More Things I did in Melbourne (Part 3)

11. More Shopping and Street Art!

Flinders Street Railway Station.

This is Melbourne's iconic, central railway station. 

Found some cool graffiti along Franklin Street. So colourful!

The horses looked sad! I didn't go on a carriage ride but I just wanted to take a picture with the horses, since this is not something you'd see in Singapore.

Melbourne Central Shopping Centre

I did not really think about visiting the shopping centres in Melbourne, but just look at that pretty tower and glass cone!

We chanced upon The Little Library and I love this concept! As you can see, The Little Library consists of just a bookshelf, where people can borrow or exchange books as they please. Simple, yet brilliant. But I think it wouldn't work here. In Singapore, people would just think that there are free books up for grabs and the shelves would soon be completely empty.

12. Moomba Festival

We stumbled upon Moomba Festival by chance. I saw theme park attractions from afar and wondered what they were. So my boyfriend and I just walked towards it and we found the entrance to this awesome, free festival!

There were rides, game booths and of course, typical food that you can find at a funfair!

You'd have to buy a ticket for each of the rides.

There were rides and booths on both sides of the Yarra River! We watched some water-skiing competition, and participants competed to see who could make the furthest jump.

Tried to get a Minion soft toy but we weren't lucky enough. Oh well.

Stayed for the fireworks!

If we had planned to go to the festival a day earlier, we might have witnessed some violence on the streets. If we had known about the riots that had occurred a day earlier, we might have avoided the festival altogether. Thankfully, we knew nothing about both at that time.

13. Phillip Island

For one of the days, we booked a tour to Phillip Island! But first, we stopped by the Wildlife Park to feed some wallabies!

Sniffing in a cute way!

Politely waiting for food

Awww so cute

The emus were demanding! Really had to be careful around them since they were so violent and desperate for food.

Sleepy Tasmanian devils

Kookaburra 

Kangaroos getting it on

They seem to be having a serious meeting.

 The swans are dangerous too! One of them pecked at my hand pretty hard.

A koala doing yoga

This cockatoo is so smart! It would say "Hello" to us for more treats.

Wild wallaby!

After getting a soft toy wombat, we were brought to The Nobbies!

These small wooden boxes were built for the penguins.

Look at this little one poking its head out of its home!

Wild rabbit spotted!

The last and final stop for the day was obviously getting to the Penguin Parade! The tour we were on had booked a pair of Penguin Plus tickets for us and at sundown, hundreds of penguins appeared on the coast! Photography was not allowed and besides, it was too dark to get a good picture. But there were so many cute, fluffy penguins! As we made our way back and strolled down the boardwalk, we could still see penguins waddling back to their burrows after a day of swimming.

14. Great Ocean Road

Last but not least, we visited Great Ocean Road. I did not enjoy this tour as much because of the twists and turns on the road! The tour guide did warn us that it would be a bumpy ride, and that he had encountered guests who puked along the way. Thankfully, I did not. But it was still an uncomfortable journey.

Before arriving at the Great Ocean Road Memorial Arch (pictured below), the tour guide wanted to stop and make us some coffee, but it was too windy so it didn't work!

The Great Ocean Road was built by men who served in WWI. It provided the returned soldiers employment and they worked with picks and shovels as seen in the statue next to this memorial arch. The road is dedicated to the soldiers who died in the war, making it the world's largest war memorial.

At our next stop, there was bird feed sold at a little shop nearby and you could put out your hand and feed the beautiful wild parrots! There were also wild koalas sleeping high up in the trees.

We had lunch at the cafe nearby before visiting Cape Otway Lighthouse. The wind at the bottom of the lighthouse was already so strong!

After climbing up the red spiral staircase, we enjoyed the view from the top!

The view of the path and the cafe we just had lunch at. I was so afraid that I would drop my camera! It was extremely important to grip the railings, the walls of the lighthouse, and hang onto whatever belongings we had because it felt as if the wind could just blow us away.

 

Along Shipwreck Coast, our guide told us about two teenage survivors from Lord Ard. Although it sounded like a romantic story about a boy who managed to save a girl, they did not fall in love and get married. No potential here for a Disney story, people. Anyway, the gorge was named after the ship, and so this is Lord Ard Gorge.

And of course, the Twelve Apostles, formed by the erosion of limestone cliffs. We were trying to spot the 8 stacks of rocks currently left in the ocean. From the picture above, you can still see the remains of the 9th rock stack that had fallen in 2005.

That's everything I did in Melbourne! I really wish I could return to Australia for another holiday.

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!