We spent the next two days not doing a whole lot, which suited us perfectly. Getting back into the swing of Melbourne, we had a leisurely walk around with a trip to Victoria Market and Federation Square. This was followed by a trip to the cinema to see the new James Bond film ‘Sky Fall’, which we really enjoyed!
That evening we made plans with our friends from Perth,
Andy, Ste and their friend Bez, who also happened to be in Melbourne at the
time and enjoyed a good night out, beginning in our hostel bar with cheap
drinks and a few games of pool and then heading out into Melbourne.
Everyone in our hostel was very friendly and we ended up
going for drinks with more newly made friends the following evening too!
The next few days turned a little more cultural as we found
a funky museum called the ACIM (Australian Centre for the Moving Image). This
was no ordinary museum… it brought back memories of the old Science Museum back
in Birmingham (although a lot more modern), where there are lots of interactive
pieces of ‘art’ to play around with… we particularly enjoyed our matrix
re-enactment, take a look at our video:
http://www.acmi.net.au/timeslice/Timeslice.htm?file=ts-20121221-376a806dab91647e928a74dfa9e69104.flv
http://www.acmi.net.au/timeslice/Timeslice.htm?file=ts-20121221-376a806dab91647e928a74dfa9e69104.flv
After having some childish fun at ACMI, we headed to the
Botanical Gardens. We wandered through the beautiful paths of trees and
flowers, posing for a few photos along the way.
On Saturday morning we went to the National Art Museum of
Victoria with our German roommate Rob. Compared to some of the other ‘state
galleries’ we had been to, this didn’t rate too well, but it was worth a visit
at least and we enjoyed gravy and chips on the walk there.
We made the most of being in the city and went for a night
out again, this time with our roommates. What seemed to be turning into a bit
of a tradition, we followed our night out with a trip to the cinema the next
day to see ‘Pitch Perfect’ which was really funny!!
Time had flown by in Melbourne and before we realised it was ‘Christmas Eve’. We drove to St Kilda, a suburb of Melbourne on the beach to spend Christmas day enjoying the sunshine on the beach. A friend from back home, Laura, was spending the day with us on Christmas Eve, so we all decided on the evening to attend the service at St Paul’s Cathedral. Their male choir was superb, especially when they sang ‘Holy Night’, albeit in French.
It will probably be our first and only hot Christmas, but at
least we can say we have experienced it! It was rather strange sitting on the
beach in our bikinis with our Christmas hats on… it didn’t really feel like
Christmas at all not being around your family!! We tried our best to make it
feel more ‘Christmasy’ by opening a couple of presents in the morning and
heading for a meal that sort of represented a Christmas dinner as best as
possible, haha!!
The beach was full of travellers and English people who were away from home. We made friends with some Northern boys from England and finally got to taste our bottle of ‘Moscato’ wine from Jacob’s Creek Winery that we had been saving all this time. Shamefully, on the way back to the apartment we hit McDonalds… never again will this happen on Christmas Day that’s for sure!!
The beach was full of travellers and English people who were away from home. We made friends with some Northern boys from England and finally got to taste our bottle of ‘Moscato’ wine from Jacob’s Creek Winery that we had been saving all this time. Shamefully, on the way back to the apartment we hit McDonalds… never again will this happen on Christmas Day that’s for sure!!
We had a night out on the evening of Christmas on Chapel
Street in St Kilda, obviously followed by a trip to the cinema to see ‘The
Hobbit’ on Boxing Day back in Melbourne Central before we said our goodbyes to
Melbourne on this road trip.
From Melbourne, after so many weeks on the road, we would
finally be visiting the capital of Australia, Canberra. More from us soon…
Peace and Love,
Lyds & Bex
xxxxx
Lyds & Bex
xxxxx
