  Not as good was the obnoxious cleaner, Marty, who had a fondness for repeating himself endlessly and recklessly disregarding do not disturb signs.

Our first leg was through the hip Fitzroy and Carlton neighbourhoods.  Kind of like Main Street or the cooler regions of Gastown in Vancouver.  We stopped for 'phat brats', and they even had a veggie option available for me!

Sweet potato, quinoa, tamarind, alfalfa... need I continue?  It was as delicious as it sounds!

Another stop was the old Melbourne Gaol, an old and creepy but impressive historic building.  We didn't pay the $50 to take a tour, but I did manage to get trapped behind bars.

In the last decade or so, Melbourne has developed the South Bank of the Yarra River - a former industrial area that had fallen into disuse and disrepair.  There is now a long walkway along the river, multiple pedestrian bridges, many condo highrises, a massive casino complex, and more.

Great looking city skyline from over here.

Check out this mid-river bar!

This is where the Australian Open is played; it starts mid-January so we'll just miss it.

The next day, Sandii (cousin of Chad's groomsman Peter), who lives in Melbourne, was gracious enough to take us on a city tour.  This was awesome, as we were able to see many sights we otherwise wouldn't have made it to!

Our first stop was for coffee at the Studley Park Boathouse.

Next up we headed to Brighton Beach, for a look at the famous, colourful bathhouses.

St Kilda is a neighbourhood by the beach frequented by many backpackers.  It also has the Local Taphouse, possibly the best beer bar in Melbourne.  We wiled away a late lunch tasting beers and eating yummy food on their excellent patio.  The beer selection was as good as promised.

Driving through St Kilda, we spotted many kitesurfers enjoying the windy day.  See Dad, you would like it here!

Continuing our goal of making my Dad want to join us, we next went for a drive around Albert Park, where the Australian F1 Grand Prix is held every year.

These barriers are put up all along the track to prevent wannabe F1 drivers from racing around the family-friendly park at excessive speeds.

Melbourne has many trams, which require downtown drivers to make "hook turns", where you pull into the left lane in order to be able to turn right (remember, you're driving on the left).  Or something like that.  I plan never to encounter one so I haven't really figured it out!

After a couple days at the Baden Powell being harassed by Marty the Cleaner, we splurged for a place with working wifi and good air conditioning.  Melbourne was forecast for strong winds and temperatures in the high 30s and low 40s, and the TV was full of fire warnings, so air conditioned activities away from the grasslands were the order of the day.  A bit tired from all the travelling, we decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to hole up a bit in our awesome downtown apartment to stay cool, catch up on the blog, do some laundry, and get geared up for the next leg of our trip.  We were upgraded to a place on the 18th floor, where we have great views, including of the surprisingly great Queen Victoria Market.

We went over to the market to grab some food for dinner, and found heaven.  The market is huge, and has loads of fresh produce for cheap, tasty meat (for Chad, obviously), and even wine!  There's also all manner of clothes, tools, tourist goods, etc, but we ignored those and headed straight for the food.

The roofs are tin, and in the hot day the radiant heat was intense underneath.

Wine on tap w/refillable bottles!  We got a lovely shiraz.

Our time in Melbourne has been pretty low key thus far, but it's a great city with loads of sights and lots of cool shops and restaurants.  I would love to come back here when I have some more cash to splurge a bit on the latter!