Tramtastic!

After my rather late night, I surprised myself this morning when I woke up late at 10am, probably due to itchy legs keeping me awake!

Got myself together, packing my day sack as if I was going on a mega-mission; I didn’t really know where I was going, but figured I should be prepared! I made my way back the way I had (correctly) gone last night and thankfully found my way fine (I think I have got the hang of this route now, so shouldn’t get scarily lost again, fingers crossed!). On seeing the golden arches, I figured it would be rude not to stop in there especially as I had packed my netbook! After a latte and a bit of surfing, I continued on my way, this time with a purpose; to find the City Circle tram – why was this? Simple, it costs nothing!

Once again, I surprised myself by finding the tram stop relatively easily, although it did involve standing rather precariously in the middle of a dual carriageway with cars, trams and buses whizzing about in every direction. I just hid behind some Japanese tourists who seemed to know what they were doing, and waited for the tram!

I didn’t really know what to expect from a tram, having only been on one a couple of times many moons ago, somewhere in Europe, and looking about in Melbourne, there are all sorts of different types of tram. The City Circle tram is, however, a delight – I think they must have dragged them out of a museum or something, as they are very archaic compared to the bright yellow modern things that I also saw buzzing about. The tram was a kind of burgundy colour and really cute inside, with wooden panels and brass fittings. Lovely!

As there was no plan, I figured I had better come up with one, pronto! So the plan was formed – go around the circle on the tram, then hop off at a relevant place and find the place where you collect Grand Prix tickets from, then work out the next bit of the plan! So around I went! And even better, there was a kind of semi-informative voice-over thing going on telling you to “look to your right/left” etc, however it was not always possible to see what it was talking about as the tram might have already gone past it! Even so, it was really cool - a great way to have a quick-ish tour of part of the city and make mental notes as to what to go back to at a later point in time.

Once I had done the full circuit, I plumped for jumping off the tram at the top of Exhibition Street – the ticket office was somewhere on this very long street, so I figured it would be best to just start walking along it from one end. My plan worked and I soon was in the ridiculously long queue in the ticket office! Twenty minutes later and I was the proud possessor of a pair of 4 day Australian Grand Prix tickets, complete with lanyards! Right, what next? I hadn’t planned this bit, but decided it was a nice enough day, so I might as well go for a walk and just head along the rest of this road, all the way to the bottom! This made for an interesting walk, past loads of theatres showing performances of things I could see in the UK if I so desired.

I had a look at my map and noticed that with a slight detour, I could walk to the Parliament House building (which I had seen from the tram), so I headed in that direction and took in a landmark! I felt quite the Japanese tourist with my camera around my neck. Seeing as I had quite enjoyed walking the last section, I decided to just walk the same route as the tram and see the same sights close up. Federation Square seemed a lot bigger when I got to it, very vibrant, modern architecture, a stark contrast next to Flinders Street Station; a beautiful old building glowing almost orange in the sunshine. I continued along the same road, coming to some old railway arches, all turned into shops now, but the original ornate decorative brickwork made me stop and have a good look. A little further along and I came to a point where I could see the Yarra River, overlooked by many gleaming tower blocks and a fair few pieces of art and sculpture. Sticking out of the water I saw what looked like three giant sharks fins; this made me smile as they did look very comedy, however I still am not sure if they were also pieces of art, or whether they were some technical pieces of engineering-related equipment (or were they in fact the fins of three giant sharks... who knows?!?!).

Eventually I came to Peterpans (a nationwide backpacking travel agent I have been using to make bookings, thus entitling me to free internet access!) so I stopped there for a bit of a rest and a bit of a surf online!

Rest break over, I fancied getting on the tram again, so headed a bit further along the circuit before hopping out at a point that had caught my eye earlier, on the Docklands. Amongst all the big glassy buildings (housing massive companies such as NAB and Channel 7), they have put more art installations and one in particular had leapt out at me on my first tram journey of the day – imaginatively entitled ‘Cow Up A Tree’; the rather square cow looking out helplessly across the river whilst enveloped by a spindly tree. Lovely. I took the opportunity to appreciate the view myself, imagining what it would look like from up the tree; not bad I reckon – the cow has it good.

I meandered along the road a little further, taking in the sights, before getting back on the tram and making my way back to the main hub of Federation Square. This time I decided to take a walk up some of the roads that the tram had not passed along, so as to see the array of shops and cafes. The Melbourne Comedy Festival is about to begin, so there are little mini theatres all over the city, some open air, some not - may have to check one out. I also saw some of the beautiful churches randomly squeeze in amongst the pop culture of shops such as ‘Sportsgirl’ and ‘Supre’. After taking a few turns here and there, I came upon a sight I had not seen since Brisbane – Starbucks! I figured a treat was in order so I bought a drink and walked back to Federation Square, where I sat amongst the slightly bohemian mix of people, but electing to sit on a step next to some Astroturf (it’s not real grass, making it just about bearable!) rather than one of the many deckchairs which formed a large rectangle of blue and white stripes in the middle of the square. I connected to the free wifi for a short while, whilst supping my beverage, before starting the walk back.

On the way back to the hostel I stopped once again in Maccas for a spot of wifi, which turned into quite a long session (including chatting to JJ – not for the first time today – I do so miss you, JJ!) and before I knew it, it was practically bed time and on looking out of the window, I noticed how dark it was outside! It was also pretty chilly in comparison, but I wasn’t complaining. Thankfully my confidence in my navigation earlier on in the day was confirmed and I made it straight back to the hostel without getting lost!

Back in my room I chilled out for a bit before chatting to an older lady from New Zealand, apparently she has been here a while, I just have not seen her yet, although sadly she is leaving tomorrow. She gave me some top tips for NZ and I realised it was really nice speaking to someone again! Big day tomorrow, best get some shut eye...