Things I did in Melbourne (Part 2)

6. Hosier Lane

After interacting with the fluffy felines, John and I walked to Hosier Lane.

There were so many tourists there posing in front of the graffiti, and of course, we could see artists climbing the grilles and using spray cans.

Graffiti was everywhere, even on the trash bins.

Decided to get one of those poser shots as well, inspired by those other tourists around me. Here's the typical, "I'm looking away and pretending I don't know my photo is being taken" shot.

Okay, this isn't a poser shot. This is more of a candid, "What are you doing? Have you taken a picture yet?" shot. 

My favourite is this one! Aboriginal land being taken over by the British. Oh and if you look carefully, at the top left of this picture, you can see part of a quote from George Orwell's 1984: War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. Hosier Lane is known for political art and I can see why!

7. Chinatown

If you see this, you're definitely in Chinatown.

To make it even more obvious, there are red lanterns dangling from above too.

Okay, I'm not exactly a foodie and I was only in Melbourne for a few days, but I absolutely loved this Chinese restaurant called China Spice! The fried rice was excellent and there were xiao long baos too! In addition, N2 was just around the corner.

Pikachu! So cute!

I mentioned N2 ice-cream before here. It was so popular that the queue was pretty long and we had to wait a little while, but it was worth it!

I ordered the salted caramel and my boyfriend had chocolate ice-cream (with a marshmallow and a syringe, so that you can add more chocolate as you eat). Yummy!


8. Old Melbourne Gaol

We visited Old Melbourne Gaol on our last day (the day before our flight) and we arrived just in time for The Watch House Experience, where a police officer pretended to have us arrested and treated us as criminals. He was very convincing because he kept a straight face! He handed out cards which stated who were supposed to be, and why we were being incarcerated. 

After the males and females were separated into different lines and "inspected", we were locked in a holding cell and the Sergeant switched off the lights for a while. I think we were very amused by this experience because we've never seen visitors at a museum being treated like this before!

The Sergeant released us from our cells after a while and allowed us to explore.

The padded cell at Old Melbourne Gaol. (Reminded me of the time when we visited the Institute of Mental Health back in secondary school)

Apart from the Watch House, there were other tours at night that explored ghost stories at the gaol or the life of a hangman. Sounded really interesting but it was more costly! And we simply didn't have the time.

Trying to look like an grumpy criminal here.

This place was huge! There were so many rooms to explore. As expected, we read found out more about Ned Kelly here. There were exhibits about how it was believed that the shape of the skull could predict criminal behaviour, and there were words carved on the walls by military prisoners during WWII. The thing that stood out most was the phrase "Why no second front comrade?"

The scaffold used for hanging criminals. Can you imagine being an executioner? Apparently, there's a book called "The Art of Hanging", which describes how to achieve a successful hanging. Ideally, the criminal should die instantaneously. However, sometimes they are either strangled to death or their necks get ripped. Ugh.

Enjoying Golden Gaytime ice-cream outside the gaol!

9. Queen Victoria Market

We visited Queen Victoria Market and had dinner there. The place is huge!

So many stalls!

The non-food section, obviously.

More ice-cream!

Food stalls.

Mmm... Meat!

Queen Victoria Market is such a chill place. You could just grab a seat, have a feast, and enjoy the live music!

10. Watched Matilda the Musical

I am a huge Roald Dahl fan so I had to catch this musical! It was at Princess Theatre and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the performance.

The theatre looked so grand from the inside, but it was too crowded for me to take a good picture!

They were serving cocktails! I had Miss Trunchbull's Tipple. The other one was called Bookworm. 

Watching Matilda the Musical was the last thing we did before flying back to Singapore the next day. However, there will still be a Part 3! It will include some other stuff we happened to stumble upon during our stay in Melbourne, and of course, our day trips to Penguin Island and Great Ocean Road. Stay tuned!