Francesca and Henk-Jan's Backpacking Trip!
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Melbourne, Part One
Hi there,
We’ve been in Melbourne for a week now, and a lot has happened! I’ll take you back to our first full day in the city: we knew there was a free tram going around the CBD, which on a rainy day is the perfect way to see most of the things worth seeing. With a map in hand we jumped on the tram just around the corner from our hostel. We saw the docklands, and passed by the Koorie Cultural Heritage Centre (Aboriginal culture), the Queen Victoria Market, the old Melbourne Gaol (pronounce ‘jail’) where Ned Kelly had been imprisoned and several other highlights. It gave us a good outline to make a plan for the following days.
Francesca and I got off the tram right next to the Ian Potter Centre, a free art gallery with contemporary art. The part that interested us the most was set up by Aboriginal artists, with their typical dotted style of painting. Both the older pieces and the more recent work looked phenomenal; we were glad to have gotten our first taste of the Aboriginal culture. The other galleries were far less interesting, displaying rubbish that I won’t even talk about.
Rain was still coming down en masse when we exited the Centre, so we tried to look for the next useful building we could enter. On Federation Square, the main square for outside events in Melbourne, we found the Tourist Information Centre, which we quickly entered. Francesca had found out about a cabaret show called ‘Dracula’s Cabaret Restaurant,’ which included dinner. We had also heard from a receptionist that they sold discounted tickets at a place called ‘Half-Tix.’ We were very pleased to find we could indeed get these tickets, for the very reasonable price of AU$38.50 each. Hard to beat when you get dinner and a show!
Francesca and I walked over to Town Hall, where we found ‘Half-Tix’ sort of hidden away in a little side entrance. Tickets were indeed still available, so we purchased them, knowing the show would start around 18:45PM. Having a few hours left to kill, and the weather still being wet we decided to enter an enormous mall. We found some cool clothes that we didn’t buy, a giant stuffed hamburger Francesca wanted to steal, a purple Christmas tree and a giant avant-garde purple couch. We also had a look in a bookstore, where I secretly and sneakily took a bunch of pictures of the Australian Lonely Planet, not wanting to spend money. Now we know the good hostels in the cities still to come!
Time had passed quickly, so around 18:15PM we wandered towards the ‘Dracula’ venue. It was pretty easy to find, and proved to be a lot closer than I had thought. In fact, they hadn’t even opened the doors yet… We had to walk back through the rain and find a place to shelter. Luckily we found a big flat’s lobby, where we sat around for a while. A bit later we were back at the door of ‘Dracula,’ knocked and made it inside. A rather scary looking fellow welcomed us with a freaky voice and led us to a little bar. The bar was decorated with artworks of various famous ‘monsters:’ Freddy Krueger, a werewolf, skeletons on the floor, paintings that stared back at you. The staff wore typical outfits; one looked like Johnny Depp in ‘Pirates of the Caribbean,’ another like a ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ character, and the next wore a burlesque showgirl outfit. Much to our liking!
When everyone had made it to the bar we were led to a ghost train (kind of like a horror house), which led us to the stage and tables. Francesca squealed a few times! The restaurant itself looked equally impressive. It had blood spatters covering the walls, more cool pictures and paintings and a nice little stage. Our table was right in the front, so we feared becoming stage props at some point. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures, so we only have this one we purchased during the show.
Right after being seated we were served our entrée. We got some rolls and seasoning as a side as well. Francesca had found two coupons that gave us a free cocktail with a little souvenir, so we ordered those. Soon after, the drinks arrived, looking rather creepy with spiders and a skull in them. Luckily they tasted fruity and delicious! Francesca ordered the steak as her main course, I opted for the barracuda. When everyone had been seated the show started. ‘The Draculettes’ introduced themselves by covering ‘Harder to Breathe’ by Maroon 5. After a few more songs, one of them, named ‘Vile’ grabbed the microphone and started making jokes, taking the piss out of Tasmanians and New Zealanders.
We sat back and the real show started. We saw an imitation of The Crocodile Hunter’s daughter; a fight between Perez Hilton (the celeb blogger) and Amy Winehouse; a food battle between Gordon Ramsay and an Asian chef with a condom as the secret ingredient; a skeleton making jokes; and a reenactment of the Beijing Olympics. As we watched the show our food arrived, which was a welcomed addition to our table as we were both rather hungry. During the intermission we got our desserts: a coffin made of chocolate, filled with peach cream. YUM!
After the break the host walked through the audience, roasting some of the members of the crowd. As we had expected he started off at our table, joking with Francesca about the States’ new president. He said not long ago it’d be impossible to imagine the USA with a black president; as the expression goes: ‘when pigs fly.’ He then continued with: ‘and then they got pig flu.’ Get it, get it? Probably funnier if you were there… Anyway, the second half of the show was similar to the first and had us snickering quite a bit. It’s hard to really describe how it all happened, so I hope you all get the gist of it.
After the show ended, Francesca and I walked back through the city center and back to our hostel to get some sleep. We had booked a tour for the following day and had to get up early.
After a bit of free breakfast in the hostel we headed around the corner and were picked up by our bearded and heavy-bellied guide for the day: Bernie. He was to take us along the Great Ocean Road, another ‘most scenic drive in the world.’ Obviously a phrase used to attract some more tourists, but regardless a good way to get out of Melbourne for a day and see some more nature.
It took us an hour before we got to our first stop: Bells Beach. The beach is rather famous amongst surfers across the world, as the waves here are perfect. Not being very apt surfers, Francesca and I just walked along the beach and took some pictures of the ocean and the yellow sand colliding. It was a quiet and sunny day, so we didn’t get to see any of the famous waves, but that didn’t get us down one bit. We also read some information about Mindii, a great powerful snake from Aboriginal mythology, which was drawn on the bathrooms in the typical Aboriginal style.
Our next stop was the ‘White Lady,’ a lighthouse that had been built after a few hundred ships had met their end in the Strait between Melbourne and Tasmania. Luckily, it had done its job and prevented many more casualties. The surrounding view, once again, was stunning with long beaches and grand rock formations on either side. The lighthouse itself looked less impressive next to nature’s power.
A great Memorial Arch commemorated the Australian First World War soldiers, whom had built the Great Ocean Road after their return from Europe. The Road had great importance for southern Australia, as it linked all the coastal towns together, and opened up the rest for development.
Bernie had us jump off the bus again a while later, when we pulled up in a forest; the home of some wild koalas. It took us a while before we found one, and most people had left to check for the buggers further down the road, but it was well worth it. A female koala had been sitting halfway down a tree for a while, and decided to come all the way down. As I took photos she sat still in the tree, a picture perfect. Together with my equally photogenic companion I got some great shots. The koala even dared come down to the forest floor and moved from one tree to another right in front of us. Francesca was so excited to see them so close!
Our entire drive we had had the ocean on our left side, and mountains on our right side. These mountains are called the Otway Ranges, and Bernie thought it was about time we took a closer look. In fact, we did a walk through the temperate rain-forest, something we had learned a lot about during our time in Costa Rica. Bernie told us about the state of the rain-forest, and showed us some of the plants and trees. Francesca remarked that it is amazing how similar the surroundings looked to the rain-forest we had seen on the other side of the globe. Bernie also found a little mound of mud in one of the banks on the side. It was the home of a little crab, which digs itself into the ground, pushing dirt up to create a cone-like shape around it. They tend to stay in there, but just a little further down we found one crossing the path. It played dead whilst the group passed by.
Hunger got the best of us, so when we got to the next town Bernie pulled out a big box filled with bread, cheese, ham, cucumber, tomatoes, lettuce, grated carrot and several sauces. Francesca and I made ourselves some tasty sandwiches and sat down on a little bench. Bellies filled and minds refreshed, we got back on the bus.
‘The 12 Apostles’ were a landmark that I remembered from my last trip. They are (or rather, were) a set of 12 rock formations just off the shore. We walked to a viewpoint and managed to spot four together. Another one was right in front of us. On the left side we found two more. Three could be found further down the coast. The last two Apostles however, are nowhere to be found. Wind and water destroyed these creations, leaving only ten Apostles standing. On the other hand, they are forming new formations constantly, possibly one day adding the two missing messengers.
We also had a look at ‘The Razorback,’ a really thin rock formation that stood out from the others due to its shape. It used to extend much further out into the sea, but again Mother Nature had to destroy her own creation.
Soon after, Francesca and I read the story of Tom Pearce. He had been an apprentice on a ship called the ‘Loch Ard.’ The ship and its 54 passengers had gone down, and Tom had drifted under an upturned lifeboat for several hours. When the tide turned at dawn he was swept into a gorge. As he climbed ashore he heard screams. An 18 year old girl named Eva Carmichael was clinging to a tree, holding on for dear life. Tom jumped in the water again, and struggled for an hour to get her back. She was doing poorly, suffering from hypothermia, but he managed to revive her a little with some brandy that had washed ashore. The next morning he climbed out of the gorge and managed to get help.
We walked down to the gorge, and took a few pictures of the cave Tom and Eva might have slept in. As we turned towards the water I challenged Francesca to a race to the water. She dashed ahead and managed to make it to the water first. In fact, she stood still in triumph, forgetting that the sea behind her was just sending a big wave her way. I shouted that she should run, but it was too late and her feet and ankles were engulfed. Silly girl!
I found a little cove on the right side of the beach, without any tourists so we climbed over some rocks and Francesca took control of the camera, taking pictures of me climbing further down. Quite neat… we seemed to be the only two people on the earth there. All we heard was the sea pounding into the rocks. The tide seemed to be coming in, so after a few more shots I ran for it and made it back safe and sound. Francesca followed right after me and we headed back for the bus.
‘London Bridge has fallen down!’ a local boy screamed in a nearby pub. The other, older locals laughed and waved him away. The boy insisted they listened to him, and finally a few them went to have a look. Of course I’m not talking about London in the UK! London Bridge is yet another of Mother Nature’s creations. It used to be a stretch of land that extended out in the water, with two arches having formed through nature’s force. Until that day people had been allowed to walk on London Bridge. Two unfortunate local newly-weds ended up stuck on the wrong side of the bridge. It took several hours before they got rescued, and as reporters shoved their microphones under their noses they both stayed really quiet. Later the reporters found out they weren’t married to each other, and they had met there in secret. Tough luck for them!
Our long day with Bernie ended with him driving a few hours to get us back to Melbourne. 12 hours after we had left Francesca and I finally got back to our hostel, making plans for the next day. Sleep was sweet.
Saturday had us exploring the city once again. We took some pictures of Spencer Street Station, one of earliest grand buildings to be built in Melbourne. We went inside Saint Paul’s Cathedral, paying our respects and taking a few pictures. The Cathedral certainly looked fantastic, with beautiful murals, statues and altars. We lit a candle for all of you readers and exited to make our way to the Melbourne Museum. We happened across a large group of pirates, which were posing in front of the local library. Later we found out it was ‘Talk like a Pirate Day,’ which we had missed out on… Funny side-note was the two ninja’s that were running amok amongst the pirates.
It was a sunny day, but the Melbourne Museum sounded alluring. Before going in we had a quick bite in the Pompeii-themed restaurant, sharing a bread basket. We did not know what to expect, but walked around a rather boring outside section on some of Australia’s flora and fauna.
On the second floor Francesca and I found something much more interesting: a section called ‘the mind, enter the labyrinth.’ The whole exhibit revolved around the workings of the human mind. We learned about the different stages the brain goes through whilst we grow up. We got to see how scientists found out more and more about the brain from the beginning of time, where doctors made holes in patients’ brains to relieve headaches; how they found out the effects of lithium on the brain; and how Brocca found the area of the brain that affects speech. We got to test our ability to learn a new language, trying to copy a sentence read out in Russian and several other languages.
The following section focused on sound recognition. Francesca and I played a matching game, where one, rather than matching pictures, had to distinguish which tones were identical. Francesca did much better than me…
Dreams were also a major part of the exhibition. We both took turns lying down on a sofa, with our head under a monitor. The monitor showed images of clouds passing by, supposedly making one reach a state of calm. I certainly felt relaxed after lying down for a while. Part of the section was dedicated to interpreting dreams. It showed images of teeth falling out and of being able to fly.
Finally, the last section covered psychological abnormalities. We stepped in an
interactive booth, which switched on after we entered. It told several stories about people with a sickness of the mind. We heard the stories of a heavily depressed woman, a man with bipolar disorder, a woman with schizophrenia, and a man with synesthesia (he experienced two senses at once: for him every word and sound had a specific color linked to it, which he’d literally see).
By the time we were done with this exhibition time had almost run out. It left us half an hour to finish the remaining two thirds of the museum. We had to race to finish all of it, and unfortunately couldn’t spend enough time in the Aboriginal section or the underwater section. We did take some pictures of some of the most bizarre fish in the ocean. As we were watching a video of a dead, stranded whale that was about to be transported to the museum the screen went black. Forced to leave…
Dinner was also very exciting. Francesca had found a mini-card, with a coupon for ‘The Pancake Parlour.’ We could get two short stacks (two pancakes and one scoop of vanilla ice-cream) for the price of one. An added bonus was the free wireless internet we got whilst eating. We sat around for quite a while downloading some new movies, checking mail and news, and generally catching up with the world (even though we are quite a few hours ahead of you!). The pancakes were delicious, and filled us up really well. Around 23:00PM we decided to head back to the hostel, because we had another tour planned for the following day.
We’ve been in Melbourne for a week now, and a lot has happened! I’ll take you back to our first full day in the city: we knew there was a free tram going around the CBD, which on a rainy day is the perfect way to see most of the things worth seeing. With a map in hand we jumped on the tram just around the corner from our hostel. We saw the docklands, and passed by the Koorie Cultural Heritage Centre (Aboriginal culture), the Queen Victoria Market, the old Melbourne Gaol (pronounce ‘jail’) where Ned Kelly had been imprisoned and several other highlights. It gave us a good outline to make a plan for the following days.
Francesca and I got off the tram right next to the Ian Potter Centre, a free art gallery with contemporary art. The part that interested us the most was set up by Aboriginal artists, with their typical dotted style of painting. Both the older pieces and the more recent work looked phenomenal; we were glad to have gotten our first taste of the Aboriginal culture. The other galleries were far less interesting, displaying rubbish that I won’t even talk about.
Rain was still coming down en masse when we exited the Centre, so we tried to look for the next useful building we could enter. On Federation Square, the main square for outside events in Melbourne, we found the Tourist Information Centre, which we quickly entered. Francesca had found out about a cabaret show called ‘Dracula’s Cabaret Restaurant,’ which included dinner. We had also heard from a receptionist that they sold discounted tickets at a place called ‘Half-Tix.’ We were very pleased to find we could indeed get these tickets, for the very reasonable price of AU$38.50 each. Hard to beat when you get dinner and a show!
Francesca and I walked over to Town Hall, where we found ‘Half-Tix’ sort of hidden away in a little side entrance. Tickets were indeed still available, so we purchased them, knowing the show would start around 18:45PM. Having a few hours left to kill, and the weather still being wet we decided to enter an enormous mall. We found some cool clothes that we didn’t buy, a giant stuffed hamburger Francesca wanted to steal, a purple Christmas tree and a giant avant-garde purple couch. We also had a look in a bookstore, where I secretly and sneakily took a bunch of pictures of the Australian Lonely Planet, not wanting to spend money. Now we know the good hostels in the cities still to come!
Time had passed quickly, so around 18:15PM we wandered towards the ‘Dracula’ venue. It was pretty easy to find, and proved to be a lot closer than I had thought. In fact, they hadn’t even opened the doors yet… We had to walk back through the rain and find a place to shelter. Luckily we found a big flat’s lobby, where we sat around for a while. A bit later we were back at the door of ‘Dracula,’ knocked and made it inside. A rather scary looking fellow welcomed us with a freaky voice and led us to a little bar. The bar was decorated with artworks of various famous ‘monsters:’ Freddy Krueger, a werewolf, skeletons on the floor, paintings that stared back at you. The staff wore typical outfits; one looked like Johnny Depp in ‘Pirates of the Caribbean,’ another like a ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ character, and the next wore a burlesque showgirl outfit. Much to our liking!
When everyone had made it to the bar we were led to a ghost train (kind of like a horror house), which led us to the stage and tables. Francesca squealed a few times! The restaurant itself looked equally impressive. It had blood spatters covering the walls, more cool pictures and paintings and a nice little stage. Our table was right in the front, so we feared becoming stage props at some point. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures, so we only have this one we purchased during the show.
Right after being seated we were served our entrée. We got some rolls and seasoning as a side as well. Francesca had found two coupons that gave us a free cocktail with a little souvenir, so we ordered those. Soon after, the drinks arrived, looking rather creepy with spiders and a skull in them. Luckily they tasted fruity and delicious! Francesca ordered the steak as her main course, I opted for the barracuda. When everyone had been seated the show started. ‘The Draculettes’ introduced themselves by covering ‘Harder to Breathe’ by Maroon 5. After a few more songs, one of them, named ‘Vile’ grabbed the microphone and started making jokes, taking the piss out of Tasmanians and New Zealanders.
We sat back and the real show started. We saw an imitation of The Crocodile Hunter’s daughter; a fight between Perez Hilton (the celeb blogger) and Amy Winehouse; a food battle between Gordon Ramsay and an Asian chef with a condom as the secret ingredient; a skeleton making jokes; and a reenactment of the Beijing Olympics. As we watched the show our food arrived, which was a welcomed addition to our table as we were both rather hungry. During the intermission we got our desserts: a coffin made of chocolate, filled with peach cream. YUM!
After the break the host walked through the audience, roasting some of the members of the crowd. As we had expected he started off at our table, joking with Francesca about the States’ new president. He said not long ago it’d be impossible to imagine the USA with a black president; as the expression goes: ‘when pigs fly.’ He then continued with: ‘and then they got pig flu.’ Get it, get it? Probably funnier if you were there… Anyway, the second half of the show was similar to the first and had us snickering quite a bit. It’s hard to really describe how it all happened, so I hope you all get the gist of it.
After the show ended, Francesca and I walked back through the city center and back to our hostel to get some sleep. We had booked a tour for the following day and had to get up early.
After a bit of free breakfast in the hostel we headed around the corner and were picked up by our bearded and heavy-bellied guide for the day: Bernie. He was to take us along the Great Ocean Road, another ‘most scenic drive in the world.’ Obviously a phrase used to attract some more tourists, but regardless a good way to get out of Melbourne for a day and see some more nature.
It took us an hour before we got to our first stop: Bells Beach. The beach is rather famous amongst surfers across the world, as the waves here are perfect. Not being very apt surfers, Francesca and I just walked along the beach and took some pictures of the ocean and the yellow sand colliding. It was a quiet and sunny day, so we didn’t get to see any of the famous waves, but that didn’t get us down one bit. We also read some information about Mindii, a great powerful snake from Aboriginal mythology, which was drawn on the bathrooms in the typical Aboriginal style.
Our next stop was the ‘White Lady,’ a lighthouse that had been built after a few hundred ships had met their end in the Strait between Melbourne and Tasmania. Luckily, it had done its job and prevented many more casualties. The surrounding view, once again, was stunning with long beaches and grand rock formations on either side. The lighthouse itself looked less impressive next to nature’s power.
A great Memorial Arch commemorated the Australian First World War soldiers, whom had built the Great Ocean Road after their return from Europe. The Road had great importance for southern Australia, as it linked all the coastal towns together, and opened up the rest for development.
Bernie had us jump off the bus again a while later, when we pulled up in a forest; the home of some wild koalas. It took us a while before we found one, and most people had left to check for the buggers further down the road, but it was well worth it. A female koala had been sitting halfway down a tree for a while, and decided to come all the way down. As I took photos she sat still in the tree, a picture perfect. Together with my equally photogenic companion I got some great shots. The koala even dared come down to the forest floor and moved from one tree to another right in front of us. Francesca was so excited to see them so close!
Our entire drive we had had the ocean on our left side, and mountains on our right side. These mountains are called the Otway Ranges, and Bernie thought it was about time we took a closer look. In fact, we did a walk through the temperate rain-forest, something we had learned a lot about during our time in Costa Rica. Bernie told us about the state of the rain-forest, and showed us some of the plants and trees. Francesca remarked that it is amazing how similar the surroundings looked to the rain-forest we had seen on the other side of the globe. Bernie also found a little mound of mud in one of the banks on the side. It was the home of a little crab, which digs itself into the ground, pushing dirt up to create a cone-like shape around it. They tend to stay in there, but just a little further down we found one crossing the path. It played dead whilst the group passed by.
Hunger got the best of us, so when we got to the next town Bernie pulled out a big box filled with bread, cheese, ham, cucumber, tomatoes, lettuce, grated carrot and several sauces. Francesca and I made ourselves some tasty sandwiches and sat down on a little bench. Bellies filled and minds refreshed, we got back on the bus.
‘The 12 Apostles’ were a landmark that I remembered from my last trip. They are (or rather, were) a set of 12 rock formations just off the shore. We walked to a viewpoint and managed to spot four together. Another one was right in front of us. On the left side we found two more. Three could be found further down the coast. The last two Apostles however, are nowhere to be found. Wind and water destroyed these creations, leaving only ten Apostles standing. On the other hand, they are forming new formations constantly, possibly one day adding the two missing messengers.
We also had a look at ‘The Razorback,’ a really thin rock formation that stood out from the others due to its shape. It used to extend much further out into the sea, but again Mother Nature had to destroy her own creation.
Soon after, Francesca and I read the story of Tom Pearce. He had been an apprentice on a ship called the ‘Loch Ard.’ The ship and its 54 passengers had gone down, and Tom had drifted under an upturned lifeboat for several hours. When the tide turned at dawn he was swept into a gorge. As he climbed ashore he heard screams. An 18 year old girl named Eva Carmichael was clinging to a tree, holding on for dear life. Tom jumped in the water again, and struggled for an hour to get her back. She was doing poorly, suffering from hypothermia, but he managed to revive her a little with some brandy that had washed ashore. The next morning he climbed out of the gorge and managed to get help.
We walked down to the gorge, and took a few pictures of the cave Tom and Eva might have slept in. As we turned towards the water I challenged Francesca to a race to the water. She dashed ahead and managed to make it to the water first. In fact, she stood still in triumph, forgetting that the sea behind her was just sending a big wave her way. I shouted that she should run, but it was too late and her feet and ankles were engulfed. Silly girl!
I found a little cove on the right side of the beach, without any tourists so we climbed over some rocks and Francesca took control of the camera, taking pictures of me climbing further down. Quite neat… we seemed to be the only two people on the earth there. All we heard was the sea pounding into the rocks. The tide seemed to be coming in, so after a few more shots I ran for it and made it back safe and sound. Francesca followed right after me and we headed back for the bus.
‘London Bridge has fallen down!’ a local boy screamed in a nearby pub. The other, older locals laughed and waved him away. The boy insisted they listened to him, and finally a few them went to have a look. Of course I’m not talking about London in the UK! London Bridge is yet another of Mother Nature’s creations. It used to be a stretch of land that extended out in the water, with two arches having formed through nature’s force. Until that day people had been allowed to walk on London Bridge. Two unfortunate local newly-weds ended up stuck on the wrong side of the bridge. It took several hours before they got rescued, and as reporters shoved their microphones under their noses they both stayed really quiet. Later the reporters found out they weren’t married to each other, and they had met there in secret. Tough luck for them!
Our long day with Bernie ended with him driving a few hours to get us back to Melbourne. 12 hours after we had left Francesca and I finally got back to our hostel, making plans for the next day. Sleep was sweet.
Saturday had us exploring the city once again. We took some pictures of Spencer Street Station, one of earliest grand buildings to be built in Melbourne. We went inside Saint Paul’s Cathedral, paying our respects and taking a few pictures. The Cathedral certainly looked fantastic, with beautiful murals, statues and altars. We lit a candle for all of you readers and exited to make our way to the Melbourne Museum. We happened across a large group of pirates, which were posing in front of the local library. Later we found out it was ‘Talk like a Pirate Day,’ which we had missed out on… Funny side-note was the two ninja’s that were running amok amongst the pirates.
It was a sunny day, but the Melbourne Museum sounded alluring. Before going in we had a quick bite in the Pompeii-themed restaurant, sharing a bread basket. We did not know what to expect, but walked around a rather boring outside section on some of Australia’s flora and fauna.
On the second floor Francesca and I found something much more interesting: a section called ‘the mind, enter the labyrinth.’ The whole exhibit revolved around the workings of the human mind. We learned about the different stages the brain goes through whilst we grow up. We got to see how scientists found out more and more about the brain from the beginning of time, where doctors made holes in patients’ brains to relieve headaches; how they found out the effects of lithium on the brain; and how Brocca found the area of the brain that affects speech. We got to test our ability to learn a new language, trying to copy a sentence read out in Russian and several other languages.
The following section focused on sound recognition. Francesca and I played a matching game, where one, rather than matching pictures, had to distinguish which tones were identical. Francesca did much better than me…
Dreams were also a major part of the exhibition. We both took turns lying down on a sofa, with our head under a monitor. The monitor showed images of clouds passing by, supposedly making one reach a state of calm. I certainly felt relaxed after lying down for a while. Part of the section was dedicated to interpreting dreams. It showed images of teeth falling out and of being able to fly.
Finally, the last section covered psychological abnormalities. We stepped in an
interactive booth, which switched on after we entered. It told several stories about people with a sickness of the mind. We heard the stories of a heavily depressed woman, a man with bipolar disorder, a woman with schizophrenia, and a man with synesthesia (he experienced two senses at once: for him every word and sound had a specific color linked to it, which he’d literally see).
By the time we were done with this exhibition time had almost run out. It left us half an hour to finish the remaining two thirds of the museum. We had to race to finish all of it, and unfortunately couldn’t spend enough time in the Aboriginal section or the underwater section. We did take some pictures of some of the most bizarre fish in the ocean. As we were watching a video of a dead, stranded whale that was about to be transported to the museum the screen went black. Forced to leave…
Dinner was also very exciting. Francesca had found a mini-card, with a coupon for ‘The Pancake Parlour.’ We could get two short stacks (two pancakes and one scoop of vanilla ice-cream) for the price of one. An added bonus was the free wireless internet we got whilst eating. We sat around for quite a while downloading some new movies, checking mail and news, and generally catching up with the world (even though we are quite a few hours ahead of you!). The pancakes were delicious, and filled us up really well. Around 23:00PM we decided to head back to the hostel, because we had another tour planned for the following day.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Leaving New Zealand... And Reaching Melbourne!
Francesca:
After spending some time with the fishes, Henk and I took the bus back to Christchurch and returned to Base for the night. Upon arriving, we asked reception where a great pizza place was in the area. And we got an amazing suggestion!
Just a short walk away was a gourmet pizza bar called Winnie Bagoes. We ordered a special pizza deal, which gave us a large (and they were pretty big!) pizza which we had topped with 1/2 Sweet Satay Chicken (with peanut satay sauce, marinated chicken, sweet chilli sauce and pineapple pieces) and 1/2 Honey Beef (with honey BBQ beef, bacon, pepperoni & chorizo topped with a horseradish aïoli -- but we got garlic aioli instead) AND a large chilli pesto bread as a free side. Everything was reeeeeally tasty -- definitely a must-try if you visit Christchurch!
We relaxed the next day, I called my cousin Kyle (and Auntie Azeema and Uncle Randy!) and Mom through Skype, while Henk ran our heavy laptop bag to the post office to get it shipped to my Mom's house. We brought WAY too much with us, and we were really glad to get rid of a bunch of it, along with some of the things we collected here in New Zealand. Even though it cost us $140 USD! Yuck! But we needed to do it. We had a great lunch at the India Tandoori Palace (the same place we went for dinner when we were last in Christchurch) that was really affordable, and just walked around for a while.
Henk:
The next morning we took a flight from Christchurch back to Auckland, where we have been staying currently for the past three nights in ACB (Base). Our stay in Auckland was very peaceful indeed. Since we had had explored the city during our previous stay in town, we didn't feel the need to do too much. Besides, we knew our next flight was coming up.
Our first day, after arriving from Christchurch floated by without too much happening. Francesca had had a craving for Wendy's square burgers, so we went there for dinner. We didn't want to buy any more groceries, since we knew we couldn't take them with us to Australia. That's why we decided to just eat out for the few meals we had left. Francesca got her burger and I ordered the chicken salad, which proved to be a good choice.
Francesca:
Oh! Henk forgot to mention that we went to the bar next door that night to watch a Tri Nations Rugby game between the All Blacks (New Zealand) and the Springboks (South Africa) -- and we got to listen to some irate All Blacks fans curse about how their team needed to 'go back to basics' after fumbling some easy catches that ended up losing them the match. Still, it was fun to watch them play!
Henk:
The second day saw us walking around town to find a movie theater. We located one around 13:00PM, but the movie we wanted to see didn't start until 16:00PM. Francesca was hungry, so we grabbed her food in the food court directly under the theater. She picked a combination of noodles, sweet & sour sauce, roasted chicken and a spring roll. Filled her up! We spent some time in the gaming hall that was also part of the giant building. Francesca tried her hand on Pacman and looked good doing so.
Francesca:
We had bought ticket for the 4:00 pm showing of the new John Travolta movie "Pelham 123," a thriller about Travolta's character taking over a subway train for ransom. Pretty interesting movie, with a cool twist! Since we ate so much popcorn at the movies, we didn't really feel too hungry for dinner. Henk grabbed a fruit shake and I got a doughnut to snack on -- and we went back to the hostel since it was already past 9 pm that night.
The next morning we spent walking around the city again. We attempted to recover our 'lost' towels from the Stray office (that our tour guide Lucky had dropped off 2 months ago for us) but as we figured, they were long gone. Instead, I tried the new Kingpin sandwich (with onion rings and BBQ sauce on the chicken!) and Henk had a chicken sandwich with pineapple that I knew he'd like. The rest of the day we spent surfing the Internet with some very cheap $1/hour) time we received as a 'gift' from the Internet cafe after we sadly realized we couldn't transfer a game we had downloaded to our USB. We returned to Curry Box (from our first visit to Auckland) for dinner.
That night we watched 'My Best Friend's Girl,' and made sure we were ready for our departure (a 4 hour flight!) to Australia the next morning. And WOW was the next morning hectic. After the long bus ride to the airport, we were all ready to check in (with our backpacks 'bagged' and everything)-- when we were told we were not 'allowed' to check in since we didn't have visas for Australia. What!! We were under the assumption that we could get visas on arrival. We had researched the subject months before, and that is exactly what we had read! Since we read the same thing for New Zealand, and had no issues, we assumed we'd be fine.
But no! We had to go to another desk and purchase visas before we could check-in for our flight. Thank God we were able to do that without any problem -- that would have been a flight wasted if we had to go back to Auckland! I gave my sister a quick call for her birthday after Henk and I shared a Subway sandwich. We watched Hitchcock's interesting movie 'Rope' on the plane and enjoyed chocolate ice-cream bars the flight attendants handed out. Yum!
Henk:
After landing in Melbourne and getting through security Francesca and I walked over to the information center to find ourselves a hostel. This proved to be much harder than we thought, with the prices being so ridiculously high. We found a few places that looked decent, but needed money to get to the city. At first, we wanted to exchange some of our USD for Australian Dollars, but they wanted to charge $8 commission, which we were not ready to pay. I walked over to the ATM next to it. I put in the card, entered the pin and... the machine froze...
GAH! I asked the lady for help, but she said I had to call ANZ (the bank that owned the ATM). Our phone had died (not out of power, just died), so I called Francesca over to think of a solution. Luckily, two airport cops just happened to walk by, and I asked them for assistance. One of them was very helpful, lending us his phone to call ANZ. I asked ANZ to send someone over to get the card out, but since the machine was free-standing they wouldn't...
GREAT! Then we called the bank in Australia, asking for their help. They said they couldn't find our details in their system, so we had to call the American branch. Luckily, they were (after a lot of hassle (Credit Report and Check...) able to cancel the card temporarily and send us a replacement. The cop was getting impatient, and was worried we were costing him mad money, so we thanked him and looked for a shuttle to town. Francesca had found a hostel called 'Elephant Bakpaka' which was cheap and sounded decent.
The drive took about 40 minutes, and left us pretty close to the hostel. Francesca and I walked over, and found our hostel quickly. Before staying for a week we wanted to see the room and yeah... the walls didn't go all the way to the ceiling, and were less than an inch thin. Basically a glorified cubicle. I knew there was another hostel down the road, so I ran over checking their availability. Luckily, there was space and after moving our bags over we could lay down on a decent bed.
Francesca:
Once we checked into Nomads All Nations Hotel, we were so exhausted from the day that Henk got us some snacks from the 7-11 on the corner and we pretty much passed out in bed with the lights still on... that's how tired we were! We resolved to spend the next day just relaxing, getting over our jetlag (plus I had a really sore throat and slight fever this whole time) and researching for our stay in Melbourne.
This morning we enjoyed some free raisin bread for breakfast, and spent time talking to my brother, Anthony, and my cousin Kyle on Skype. In between these, Henk ran downstairs to the Hot Dog Hut and got us these ginormous (gigantically enormous!) hot-dog on basically a sub sandwich roll for a bun, filled with cheese, mushrooms, and ketchup, and even bacon!
NOW back to planning our time in Melbourne... anyone have any great suggestions? E-mail us ASAP!
Francesca & Henk
After spending some time with the fishes, Henk and I took the bus back to Christchurch and returned to Base for the night. Upon arriving, we asked reception where a great pizza place was in the area. And we got an amazing suggestion!
Just a short walk away was a gourmet pizza bar called Winnie Bagoes. We ordered a special pizza deal, which gave us a large (and they were pretty big!) pizza which we had topped with 1/2 Sweet Satay Chicken (with peanut satay sauce, marinated chicken, sweet chilli sauce and pineapple pieces) and 1/2 Honey Beef (with honey BBQ beef, bacon, pepperoni & chorizo topped with a horseradish aïoli -- but we got garlic aioli instead) AND a large chilli pesto bread as a free side. Everything was reeeeeally tasty -- definitely a must-try if you visit Christchurch!
We relaxed the next day, I called my cousin Kyle (and Auntie Azeema and Uncle Randy!) and Mom through Skype, while Henk ran our heavy laptop bag to the post office to get it shipped to my Mom's house. We brought WAY too much with us, and we were really glad to get rid of a bunch of it, along with some of the things we collected here in New Zealand. Even though it cost us $140 USD! Yuck! But we needed to do it. We had a great lunch at the India Tandoori Palace (the same place we went for dinner when we were last in Christchurch) that was really affordable, and just walked around for a while.
Henk:
The next morning we took a flight from Christchurch back to Auckland, where we have been staying currently for the past three nights in ACB (Base). Our stay in Auckland was very peaceful indeed. Since we had had explored the city during our previous stay in town, we didn't feel the need to do too much. Besides, we knew our next flight was coming up.
Our first day, after arriving from Christchurch floated by without too much happening. Francesca had had a craving for Wendy's square burgers, so we went there for dinner. We didn't want to buy any more groceries, since we knew we couldn't take them with us to Australia. That's why we decided to just eat out for the few meals we had left. Francesca got her burger and I ordered the chicken salad, which proved to be a good choice.
Francesca:
Oh! Henk forgot to mention that we went to the bar next door that night to watch a Tri Nations Rugby game between the All Blacks (New Zealand) and the Springboks (South Africa) -- and we got to listen to some irate All Blacks fans curse about how their team needed to 'go back to basics' after fumbling some easy catches that ended up losing them the match. Still, it was fun to watch them play!
Henk:
The second day saw us walking around town to find a movie theater. We located one around 13:00PM, but the movie we wanted to see didn't start until 16:00PM. Francesca was hungry, so we grabbed her food in the food court directly under the theater. She picked a combination of noodles, sweet & sour sauce, roasted chicken and a spring roll. Filled her up! We spent some time in the gaming hall that was also part of the giant building. Francesca tried her hand on Pacman and looked good doing so.
Francesca:
We had bought ticket for the 4:00 pm showing of the new John Travolta movie "Pelham 123," a thriller about Travolta's character taking over a subway train for ransom. Pretty interesting movie, with a cool twist! Since we ate so much popcorn at the movies, we didn't really feel too hungry for dinner. Henk grabbed a fruit shake and I got a doughnut to snack on -- and we went back to the hostel since it was already past 9 pm that night.
The next morning we spent walking around the city again. We attempted to recover our 'lost' towels from the Stray office (that our tour guide Lucky had dropped off 2 months ago for us) but as we figured, they were long gone. Instead, I tried the new Kingpin sandwich (with onion rings and BBQ sauce on the chicken!) and Henk had a chicken sandwich with pineapple that I knew he'd like. The rest of the day we spent surfing the Internet with some very cheap $1/hour) time we received as a 'gift' from the Internet cafe after we sadly realized we couldn't transfer a game we had downloaded to our USB. We returned to Curry Box (from our first visit to Auckland) for dinner.
That night we watched 'My Best Friend's Girl,' and made sure we were ready for our departure (a 4 hour flight!) to Australia the next morning. And WOW was the next morning hectic. After the long bus ride to the airport, we were all ready to check in (with our backpacks 'bagged' and everything)-- when we were told we were not 'allowed' to check in since we didn't have visas for Australia. What!! We were under the assumption that we could get visas on arrival. We had researched the subject months before, and that is exactly what we had read! Since we read the same thing for New Zealand, and had no issues, we assumed we'd be fine.
But no! We had to go to another desk and purchase visas before we could check-in for our flight. Thank God we were able to do that without any problem -- that would have been a flight wasted if we had to go back to Auckland! I gave my sister a quick call for her birthday after Henk and I shared a Subway sandwich. We watched Hitchcock's interesting movie 'Rope' on the plane and enjoyed chocolate ice-cream bars the flight attendants handed out. Yum!
Henk:
After landing in Melbourne and getting through security Francesca and I walked over to the information center to find ourselves a hostel. This proved to be much harder than we thought, with the prices being so ridiculously high. We found a few places that looked decent, but needed money to get to the city. At first, we wanted to exchange some of our USD for Australian Dollars, but they wanted to charge $8 commission, which we were not ready to pay. I walked over to the ATM next to it. I put in the card, entered the pin and... the machine froze...
GAH! I asked the lady for help, but she said I had to call ANZ (the bank that owned the ATM). Our phone had died (not out of power, just died), so I called Francesca over to think of a solution. Luckily, two airport cops just happened to walk by, and I asked them for assistance. One of them was very helpful, lending us his phone to call ANZ. I asked ANZ to send someone over to get the card out, but since the machine was free-standing they wouldn't...
GREAT! Then we called the bank in Australia, asking for their help. They said they couldn't find our details in their system, so we had to call the American branch. Luckily, they were (after a lot of hassle (Credit Report and Check...) able to cancel the card temporarily and send us a replacement. The cop was getting impatient, and was worried we were costing him mad money, so we thanked him and looked for a shuttle to town. Francesca had found a hostel called 'Elephant Bakpaka' which was cheap and sounded decent.
The drive took about 40 minutes, and left us pretty close to the hostel. Francesca and I walked over, and found our hostel quickly. Before staying for a week we wanted to see the room and yeah... the walls didn't go all the way to the ceiling, and were less than an inch thin. Basically a glorified cubicle. I knew there was another hostel down the road, so I ran over checking their availability. Luckily, there was space and after moving our bags over we could lay down on a decent bed.
Francesca:
Once we checked into Nomads All Nations Hotel, we were so exhausted from the day that Henk got us some snacks from the 7-11 on the corner and we pretty much passed out in bed with the lights still on... that's how tired we were! We resolved to spend the next day just relaxing, getting over our jetlag (plus I had a really sore throat and slight fever this whole time) and researching for our stay in Melbourne.
This morning we enjoyed some free raisin bread for breakfast, and spent time talking to my brother, Anthony, and my cousin Kyle on Skype. In between these, Henk ran downstairs to the Hot Dog Hut and got us these ginormous (gigantically enormous!) hot-dog on basically a sub sandwich roll for a bun, filled with cheese, mushrooms, and ketchup, and even bacon!
NOW back to planning our time in Melbourne... anyone have any great suggestions? E-mail us ASAP!
Francesca & Henk
