So as the middle Friday of our 2 week trip approached, Augustus (my co-worker) and I decided there was no way we were going to stay in Geelong over the weekend. Melbourne was an absolute must. Plus, we had another co-worker, Joey, working in Melbourne that would appreciate our company over the weekend. We planned to take Melbourne by storm for 2 days. So we switched reservations and planned on staying at the Crowne Plaza in the city; right on the Yarra River, next to the casino. 4:30pm rolled around on Friday and we decided to take the train to Melbourne and leave the car to Matthew (a co-worker staying in Geelong). After a slightly delayed train ride, we were in the city. Perfectly situated a block away from the train station was our hotel. We checked in and my room welcomed me with a nice bottle of wine (Platinum at Priority Club baby!). Augustus and I each dropped our bags off in our respective rooms and descended to the lobby to meet up with Joey. Friday night was about to begin.
We started off with a couple of beers at the lobby bar while planning our assault on the city nightlife. Joey had done some recon thanks to his hotel concierge and had plenty of options for us. Our first destination, we decided, was Hardware Lane. Sounded like a cool area and Joey said his concierge was high on the Golden Monkey for food and drinks; plus the mojito's were supposedly very good. We grabbed a taxi and headed on. The Golden Monkey was busy, classy patronage, but quite dark. We were seated on some couches and went ahead and ordered drinks. I went for the famous mojito. We added some fries and appetizers, but quickly realized that with the slow service and prices, we wouldn't have too much fun here. When the bill came and my mojito said $18, we knew we made the right choice to head out. We walked Hardware Lane and realized it was mainly a restaurant lane. The restaurants looked wonderful with their outdoor seating in the lane, but we were on a mission for drinks. We asked some locals where we should go and they pointed us to a club a block away, called HQ or CQ (I forget). In front of that place, we quickly realized we, OK I, was under-dressed for it. High end club to say the least. Single people, this appeared to be your place! So instead we hit a couple other bars for some drinks, but it started to look like we couldn't quite find "the place" where we could really let go. We just didn't know where to go, although there were tons of people out in the streets. So we decided that if all else fails, the casino probably had it all. So we started walking toward the casino. At the corner of Flinders and Swanston we happened to notice a pub that seemed to be pretty lively; kind of what we were looking for. We decided to go in.
We had found our spot. Young and Jackson (the bar) was very cool. A cover bad was playing and they were pretty darn good. The drinks were reasonably priced. The next thing you know we had been there some 3+ hours drinking, dancing, singing and getting cut off (yes Augustus did).
I'm not quite sure what time it was, but we were plenty of drinks in and not ready to call it a night. So we left the bar and headed to the casino. Yeah, bad idea. Intoxication and casino don't go well. I didn't fare well and at 4am I decided it was time to cut my loses. Melbourne had won.. I was drunk and beaten. To bed I went; remembering that Joey was going to call me at 11am for our Saturday excursion... uh oh; how would I feel?
You guessed it, I woke up with a splitting headache around 10:45am. I immediately started praying that Joey wouldn't call. Of course, at 11am the phone rang.... dammit!! The plan for the day was to head to Phillip Island for whatever we could do. We agreed to meet at Avis at noon. Joey and I grabbed a rental car and headed out (Augustus had no intention of going). Phillip Island was some 120kms away and not really via any freeway. After a stop for food we got to Phillip Island around 3pm.
Our first stop on the island was the Grand Prix circuit. We got there a little late for the races that just finished, but we still entered to the pit area and watched some single race cars run some laps. I almost drove us onto pit lane before realizing my mistake. lol. It was really cool seeing these cars fly by at insane speeds.
After our stop at the circuit, it was off to see the penguins. Yep, Phillip Island is famous for it's Penguin Parade. Evidently, some tiny penguins come ashore every night to burrow overnight. We arrived around 4pm at Penguin Parade and bought tickets to the viewing. The doors would open at 5pm with the Penguins scheduled to come ashore around 6pm. At 5pm we headed to the stands along the beach; front row seat thank you very much. The weather wasn't the best being overcast and some sprinkles coming down on us, but we were determined to see this little guys. Of course, as soon as we left the main building it clearly said "NO PHOTOS BEYOND THIS POINT!" What? We couldn't take any pictures of this experience. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight!!! I was going to be a rebel.
While waiting on the beach, we were treated to a full rainbow; a complete semicircle. Also, a ranger came on to tell us a little about the penguins. The ones were going to observe were the world's smallest penguins and the loudest. They go out to sea every morning to go feed and at dusk they gather about 200 meters off shore to meet up. After dark, they will then wash up ashore in "rafts" (groups of 10 to hundreds). Once ashore, they will stop at the shoreline and prepare for what is their scariest part of the day, the walk up the beach to their burrows in some grassy area (some will walk 1km to their burrows in the hillside). It's their scariest since they are exposed to arial predators. So they will stay grouped up for their walk up the beach so that birds think they are a bigger animal; pretty smart. Sure enough, around 6pm, just as dark set in, they started washing up on the beach. As the ranger said, they got out of the water and stood there looking around for the coast to be clear. Then, in the group (raft), they scurried up the beach into the grassy hillside. They passed quite close to us. There were hundreds coming up from the water in different waves. After about 30 minutes, we left the stands to walk the boardwalks off the beach. Here we saw the penguins scurrying in all directions toward their homes (burrows). BTW, these guys are no taller than a bottle of beer; tiny. After walking around, the rebel in me decided to snap a couple of forbidden shots. I got away without being caught.
After our fill of penguins, Joey and I headed back to the city. We bumped into Augustus outside our hotel. He had picked up some food to-go and was going to chill tonight. That was perfect with us. However, Joey and I decided to hit one of those nice restaurants in Hardware Lane. We did, had a nice meal and I was back in my room around 10pm and out by 10:05pm.
I woke up to a clear day in Melbourne. I thoroughly enjoyed the view from my room:
The plan this morning was for Joey to pick us up in the rental car at 10am. The good night's sleep had us all in a good mood on Sunday. We all drove to Avis to return the car and walked the couple of blocks to Queen Victoria Market. Yes, we had been here last Sunday, but we all had some final souvenirs and such to buy. So a couple more hours of shopping and we were all loaded up with cheap goodies. If you are ever in Melbourne, GO TO THIS MARKET!!
After the market, we went back to our hotel and dropped off our purchases. We didn't want to carry them with us to the FOOTY. We were going to experience a match of Australian Rules Football. We decided that the 2:10pm game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (Melbourne vs Essendon) would be our best choice so Augustus and I could catch a train back to Geelong not too late. MCG holds some 120k people, but that amount of fans was not expected for this regular match. I think I remember the announcers saying there were about 60k there for the match. With such a large stadium, it sure looked pretty empty. We purchased general admission tickets which allowed us to sit anywhere we wanted (except the second level). So we ponied up in some seats just 15 or so rows from the field. The game is very interesting with it's mix of soccer, American Football and rugby. The fans definitely get into it. One unexpected experience was the amount of seagulls in the stadium; there were hundreds all over the field and flying overhead. One gull even decided to drop a load on Joey; classic. The game was uncontested. Melbourne owned the game. Melbourne wins.... again.
At 4:30pm, we left (after the start of the 4th quarter). Augustus and I wanted to catch the 6pm train to Geelong. As we walked back to our hotel to pick up our luggage, we walked near Rod Laver Arena. This is where they play the Australian Open (Tennis) every January. We all caught the free tram back to the hotel and Augustus and I caught our 6pm train to Geelong. A little over and hour later we were back at the Four Points in Geelong where Matthew was waiting for us for dinner. We called it an early night after that.
All in all, I would like to point out that I consider Melbourne a FANTASTIC city. It does seem like a sprawling city, but everything you need is centrally located in the downtown area. The public transportation (trams here) rivals the best in the world. On Friday and Saturday the city is hopping and I'm sure you can find anything that suits your style. I fully expect to return here again in my life; it's that good.
The drive into Banff National Park is a just amazing. Your constantly staring at these mountains in the distance and they are just slowly nearing their majestic size. Once you enter the park you are surrounded by these gigantic, yet beautiful, rocky mountains that just amaze you. The drive is fantastic.
