A few days in the books and we're starting to feel human again. We slept in a bit more today which felt pretty good. We did not hit the streets to see the sites in downtown Melbourne area until about 10:30 AM. We were awake plenty early...but we had some other things to do. So let me tell how are day went.
Last night, I messaged our host asking for the hot hair dryer that he said he had in his advertisement. He is good about responding and said, that it was in his bathroom and that he would set it out. Well, this morning, upon going out of the bedroom for the first time I noticed that the dryer was not there. This was going to be an issue. Why? I have no idea when this guy gets in...and I figured he was not getting up anytime soon.
So, Denise and I laid out our coast trip this morning. We looked at stops we wanted to hit and how long it would take to get to them. From that, we figured about where we wanted to stay with our drive time being around 5 hours each day. So I started searching AIRBNB locations that were near these places. I fired off 3 requests...and had positive responses from all of them. 2 of the 3 are 'Entire Homes' and 1 is a true BNB and considered to be a private room. We'll see. Average cost...about $80. So not bad. We plan to leave fairly early tomorrow and start our trip. We plan to be in Sydney on the 17th, spending two nights there. Then...what we do on the 19th is up in the air. Denise wants to go to Auckland. I think I'll be ready to come home. Denise has said if we don't go to Auckland that she wants to stay one more day in Sydney. So...who knows. We'll sort it out.
Anyway...it was time to shower and get ready. I got up and made breakfast and Denise showered. Once she was done, it was 'Vegemite' time. Vegemite is a spread that looks kind of like Nutella but smells like a dirty sock and tastes a bit worst. We did not know that until we both put some on a toast and tried it. It is not the most pleasant stuff....pretty salty. It is made from beer yeast waste with vegetables and spices add in. Pretty nasty. But we can both say we 'tried' it.
The next issue then became the hair dryer as Denise washed her hair finally! :-) We were not sure if the host was here or away. So I peeked into his room. He was out cold. Man...what do I do? So I knocked gently on the closed door. I could hear him scrambling to get up. Sure enough...out he came with the hair dryer. He was very kind about it and apologized about forgetting to set it out. But the funny thing was...a few minutes later...out pops a young Asian girl in a night shirt who he introduced as his 'friend' ushering her to the door quickly. She must also live in this apartment building. There are more people from Asia here than native Australians! Anyway, it was kind of an awkward moment.
Well, we packed up our things after the hair was dry and set out on foot to see the sites. It was around 10:30 AM. We returned around 4 PM. We visited the Melbourne Central mall that had a crazy clock that opened up each hour and played some music. Also inside was an old brick tower that was pretty cool...but the museum inside was being remodeled and not open. This was wrapped all around by a multi story mall of new and fancy stores. It was crazy busy. Anyway, Denise videoed the whole clock thing. And as we were about to leave, some school girls came up quickly to us and said they were doing an Amazing Race kind of thing and one of the things to get was a video of the clock opening and playing. But they were late and would have to wait another hour. So they asked Denise if she could email it to them. Naturally, we are only using my phone for data and voice so Denise could not send it via her phone. But technology being such, the one girl said...I'll open a hot spot...which she did. And soon the mail was on its way to her. We tried using Air Drop since she had an iPhone too. But we could live never get it to work. We're not sure why.
Once we had taken care of these young ladies, we were off to the Victoria State Library. Wow, what a cool place. It has been around since the 1850's. They had displays of many things as you went from floor to floor telling the history of the library as well as the evolution of the state of Victoria.
From there, we headed to China Town. This was a very narrow street of restaurants and such that were all Chinese. That's why it's called China Town...I guess. :-) We strolled up that street a bit and back. We even went into a restaurant to order some Dim Sum....but they said it was going to take a while to prepare and we did not want wait.
From there we headed to the Royal Arcade, a narrow inside alley way of shops and eateries. There you could see statues of Gog and Magog (Google it). Not sure why...but they were there. We ate lunch at a little cafe there where Denise had a yummy ham and mushroom sandwich and I had a chicken salad that was pretty good too.
The next adventure was to head to the Flinders Street Train Station. As most Train Stations are, it was a hustle, bustle kind of place with people coming and going. The outside was a unique design but the inside was nothing to brag home about. After seeing Train Stations in Italy and other locales...this was boring.
From there, we headed across the Yarra River to the highlight of the day...to go up the largest building in the Southern Hemisphere...The Eureka Skydeck\Tower. Denise was dying to go out on the ledge and look straight down, 88 floors. This cost a little extra money. They put you in a box and then slide this big box with many people in it out. The windows are all frosted to begin with. But once in place, they unfroze all the windows and you are then looking straight down to the street. You could not pay me a million dollars to do that. But Denise did. I tried to get good pictures of it....but the reflections on the glass and the darkness did not allow good pictures. Nonetheless, Denise enjoyed. And I enjoyed that panoramic view of all of Melbourne that it gave. It is a nice city. We did not even go to the beach side of Melbourne at all. I'm sure they are nice. But we are going to see a lot of beaches as we travel the coast line.
We then headed over to the river and relaxed a bit. We tried calling Travis, Dustin and Cassidy. We had talked to Ashley and Karlie earlier that morning. Only Travis picked up this time. We had a good chat with him. After relaxing for a few minutes, we headed to the Melbourne Visitors center. As we headed on to the square where this building is found, we noticed a large Book of Mormon display. The disparaging play....'The Book of Mormon' is in town. So wherever that play goes, the church sets up displays and truly shares what The Book of Mormon is about. So we walked over and spoke with the missionaries that were answering people's questions. One was from Lindon, Utah...the other from North Vietnam. They were excited to see us and talk with us for a few moments.
After checking out the Visitors Bureau, we grabbed a Tram and headed back towards our apartment. We stopped once along the way to check out the Parliament Building and the Treasury Building. Both were fairly old. The last tour to see the Parliament Building was full. So we could not go inside there. We did sneak into the Treasury Building even though they said they were close. The actually had 11 more minutes before closing time...so we quickly scurried around to check it out. They had lots of stuff on display.
Now, I write this blog in the apartment while waiting to go find some dinner. I think some fresh Chinese Noodles might be in order...but we shall see.
Tomorrow we're off on our long drive. Keep us in your prayers that we drive safe and don't hit any Kangaroos. Lee says that we'll see them along the road side dead...like we probably see deer in Utah.
Pictures:
Big clock in Melbourne Central Mall....
Old brick tower that goes up to a roof that is the shape of an upside down Ice Cream cone.
One of the many 'reading' rooms in the Victoria State Library.
This as by far the coolest room we were in all day. We climbed the stairs to the top floor to get pictures.
China Town....not a whole lot. But everything was in Chinese....
Royal Arcade...an inside lane of shops and places to eat.
Not sure if this Gog or Magog....
Flinders Street Train Station....
Nice older church. Notice the sign about welcoming refugees....I thought that was nice.
Eureka Tower...
She couldn't have been more excited to be close to death!
The next pictures are from the Skydeck looking down or across the city. Picture taking was tough because of shadows on the Windows and such.
The Yarra River....
The Tennis complex where the Australian Open is held each year. The big stadium is called the MCG...they play cricket there.
The box of death. They slide this box out with the windows frosted so you can't see. They then unfrost them and I guess you feel like you are hovering 88 stories up. Who does this stuff!?!?!
That smiley person staring at me is my wife. Where did I get her?
I love their terminology. We say Garbage. They say Wastage.
A nice sized display. You saw advertising everywhere about The Book of Mormon play. One add apparently had said...'The Mormons are coming....' On buses. Now they say, 'The Mormons are here!'. I thought that was funny.
There are a number of older churches in the area. Great architecture from many years ago.
The Victoria Parliament building....
Every once in a while you would see stairs going down out of the blue. They are restrooms or water coolers...what ever you want to call them.
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