Day 3: In Melbourne

After a night which was too short and restless to be really beneficial to the both of us, we woke up to a beautiful blue sky and the promise of 18 degrees without rain. That is what one would consider a great day to explore the city!

We started off our daily search for food at a long time favourite of ours: Subway. With a sub and a drink in our stomachs, we are glad to have saved the 50 AUD that the hotel charges for a two person breakfast, and went our merry way in the city. At 4.5 million people, it is what you would call a big town. It is also really big in size. As there is virtually no high rise outside of the town centre, people generally live in single houses and not in apartments. This makes the city really stretched out wide, and it gives interesting views whenever you are high enough to see.

First thing, we tried to go to the famous Queen Victoria Markets. This is a covered marketplace, established in the late 1880’s where one can buy a vast number of things ranging from fresh produce to art. Unfortunately, it is closed on Wednesdays. And today is one. 🙁 We always have bad luck with markets, and today was no difference…

Our next stop was the Eureka Tower, the highest viewing point on the Southern Hemisphere. On the 88th floor, a viewing platform was created, and it gives you an amazing overview of the city. The elevator zooms up in under 40 seconds, and ends at nearly 300 metres altitude. The entire tower is built to resemble to markings on the measuring staff of a surveyor, but the “why” has never become clear to us. The best thing about it, is that it is not nearly as expensive as riding the elevators in the famous New York buildings, and that it is much less crowded up there.

Having safely returned to the ground, we went on to tour the city via the Flinders Train Station and a really cool heritage arcade with etched glass roofs and mosaic floors called The Block Arcade. After all that, our jetlag called and we retreated to our hotel room to get ready for dinner. 

Tomorrow, we hope to encounter some of the local (native) wildlife, as we’ll be on a tour! After the Lorikeets we found today, more is always welcome.