Melbourne

On 15th May 2017 by Helen

They say you’re a ‘Sydney Sider’ or a ‘Melbourner’ and it’s safe to say that’s true. I left Sydney earlier last week to continue my travels around Australia. I felt the time had come to leave as I was running out of things to do there and I felt it was all getting a bit monotonous but it was the best place for me to start, work and make amazing friends.

I left for Melbourne where I stayed with friends from the UK who have been here now for a year. I was determined to come to Melbourne with an open mind as when I was here three years ago, although I did amazing things such as The Great Ocean Road and Eureka Sky Deck I feel I never really connected with the city in the way I do with Sydney.

I wanted to do the things I didn’t get a chance to do that last time I was there so that meant starting with a tour of the MCG. For those of you reading this who know me well, you’ll know this had been a dream of mine since about the age of 14 and for those of you who don’t know me…I’m a cricket fan.

The tour was incredible and was worth every penny. For a tour of the stadium by an MCG member and then to go to the National Sports Museum at your own pace was $33. Our tour was given by Jill and she was so sweet, she took us everywhere you could imaging, the stands, the pitch, the changing rooms, the training pitches, the press suit nothing was left out. The sports museum was absolutely vast! It had everything you could wish for: information on the Olympics, AFL, horse racing and of course cricket. The gem of the day was the MCC museum was open and in there I met two other members Mark and Wally who were also a wealth of information and fascinating to listen to. The museum had information from the war, ashes trophies, paintings, caps, ties you name it and it was there. Also what I don’t know about the makings of a cricket ball isn’t worth knowing! Honestly I was smiling for the rest of the day, the entire day was a total fan girl moment.

The following day I decided to head to St Kilda as I’ve heard so much about it and all my friends who have been say it’s great. I caught the 96 tram from Southern Cross station and it took me straight to the beach in about 25 minutes. I’m sad to say I was so disappointed. St Kilda is beautiful there’s no denying it, the beach is huge and the little high street is cute but it was all closed and the beach empty. It’s 100% a summer destination. However not to be too put off I took a walk along the boardwalk. The sea was so still and merged into the horizon. I found the pier and took a walk to the end where in the evenings (no way I could occupy myself until then) the penguins come to the beach. I did stop in the Pavilion cafe and have a latte and I had a beautiful view over the harbour back to the city. I thought I might take a walk to South Melbourne beach but it was about an hour away and you could tell the scenery was all the same and all the shops along the way would have been closed so I headed home. I would recommend this place in the summer as non of my friends had a bad word to say about it.

On Friday I wanted to get lost in the city. I like doing that I feel you get a better sense of a place of you don’t really know where you’ll end up. I went all around the main part of the city and up to China town. I stumbled apon a cafe I went to three years ago down one of the famous side alleys called The Grasshopper’s Feast. I would definitely recommend this place it’s small but not cramped, they do very good coffee and although I didn’t eat here this time I remember the food last time was good too.

Saturday was my last day and it was amazing. I started the day going around Melbourne with my friend, we went to Victoria Market which is just vast and had a look around before we headed to the city to Hosier Lane, AC/DC Lane and Duckboard Place to look at the graffiti art which was incredible. We headed back home for lunch before we then went back to the MCG to go and see some AFL. I was so happy about this as I was sure I would miss all the matches whilst I was there. We watched Essendon vs Geelong. It was a great game especially because our team won.

AFL is a game us English never really get but I am a converted fan right here. It’s a really fast paced and tactical game. There’s 8 refs, 18 players per team, 6 points for a centre goal, 1 point either side of centre goal scored…I think don’t judge me if I’m wrong. That’s the basics anyway and the atmosphere was insane I am lucky I have now seen the ground empty and full.