2002 Day 8-10 - Melbourne

Not much to update so I'll do it all in one post. By the way, I stayed at Miami Motor Inn during my stay in Melbourne - close to the city, convenient to public transport, and probably the best consistent service standard I've seen anywhere in a motel. I've been there three times now and have sent friends there, without any complaints.

Friday - Went to Mornington Peninsula (a southern coastal extension of the Melbourne metropolitan area) via Frankston. Frankston is psycho city central :) Basically mix retirement village type scene with lots of young unemployed people and a few families thrown into the mix, with narrow streets and lots of cars. End result? The old people hold everyone else up and there's a lot of aggro and horns honking :P It was funny to watch but I wouldn't want to live there.

Photo 1 - Wells Street, Frankston.
Photo 2 - Canal near Nepean Highway, Frankston.

This visit was more of a "get to see and know the area so when I come next time I know which are the good bits". The original plan had been to visit Rosebud because I once knew of someone from there, but it turned out to be quite ordinary - just a big shopping centre. A surprisingly high number of attractive people living there though :P The stopping points ended up being Dromana and Sorrento. Both nice places, got to walk around them a bit.

Photo 3 - Dromana Beach.
Photo 4 - Beach huts at Dromana Beach (you find these all along the Port Phillip Bay).

I wanted to do Arthur's Seat (a chairlift going right up a mountain) but I was literally 2 minutes too late by the time I got there. (EDIT: This chairlift collapsed in January 2003.) On coming back to Melbourne and after a sumptuous meal at the motel, I went down and saw Chris the busker (refer to entries from Dec 2001) - he recognised me immediately and he now seems to have a band - they look quite odd but sound amazingly good (they were doing Cat Stevens covers).

Yesterday I thought I was doing a tour of Melbourne and when I looked at my notes it turned out I was doing Phillip Island, where thousands of penguins run up the beach at sunset to their burrows every night. It was an APT tour, which was a bit dry for my liking although we had a good and knowledgeable driver. This time, I didn't get eaten alive at the koala conservation park, and the Seal Rocks exhibition centre I visited last year had been destroyed by a tornado 3 months ago - it was kind of eerie going in there and just seeing the souvenir shop (pretty much as it was last year) with nothing behind it. At the actual penguin parade (which was better than last year's) I met a guide called Damon who I was able to ask for information. I think I'll do his tour next year - it sounds somewhat more fun than the one I was on :)

(Edit: I found an even better one in Dec 2003 - Duck Truck Tours, run by a local company from Phillip Island, for $70.)

On coming back to Melbourne, the fun wasn't over. My friend Lucas had insisted on my doing the Lucas Tour of Melbourne (sadly without a webpage), and even a late start courtesy of the penguins didn't dampen his enthusiasm :P I wasn't really dressed for the occasion, but we saw plenty of pubs and cafes and I got to meet his housemate Carlos, who was a very friendly host. At some unearthly hour of the morning I returned back to my motel.

After breakfast this morning I basically walked around the city all day - I'm trying to lose the weight I've put on and have been living on the hotel breakfasts + fresh filtered water + sushi (which is available at O-Bento sushi bar in Melbourne Central for $2 per hand roll - so one *can* live on it affordably :)

Tomorrow I leave for Launceston. I'm not getting the whole odd "missing Melbourne" feeling I usually get at this point in its fullest strength because I will be back in just over a week. I wish I could spend a lot more time here.