Exploring Melbourne City

So that was a week before when I and my sister vacate to Melbourne as we decided to spent the winter holiday by travelling outside Sydney. It was quite a cloudy morning when we took off from Sydney Airport. Perfect. Then "see you again, Sydney!"

About one-and-a-half hours spending time in the plane, we safely arrived at Melbourne Airport. Hmmm... Melbourne's weather was a little bit colder than Sydney. Arriving at Southern Cross Station, we checked-in to nearby hotel at Spencer St, and then went sight-seeing along the well-known Yarra River.

Aesthetical river in my opinion. I was suddenly feeling as if I hopped into a romantic movie. Well, the water was claimed polluted and the colour was as brown as a clay by its nature, but I cared none on the fact. Seeing the classic buildings across Southernbank Promenade, it reminded me of London's Thames River. The river was full of boats, water taxis and canoes. By its sides, the river was tidily adorned with beautiful parks, cafes and edifices. And above it, highways and bridges were straddled over the line. People were jogging, riding bicycle, dating, and sight-seeing just like us. We spent some times there without realizing that the sun was setting.

The night beautified the river even more. I was really fond of looking to the nearby edifices' shadows on the river surface. Blurry but schematic. In my mind, I wished that someday I could buy a condo by it's side so that I could enjoy the mind-calming scena every morning and everynight.

After a lot of walking, we saw a shocking scene just across the river. A series of blasting fire! Then we found the sources. Still besides the river, there were these chimneys, neatly disguised as decorating pillars along the rivers. The fact was then revealed that the fire displays were showed hourly every nights during the winter. Approaching one of the chimney, we could hear gas blowed up from it. We didn't realize that we were so close to it that we jolted in fear when the fire burst suddenly with shocking sound. The heat of the fire even slapped our faces!

Then unexpectedly, in the middle of the ten-minutes display, I saw a seagull flew between the chimneys. I kinda wished that the seagull would be auto-roasted by it's stupidity and fell straight to the nearest cafe's plate to be freshly-served, hahaha... hehe... ehm, anyway, we called that a day to prepare for the next exploration.

Photo by Manfred Gottschalk

Second day

That day, we went to the Old Melbourne Gaol. The three-storey building was built in the mid of 1800s, and there is only one block left as a tourist attraction up until now. Again, it felt like in a movie, with stone walls and medieval ambience. Even in the afternoon, the gaol was damp and spooky. Most of the cells contained profile and story of their former occupants. Once, I tried to peek into a closed cell through a peeking hole, and was half-expecting that someone would jump from inside, but I saw nothing except a mat and

It was so miserable to think that human-beings were forced to live in such dark, restricted rooms.

The gaol was complete with execution gallow and other punishment tools. There was also rooms with television for explanation of historical crimes and stories.

Have you ever heard about Ned Kelly before? If you haven't, you're not alone. I hadn't heard about him neither, at least until I came here. Anyway, he was the most legendary criminal in Australia, and he -- along with his gangs -- was imprisoned and executed in this gaol.

Third day

That day was so special to the extend that that day's exploration would be one of the most memorable exploration in my life. Simply saying, I entered into a time machine and went back to the past!

Me and my sister had visited the 1800s gaol, but that day we went straight to the 1800s small village and interact with the citizens. Sovereign Hill was what the place called. It was resided in the city of Ballarat -- about one-and-a-half hours by train from Melbourne -- and was famous for the discovery of gold in 1851.

Arriving at the hill right before midday, we went through the entrance and turn left to went down the steps to some dark chamber as we watched mannequins, backgrounds and even documentary movie which were telling the day-by-day activities of the villagers in 1800s.

Escaping from the chamber, we walked by the creek up to the water source, seeing people panning for real gold, at least if they were lucky enough to find one. After that, we joined a group of visitors in a ten-minute, self-guided underground adventure tour of the Red Hill Mine. The corridor was very dark and restrained, and I was the last person in the group, making sure there was no one, or thing, behind me. The tour depicted the discovery of the 69 kg Welcome Nugget, which was claimed as the second largest gold nugget ever found.

Back to the free world, we entered this building with three old-ladies knitting and painting in a very 1800s room. It really looked like an old portrait. Classic. By the way, they were very hospitable Australian ladies.

Suddenly we heard some noises just outside the building, and we decided to find the source. A group of urban militaries were marching down the street, with their red-and-black uniforms and real guns. Outstanding.

After that, we watched a gold-pouring demonstration. Five minutes of the process explanation, the blacksmith poured a yellowish, melted gold into a bullion bar, and the cameras were eagerly catching the incredible scene. Two-three minutes were gone and he put the gold into a container of water. The process produced a hiss as the hot gold reacted to the cold water. As the gold calmed down, he picked it and called a teenage girl to show it to the audience. It was a $80,000-worth pure gold, so he grabbed it suddenly from the girl's hands as if he was too afraid to allow other person to hold it too long.

The rest of the day we spent by playing some traditional bowling, watching a teaching-process in an elementary school, witnessing some classic photography process, wandering in some assimilated 1800s houses, and exploring gold museum.

By 4 PM, we were already in a train bringing our exhausted bodies back to Southern Cross Station, Melbourne.

Fourth Day

That day was our last day in Melbourne. We spent the time by visiting Melbourne University and St Kilda Beach.

After spending about 2-3 hours at the beach, we went back to our hotel to check-out and rushed to Melbourne Airport.

By 8 PM, we said bye-bye to Melbourne.