aussie
Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2004 at 11:10 p.m.
Woohoo! I can add an entry without having to wait for sooo long. Just came back this morning from Melbourne. Melbourne is like an overpopulated area where people are rushing to get to places. And they have like oh so many cafes that just line the streets. People there just love to drink wine. It's like at every mealtime when you walk down the streets, you can see that almost every single table that is used has a wine bottle on it. It's amazing how much wine they have. I mean it's not that surprising since the Yarra Valleys are so near.
Anyway, we stayed at Park Saville Suites. It's like a family apartment downtown. It has a little kitchen that is fully euipped with stove and cutlery etc. We were lucky that it had a swimming pool too, although the water was frigid, absolutely numbing. Brr! I slept with kid in the queen bed, older sister and mum slept on single beds in the same room and dad slept by himself on the sofa bed(cuz he snores real loudly). Heh. It was just like the last time in Gold Coast. We bought groceries and stuff from Coles, which is like a store where you can buy cheap groceries and ready-made-just-need-to-microwave/ovenate sort of foodstuff. We spent first two and a half days in Melbourne shopping at the malls.
Then we hired a car from Thrifty and left Melbourne to travel down the Great Ocean Road by ourselves. We packed lunch and ate along the way. It was such a long drive but it was really worth it. We reached Apollo Bay by 2pm and checked into the Comfort Inn there. The weather was so weird. Not hot at all. It was freezing and the wind was horrid. We visited the Otway lighthouse at Cape Otway and we walked the Otway Fly. It was raining and my jeans got all sodden and it was just plain cold! I was like being weighed down by them. I actually used the hand-dryer in the toilet to try to dry off. We also saw the 12 apostles which is actually just 12 large pieces of rock sticking out of the ocean cuz of the natural action of the waves and the wind. After staying for two and a half days again, we drove back to Melbourne again. We stopped by at Lorne to see the harbour there and had our lunch.
Finally, when we reached Melbourne, my dad had to return the car cuz we only rented it for about 3 days. So, we were dropped off at the train station first with the luggage. We had to check in our luggage first before going for dinner(we had to catch the 9pm train for Adelaide). We got back by 8.30pm, so we waited for them to call us for boarding. We boarded 'The Overland' which is one of the trains that travel in Australia. I bunked with the kid in a double room, cuz the train ride was an overnight one where the seats flip into beds and there is a small toilet attached to the room. It was really cool cuz it was our first time and all. The room is empty except for 3 seats. This flips into the bottom bunk, while a board above the seats flip into the upper bunk with a ladder to climb up. The toilet was real cool too! The sink and the toilet seat are pull-outs. There was even a shower in the toilet. Everything was so compact and small. My dad had the same thing, except that his was a single room, so he didn't have a shower in his room. But since all the rooms have windows(with blinds) he could go toilet and watch the scenery flash by him. We had so much fun moving in and out of the different cars. We were really naughty and 'stole' the hot chocalate packets that they left out for anyone who wanted to drink them at the snacks compartment. :p Actually no one seemed to want them, so we pinched them. :D The train food was good too!
We reached Adelaide in the morning. Then we took a shuttle bus to Franklin Central Apartments. Another kind of family apartment with a kitchen and everything. We visited the Central Market and got alot of cheap fruits. We took the Glenelg Tram to the beach. It was so nice there! The weather was perfect and everything. I got a pair of sunglasses from there too. There were like roadside shops and cafes. But we didn't bring our swimming costumes along, so we decided to return at 5pm to take a dip in the ocean. Then we caught the 340 bus to Harbour Centre. That place was really a bargain place. It was like an open air enclosed area where there are lots of large shops with lotsa discounted items inside. There was also this open air food court thingy where we had our lunch. And I had my first kebab here. It was really tasty. By the time we finished shopping, it was late, so we headed back to get our swimming costumes and stuff. We returned to the beach by about 6pm, where we played in the waves(which were really dirty!) and the sand. The sky was still really bright cuz it always is in summer until 9pm. So, after we had enough(there was no shower), we threw on our clothes and bought kebabs and sat on the stone wall overlooking the sea to watch the sunset. It was too bad that the sky was really cloudy. Hmph! But it was really fun.
We took 'The Overland' back to Melbourne the next day. This time, we took the day trip. Meaning that we spent the whole day in the train.(8hrs) The food they served was really good too. We reached Melbourne by 10pm. The sky was dark by then, but we eventually caught a cab back to Park Saville. We got back the same room too. :) Spent the last two and a half days there. We visited the Victoria Market and bought a couple more things. Then we went to the museum there as well.
All in all this trip is probably the most eventful trip ever! I loved the bedwarmer in the Comfort Inn! I enjoyed the train ride bunks! I loved the idea of driving down the Great Ocean Road, just a few feet from the edge of the cliff! I loved the shopping too!-No Worries!