Melbourne-Day Four

Another early morning, ate a quick brekky and off to start our last day in Melbourne! Lindsey and I checked out the roof of the hostel while the other two satisfied their Krispy Kreme craving. We met up and started walking towards Flinders Train Station to catch a tram that went throughout the city. It was Sunday, so we got the Sunday Savers all-day pass, which was only $3 instead of the usual $8 ticket. Score! We caught the tram to St. Kilda, a historical town about 25 minutes out of town. It used to be well known for prostitutes and drug dealers, but now is a cutesy town filled with expensive real estate that drove out the previous occupants. When we got there, we ran to the beach, which looked like an east-coast town with all the sailboats and the rocky, pebbly beach.

After a chilly walk along the boardwalk, we saw a pier in the distance and headed towards it. It reminded me exactly of the Huntington Beach Pier in California, with the wooden boardwalk and café at the end. We stopped in and had some delicious warm drinks and enjoyed the view of the sailboats lined up in the bay near the pier. The Chai tea came to the table in five parts: the cup, the water with the Chai leaves in it, the strainer, the cream and honey. It was the best tea I’ve ever tasted! Today was all about taking our time and enjoying the sights, smells, sounds tastes and feel of the area. It was a nice change of pace from our usual constantly on the go tempo.

We walked back towards the town and headed to the Botanical Gardens. On the way, we found the St. Kilda markets, which was basically one long street of white tents. I thoroughly enjoyed these markets, as each little tent was unique and special. After browsing through silk scarves and oil paintings of the city, we continued walking to the gardens. We then hit Ackland Street, which is famous for its blocks and blocks of cafes, pastry shops and British pubs. We stood and stared at the window displays of pastries, and decided we would never leave if we went inside. So, we kept on moving and just stared at all the people eating the divine looking desserts. As we entered the neighborhood before we got to the gardens, it looked like a suburb straight out of the Midwest. I couldn’t believe how identical it looked with the autumn leaves fallen on the street, and the bare trees lining the streets with parked cars outside of the smaller homes.

The Botanical Gardens were a little piece of natural Heaven in the middle of the town. It was a perfect place to unwind and just breathe. We had a blast taking tons of pictures and laying on the grass while the sun peered out for a few moments. It was one of those times where everything is still, and everything is good.

After a couple hours walking around and relaxing, we realized we hadn’t eaten since breakfast and were getting really hungry. It was only 5 pm though, and we wanted to wait until after we went to the beach at sunset to see if there were any penguins out. Apparently St. Kilda beach is the place to be to see penguins at twilight walking on the beach. We were walking back, and Lindsey felt really nauseous all of a sudden so I took her to a bathroom to find cold water to make a make shift cooling pad for her neck. She was burning up quickly and then had chills. The other two sat outside and waited a while, but after a half hour, they came in to see what was up. Lindsey couldn’t really stand up without thinking she’d get sick, so we were in the very narrow hallway to the bathrooms just sitting there making people step around us. It was quite the scene. Lindsey just kept repeating how glad she was that she was in the hands of a CNA and how it made her feel better. After a lot of runs back and forth to get cold water on her, she was able to get up and walk outside. I was convinced some cool fresh air would help and after a few minutes, it did. I got her a ginger beer which settled her stomach and we had quite the experience in the 7 Eleven there.

 An Aboriginal man was yelling at the cashier who was Indian and going on about people taking their land and how everyone is rude and cowards and it got really heated really fast. Lindsey and I just waited for it to be over, and it wasn’t happening. The cashier look at us with a really worried and apologetic look and told the man to please leave. He wouldn’t leave and he reached across the counter towards the cashier and had his walking stick in his face. The other customers backed off so we did too. All of a sudden, the cashier reaches under the counter and swiftly whips out an object. Lindsey and I internally freaked out because it looked like he was whipping out a gun or other weapon. It was just a phone though, whew. He called the police and the Aboriginal man stormed off knocking things over and that was that. We checked out and the cashier man apologized and said it’s not rare for them to get yelled at by Aboriginal people on the streets.

That reminds me of what one of my Aussie friends was telling me after he mentioned they have “typical” Aboriginal people where his home town was. I asked him to explain why white Aussies seem to look down upon their indigenous people (at least among many people I’ve talked to, they refer to Aborigines as filthy, victimized, rude people.) I never understood that because I have a few friends here who are partially Aboriginal and they are some of the nicest people I know here. Well, apparently he said that the full Aboriginal people living in their communities are known to riot and wreck havoc on the towns, yelling how the white people took their land. They bash their cars and rob their homes. Ironic how that’s what we (whites) did to them in the past.  Of course, two wrongs don’t make a right, but I can’t blame people for acting out in anger after being torn apart from their homes and families and left to rebuild their lives. I get the sense that there is much more hostility and separation of Australian people and their indigenous culture compared to Americans and our Native Americans.

Back to St. Kilda though-Lindsey was feeling a lot better and we took a stroll down the beach as the sun was setting. It was the most beautiful sunset I’ve seen since Fiji. The sun peered through the clouds and the beams of light hit the water with a warm color. Absolutely stunning evening, as we stood out on the pier waiting for penguins. Derick had seen some further down the beach, but we didn’t end up seeing any.

After a while longer, we couldn’t ignore our hunger any longer and decided to head back into town to find somewhere to eat. Tonight, we were craving Chinese food we headed to China Town. Now the trick there, is to know what places are both authentic but won’t give you food poisoning. After checking out over 10 places, we found a Thai restaurant where we recognized a few things on the menu. I ended up just pointing at one of the menu items and it turned out to be amazing. It was a sweet and sour pork with incredible rice and noodles with vegetables. After dinner, we decided to head back to our hostel and figure out the night. We had a 6 am flight the next day so we saved $30 and decided to sleep in the airport. We had to check out of the hostel at 10 am earlier that day so all our our things were in the holding closet until we left. Instead of going to the airport right away, we stayed and hung out at the common room of the hostel. Their was a footy game on and all the English guys were crowded around the TV, eyes peeled. 

This time, footy was actually soccer, which I haven’t seen on TV in a while! They were so into the game and shouting at every little pass and throw. Around midnight, we decided to walk to the Southern Cross Train Station, which was about 20 minutes away. We got there and took the shuttle to the Melbourne Airport.

 It was about 1 am when we walked into the airport and were told the security wouldn’t be opened till 4 am so we had to find somewhere to sleep by baggage claim on the ground level. It was freezing outside, and the wind blew in through the doors that were near us and through the baggage assembly line. Lindsey and Katie found some wooden benches and got “comfy” for the night, and were able to fall asleep. Heather and I laid on the floor that literally felt like an iceberg. I felt like they were pumping AC from every vent as I tried to fall asleep. It just wasn’t going to happen. The other three girls were asleep and I decided to walk around to get warm, After an hour of laps and riding the escalator up and down, I tried again to fall asleep. 

No such luck. I decided it just wasn’t going to happen to I wrote in my journal for a while and listened to music. Around 4 am we got our things and headed up to security, where the agents had just gotten there, so we stood and waited another half hour. We were the first ones through the security which was pretty fun! I guess that’s as fun as things get after a sleepless night in a cold airport at 5 am.

Our flight home landed in the Gold Coast and we had three hours before the bus came to take us back to Lismore. It was a hot, gorgeous, sunny day in the Gold Coast, so we laid on the beach for a few hours. It was a heavenly way to spend time waiting, especially in comparison to the night before.

We arrived back in Lismore late afternoon and were re united with good ol’ Orion and the roomies. I went to sleep in my own bed, feeling happier than ever that our last trip here was so spectacular!