Friday April 8th to Tuesday, April 12th, 2011
Friday April 8th, 2011
After a couple days of travelling outside Melbourne. I returned to check out a few things in the city on Friday. First out I headed to the Eureka Skydeck (after a suggestion from a friend) to check out the view. A few points about the Skydeck:
1. It is a 40 second ride by elevator to the 88th floor where the observation deck is.
2. The Eureka Skydeck is the highest public vantage point in the Southern Hemisphere.
3. The building is about 297 metres (984 feet) high.
4. The top of the building can flex up to 600 metres (1969 feet) in high winds.
5. The top 10 levels of the building are 24 carat gold plated.
6. If you decided to walk....it is 3680 stairs to the top.
Anyway, here are a few pictures from my trip up to the Skydeck.
A few of the famous sporting spots in Melbourne. The big open stadium is the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground). Yes, they play cricket there, but they also play at lot of Footy (Aussie Rules Football) there as well. It sits over 100,000 people. All the blue tennis courts you can see are part of the National Tennis Centre. It hosts the Australian Open every January.
A look at the Royal Botanic Gardens and Government House.
The river below is the Yarra River. No it does not look very nice. I decided I could skip a river cruise. Too much garbage floating in the water.
Overlooking downtown Melbourne.
Once I came out of the sky I headed back to the National Gallery of Victoria (International). It was quite different than the previous one......in that most of the artists were from countries other than Australia. I have found it difficult to figure out when I can and cannot take pictures in museums in Australia, so I have no pictures in the museum.
There is that Ferris wheel again. This is just behind Federation Square, The Moving Image Centre and the Art Gallery (that one's I visited the previous day).
And then my shopping weekend started. Yes, Melbourne is a great shopping city and I managed to make it until today before I went shopping. I thought that was pretty good.
Friday evening I had a Turkish reunion.....in Melbourne. If you think way back to November 2008, you will remember that I spent 15 glorious days traveling through Turkey with 8 other people (and a driver and a tour guide). Two of those people (Reshmi and Paul...cousins) happen to live in in Melbourne. So I couldn't come all the way over here without meeting up with them.
Paul chose a meeting place down by the river for the ambiance I am sure. It did happen to correspond with pre-game drinks for many people who were heading to the Carlton/Collingwood AFL game at the MCG (they are huge rivals. Collingwood is like the Yankees of the AFL......you either love them or hate them so naturally I hate them). The game attendance was around 100,000. Anyway, it was busy at first but we manged to find each other and a couple drinks and were able to catch up. Reshmi had to leave early (she was heading to Singapore in the morning for work) but Paul and I were able to sit and have some dinner as well. So great to see the 2 of them.
Paul and I. We forgot to get a picture before Reshmi left.
Saturday, April 9th, 2011
Saturday morning I got up and headed to a place that Scott suggested for me. If you don't know, Scott use to live in Melbourne so suggested I head down Brunswick Street to check it out. The street is full of all kinds of cute little stores and boutiques and some great shopping. I had a good time and you will be very happy to know that I didn't buy a thing.
Once I left Brunswick street I made my way over to one of Melbourne's most famous and most visited tourist attractions. This is the Old Melbourne Gaol. While yes, Australia is full of old goals (seriously......that's how Australians spell jail) but this one is famous because lots of people were hanged here (135 to be exact, the first 2 of whom were aboriginal). Ok so there are lots of prisons in Australia where people were hanged, but this one was the site of the most famous hanging of one of Australia's most famous criminals......Ned Kelly.
The main cell block that remains. The prison was opened in 1845. Not always used just for criminals, during World War I it also housed soldiers, many of those who were AWOL. It was decommissioned 1924. Since then many of the buildings have been torn down and new buildings built. What remains is this main cell block, the Supreme Court and The Watch House.
An example of one of those cells. Each cell in the block was set up a little bit differently. This one gave you a glimpse of what life in the prison may have looked like. Others gave you the background information on every one of the 135 persons who were hanged here.
I made it in time to catch the live Ned Kelly show. This was a live reenactment of his story from his childhood to the day he was hanged and everything in between.
This is Edward "Ned" Kelly. His first crime was at age 14. After that he had many.....many arrests for cattle rustling, robbery and assault. Ned was probably the most famous of Australia's bush rangers, a term originally used to refer to runaway convicts who used survival skills to use the Australian bush as a place of refuge. Eventually they used to describe those who took up a life of robbery and crime. Many felt that Ned was being unfairly targeted by law enforcement because he was Irish (as many Irish felt at the time). He was quite the Folk Hero to many.......but considered be be nothing more than a cold blooded killer to others.
The whipping rack. One of the many instruments of punishment within the prison.
The recently discovered entrance to punishment cells. Like in many other prisons, prisoners would be locked in these cells for days deprived of light, sound, human contact and were only provided with minimal food.
The main entrance to the prison grounds.
Down the street from the prison entrance you will find the Watch House. There you can get "locked up". Basically for a hour you can go in and feel what it would have been liked to be arrested, processed and locked up the The Melbourne Gaol. I skipped that one and went to the Court House instead. Here, using volunteers and a script, Ned Kelly's final trial is re-enacted.
Inside the court room. Not actually where the trial took place but we all got the point. Ned was on trial for the murder of police Constable Lonigan although most people feel he was tried and convicted for many of his other crimes. Interesting to note that the justice system at the time did not allow Ned to testify on his own behalf. Many other questionable things occurred in this final trial but there was no lack of evidence that Ned Kelly was in fact a hardened criminal. He was hanged on November 11th, 188.
The prison certainly uses Kelly's notoriety to their advantage. Although he was only one of thousands of criminals who passed through these walls, he is the one they focus on. One of the highlights is Ned Kelly's death mask and home made armour that are on display. I of course totally forgot to go back and take a picture of them (they were sitting next to where the live re-enactment was and I got distracted by other things) but here is a video I found online of the death mask. All criminals who were hanged had a death mask made.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3Fx5rpRi3c
My day was not done once I left prison (oh no......I was not finished yet). Saturday night I was off to experience a true Australian pastime.....an AFL game at the MCG. Now if you don't know, AFL (Australian Rules Football) is huge in Melbourne so I thought I better check it out while I was here. I made the mistake of not googling the rules until after the game started but eventually I caught on.
My view of the field. Actually pretty good seats. I could see and follow the game pretty well from here.
The game was between the Hawthorne Hawks and the Richmond Tigers. Not sure if I have mentioned this before, but what I have found about professional sports in Australia (compared to North America) is that the game is the entertainment. No extra little side shows. No guys selling beer in the stands. Just football. And well, people here are very passionate about their football. Kind of reminds me of American college sports......fight songs and all.
Sorry, I'm not going to even bother trying to explain the rules to you. One of the most confusing games I have ever watched.....but so good. If you are really curious, I suggest you start your reading here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_rules_football
Hanging out at the MCG. I really did want to see a cricket game here, but I just missed cricket season.
Singing along with the Hawks fight song. If you want to hear the real version check this out. You can also find links to the songs of the other AFL teams. So entertaining. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cfy4LFWn5Rg
Sunday April 10th and Monday April 11th, 2011
Sunday and Monday were.......well they were shopping days. I didn't actually take any pictures for 2 days....which means I was very distracted by the stores. I didn't buy anything that exciting. Mostly just some warmer clothes (living in Darwin, warm clothes is not really a requirement) for my impending visit to Tasmania (YEAH it's coming). I really did enjoy the shopping, something that is seriously lacking in Darwin. It probably saves me a lot of money.
Tuesday, April 12th, 2011
Tuesday was a travel day....well ok it was a travel night as my plane didn't leave until 2035 (8:35pm) so really I had all day to do stuff. Unfortunately I woke up to some more terrible weather (it started raining Saturday night just in time for the AFL game). All the grey skies and the wetness made me not want to do too much (not to mention that I was also feeling a little sick as by this time in any trip I always end up with a cold) so after sleeping in, I made my way to the train/bus station to store my bag for the day and made my way to one more museum. This was the Immigration Museum. The Immigration Museum comes highly recommended by pretty much everyone.
One of the things that impressed me the most was that the tour guide that was taking a group of kids through the museum, first acknowledged the aboriginal people who are the traditional owners of the land and the major changes that immigration has brought to them over the years. I don't feel enough attention is given to that aspect of European migration to Australia.
From there you go into the section called "Leaving Home" which goes through all the many reasons why people leave there homeland and included many individual stories of some of those who have made the journey to Australia.
Then it's all about the "Journeys of a Life Time". They have a mock ship that shows how early immigrants would have arrived on Australia's shores.
Third Class. Yes, you do have to sleep with the potatoes and stuff but hey, at least you got to be on the boat.
Second Class. At least you get a bed although not a lot of space to share with probably quite a few people.
First class. Look at all that space.....and lights....and a sink. Much more my style.
There is also a nice section about immigration today including giving you a chance to complete an interview and decide who gets in and who doesn't get in. It was fun. With all the debates going on in Australia right now about asylum seekers (who are not illegal immigrants because under Australia's Humanitarian program, the country provides protection for asylum seekers) it is interesting to note that overstayers (so people who come into Australia on a VISA and decide to stay after it expires.....they actually are in the country illegally) out number asylum seekers 10 to 1. Just an interesting little stat.
Anyway, once I left the immigration part of the museum I found a very good exhibit on the culture of the Yoruba People from Western Nigeria. Couldn't take any pictures but it was a great outline of the people and music and art and many of their customs.
In summary, great musuem I highly recommend it. http://museumvictoria.com.au/immigrationmuseum/
The Museum. Housed in the old Customs House. It was built in 2 stages from 1835 to 1838 and 1873 to 1876.
Once I finally left the museum I found a nice cafe to kill some time in, had some great soup, did some reading and then made my way to the airport. Of course my flight was delayed (what else is new) but I eventually made it to Hobart Tasmania. It was a little cold and wet on arrival and well dark so I had hopes that it would clear up. I had booked into a very nice little backpackers hotel (not a dorm room or anything, a nice little private room with an ensuite.....so nice and warm). Didn't even seen the manager but they were nice enough to let me pay.....when I return......in 6 days.
http://www.hobarthostel.com/
So I will be off on a 6 day Tasmanian adventure. It should be a good time.
Julie
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