Victoria - The Place to Be

After surviving 12 long hours on an overnight bus from Sydney, I arrived in Melbourne at 8:00 am on Monday, March 21. Keith was there to meet me at the station and it was so great to see him again! He had already arranged a hostel for us to stay in for the night, so we headed there right away to get settled in. After showering and relaxing for a bit, we took the tram into the downtown area and Keith gave me my first introduction to the city. Thankfully, he knew his way around after spending the past week exploring the area. We walked around for a few hours but then just headed back to the hostel to relax; I was pretty beat after my busy week in Sydney. The next morning, we checked out of our hostel and took the train southeast from the city centre, to a suburb called Cheltenham. Arriving at the train station, we were met by Zee, who is a long-time family friend of my parents. I had met her once before as a twelve year old when I visited Australia with my family for the first time and hadn’t seen her since. She generously offered to pick us up and let us stay with her for a couple weeks while we were in Melbourne. Dropping off our backpacks at her beautiful townhouse, we were very excited to see the room we would be staying in and our own bathroom. Absolute luxury after staying in hostels for so long! She took us out for a nice lunch beside a small harbour and then we headed back to her place so I could Skype with my parents. Thirty years ago, my Dad actually stayed with Zee when he was travelling through Melbourne on his worldwide trip, so it was great for him to see me staying with her as well. The rest of the day we took it easy, got some laundry done and visited with Zee. Tuesday morning, we took advantage of sleeping in and then Keith and I walked over to check out Southland, a huge mall in the area. The rest of the afternoon was spent reading and relaxing outside in the beautiful sunshine on her back porch. To be honest, it felt strange but very refreshing to be able to just relax and take a day away from busy sight-seeing. That night, we went out for a delicious Turkish dinner with Zee, her brother and his wife, Allan and Ginny, and her son and his wife, Julian and Brooke. It was great to meet her family and enjoy a lovely meal out. Back in Taupo, NZ, Keith and I had met three Aussie guys out at a bar, who were part of a car racing team. We had kept in touch in case we ever made it over to Adelaide, but it just so happened that they were going to be in Melbourne at the same time as us, for the Grand Prix! Great timing! Thursday morning, Keith and I headed out into the rain down to Albert Park, where the Grand Prix was being held. We met Mark (the mechanical engineer) at the front gate and he casually presented us with a VIP entry pass! Despite being such a bleak, rainy day, it was still such a neat experience. They were part of the Porsche Carrera racing team, and we were given the opportunity to take an up-close look at the car. This session consisted of me nodding along every once and a while, attempting to appear knowledgeable of all things car related, but Keith was in his element! The rest of the day was spent checking out the exhibitions and other races, from various vantage points throughout the park. My main takeaway of the day: those cars sure are fast and loud! We managed to endure the rain until the late afternoon, after our friends’ last race of the day and then headed into St.Kilda for some dinner at a delicious pizza restaurant. Later on, we took the train back out to Cheltenham and spent the night drying off and packing!

Bright and early Friday morning, we piled into the car for a weekend away with Zee in Northeast Victoria. As we were getting into the car, I took notice of the Victorian state license plate which read "Victoria - The Place to Be" (hence the title of this blog post!) She kindly offered to take us away for a few days to see some of her family and the beautiful countryside. One of our first stops was in Glenrowan, which is famously known as the town where Ned Kelly was shot and finally arrested by authorities in 1880. Ned Kelly was a bushranger (criminal), and one of Australia’s most well-known historical icons. Although I didn’t remember its name, this place was actually one of my family’s favourite memories of our trip to Australia in 1999; or most specifically, the high-quality attraction of ‘Ned Kelly’s Last Stand.’ And by high-quality, I mean walking from room to room watching animatronic characters act out the scenes leading up to Ned Kelly’s demise, including a fake pop-gun fight in the backyard. One of the reasons it’s so memorable is because of how scared my sister Jen was at the time (who am I kidding; I think we were all a little scared by it). It’s just funny looking back now, because it really was such poor quality and fake. We still talk about that memory to this day. Keith, Zee and I sat down for lunch at a small restaurant blasting country music with a sign on the window reading ‘Ned Kelly drinks here.’ Almost everything on the menu was Ned Kelly related; basically this town’s only claim to fame is Ned Kelly tourism. I was sitting there wondering where this memorable attraction might be, when I heard the distinctive sound of pop guns coming from the backyard next door! I was so excited to tell my family and snapped a couple pictures. After wrapping up lunch, we continued on to Beechworth; a small town that came to life during the gold rush in the 1860s. This town was so neat because since then, it doesn’t really seem like too much has changed! Zee had recently bought a cottage in the area that was still being built, so we stopped by to check on its progress. The location is absolutely beautiful, with a great view from a big back porch over the valley. I really hope I get to see it completed one day. We took some time to walk through town and I really loved taking in the slow country pace and all of the unique shops; including the massive mouth-watering candy store! Leaving Beechworth, our next stop took us a little ways over the border into New South Wales, to a town called Albury. Here we went out for dinner at a Thai restaurant owned by Zee’s nephew, and were joined by Zee’s sister and her husband; Isabelle and Bob. After dinner, we drove back to their lovely farm, where we would be staying for the weekend. The rest of evening consisted of good conversation and Carton Draught beer (Victoria’s most popular beer). Keith and I stayed up a bit later to watch the AFL (Aussie Football League) game, and received our first lesson on the rules from Bob.

Saturday morning started out by sitting on the huge back porch in the sun; looking out on the farm and listening to the distinctive laugh of the Kookaburra bird. Mid-day we hopped in the car and drove to Yackandandah (no, I’m not making that name up) to check out a small music festival there. We stopped for lunch and then went back to Beechworth so we could take more time to look around. This time, I made sure to check out the old courthouse where Ned Kelly had spent time, and indulged at the delicious Beechworth Bakery. Then it was back to the farm. Before dinner and just as the sun was starting to set, Zee drove us out into the bush along a back road to try and spot some kangaroos. We actually did manage to spot three, but we weren’t able to get a close look since they were all hopping away from us. Returning from our expedition, we were greeted with a delicious home cooked meal. Keith and I helped out with dishes and then settled into watching another AFL game. The next day was pretty low-key and relaxing. In the afternoon, we went shopping with Zee so she could pick out some furniture and appliances for her new cottage. On the way back to the farm later on, we stopped by a lake and enjoyed some ice cream before briefly stopping in Chiltern; the small town where Zee grew up. This town looked even more old-fashioned than Beechworth; with horse-hitching posts still visible out front some of the shops. Once back at the farm, Isabelle took Keith and I for a tour through the paddocks to check out the scenery and visit her cows. One of the calf’s mother had died after it was born so Isabelle raised it up at the house, and they are very attached to one another. In fact, ‘Addy’ had just gone to live with the rest of the cows a couple months before we got there. He was so cute, and it was amazing to witness the bond between them. When we were leaving, he kept following her like a little kid who didn’t wanting his mom to leave him at school! The rest of the evening was spent enjoying another home cooked meal and more relaxation. Monday morning came and it was time to head back to Melbourne, after saying grateful goodbyes to Bob and Isabelle for their hospitality. On the drive back we stopped for lunch and then at the Healesville Sanctuary, where we saw tons of Australian animals up close. We spent a few hours there admiring the koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, echidnas, etc. and enjoyed an exciting ‘birds of prey’ show too. We didn’t end up getting back into Melbourne until dinner time and just took it easy that night. It was such an amazing weekend away; getting to know Zee’s family, and see a beautiful part of Victoria that not many other backpackers would!

Back in Melbourne, we decided to head out on a sightseeing day of the city. Our first stop was at the Queen Victoria Market. This place is another one of my family’s favourite Australian memories. I remembered the market being absolutely massive; and while it was still big, it didn’t quite have the same effect this time around. We browsed the stalls for a while and bought some postcards but weren’t really souvenir shopping, so we didn’t spend too long. Strolling through downtown, we took in the impressive monumental buildings and popular streets. Once we made it to the very distinctive Federation Square, we couldn’t resist stopping for a beer on a patio in the sun. Next, we continued on to the Royal Botanical Gardens, which were beautiful. Thirty years ago when my Dad was in Melbourne, he actually worked in the gardens as a groundskeeper, so it was especially neat to see. We took our time walking around for a couple hours and admiring our surroundings. Then we hopped on a tram to St.Kilda, where we walked along Ackland St and stopped for a quick dinner. As the sun started to set, we ventured down to the beach and walked along the famous St.Kilda Esplanade. From there, we headed back to Federation Square to meet up with our friend Phil. He is an Australian who we met in our hostel in Innsbruck, Austria and went on a couple hikes with. The three of us walked over to Southbank, which is a popular area along the river with several restaurants, bars and shops. It was such a beautiful night and I managed to snap some great shots of the river with a city background. We went to a bar along the river for some beers and had a great time catching up for a few hours. It was a wonderfully busy day! Wednesday morning, I Skyped with my family again and then Keith and I headed to Southland mall to meet up with his friend Jen for coffee. Keith went to high school with Jen back in Beaumont, and she has since met an Australian guy and is living here with him. By strange coincidence, they just happened to be living in the same suburb we were staying in! It was nice to talk to another Canadian, and we got along really well. Later on, she dropped us back off at the house so we could get ready to head to Williamstown and meet my friend Matt. Matt is another Australian I met while in Granada, Spain; he was part of a great group of people I met and hung out with from my hostel. The previous night, I had sent him a text message asking if he wanted to meet for a drink or something to catch up, to which he replied ‘that sounds good…or you could come sailing with me tomorrow.’ Within seconds I replied that option two sounded just a smidge more exciting, and not an offer to decline! So there we were, showing up at the Williamstown harbour, expecting a relaxing evening sailing out on the ocean. Pretty quickly after we arrived, we learned that’s not exactly what we were in store for. In a bit of a blur, we boarded a 40 foot racing sailboat, and discovered we were to be a part of a 100 boat race. It was Matt’s dad’s boat and along with a few other men, they are part of a sailing club that races every week together. This night was the final race of the season, so they were able to invite a few friends along. Other than Keith and I, two other girls that Matt knew were also on board, making about 10 of us in total. Before we knew it, we were tugging on yellow rain suits that made us look like firemen and ditching our flip-flops to be barefoot. Our role was essentially to act as balancing weights on the boat, sitting on the up-wind side to counteract the lean of the sail. If you have seen those racing sailboats with one side of the boat in the water and the other end vertically tilted upwards…yeah, that was us. When the captain shouted ‘coming about!’ everyone had to crawl and scramble to the other side of the boat to balance the weight. If you didn’t make it across fast enough, you were basically left hanging vertically from the boat, while the others pulled you up. Luckily this only happened to me once, and I couldn’t stop laughing; but one of the other girls seemed to constantly fall behind. Everyone on board was so nice and friendly to us, and it was a crazy experience I will never forget. While I had so much fun, I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel a little bit relieved to be pulling back into the dock alive and safe. After packing up the equipment, we sat underneath in the cabin and had a few beers and snacks with everyone. Disembarking the boat, we headed up the pier toward the drifting music and glowing lights of the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria. Here we tucked into a delicious buffet dinner, and great live music. What a night! On the train ride home, I got a call from my friend Phil, who we had met up with a few days previous. He is working for his brother’s small event management company, which was planning an upcoming Experiential Marketing summit in Sydney. They needed some administrative help, and he asked if I wanted to put in a few days of paid work for the company; of course I did!

So the next morning, I was off to my first day of work in Australia. Basically I was just sending out emails all day, but it was still fun to be in an Australian workplace and event management company at that. After dinner that night, Keith and I just stayed in and watched a movie. The following day, I worked from home for about three hours finishing up the email distribution list for Phil. Then Keith and I went for a run down to the beach, which was great but a little rough for me as it was my first run since leaving home! That night we met up with our friend Caitlin, who we met in our hostel in Salzburg, Austria. Even though we didn’t spend too much time with her there, her and I kept contact since Europe and were very excited to meet up again. We met her and five of her friends in Chinatown and went for dinner, and then spent the rest of the night at a few different bars around town; it was a really fun night out. The next day was mostly a relaxing day at home, we got some groceries and then Caitlin picked us later on for another night out. We stopped by her place for a bit and met her parents, then went to a house party in St.Kilda and to a bar on Fitzroy Street. All of her friends were really nice, and one even drove us home that night. Sunday was another recovery day of relaxing, until the evening when we got a call from Phil who had free tickets to one of the performances at the Melbourne Comedy festival. So we took the train into the city and met him there with another one of his friends to watch a show called ‘The Day I Ate Wombat.’ It was really funny, and a great end to a jam packed week in Melbourne.