Hello !I'm writing to you from Nomads in St Kilda (Melbourne) on a cool Wednesday afternoon. One night I even had to put my fleece on, it got that cold :o I accidentally booked a party hostel 🪇 I'm a party pooper so I've not joined in any of the partying, instead choosing to get an early night 🥱 On Thursday last week took the bus to Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills. On hearing the name Hahndorf, you'd be forgiven for thinking I'd taken a short 9600 mile bus journey to a small hamlet in Germany, but you'd be wrong! It's a small town, originally founded/stolen from the Aboriginal people by German settlers in 1839. I didn't expect to be drinking imported German beers in 35c heat in Australia, but there I was.   When I got back to Adelaide, I popped to the Himeji Japanese Gardens.  Friday and Saturday were rather quiet. With the highlight being this fork  On Sunday, I woke early to catch the 10 hour 7:45am train to Melbourne. It was well over double the price of the plane but I like trains. I had a great time. We crawled through the Adelaide hills before descending into 450 miles of nothing but wheat, cows and the occasional farming town.  View from the Adelaide Hills. The train was mostly empty. Probably explains the price.  Moo  The scale of the farmland here is insane. Pictures don't do it justice. Fields like this would run on for interrupted for ages. (A happy little aside... This type of large scale mono crop farming is terrible for the soil & environment. It's only really manageable for a few more decades until the soil dies...) On Monday, after settling into my noisy noisy party hostel, I went for an explore round the local area, followed by a trip round the Melbourne CBD (Central business district, not the oil found in weed) with Dylan, a friend I met in the hostel in Adelaide.  This is Luna Park. I don't like it   A cool guy I found in the bathroom of a coffee shop/cocktail bar. Coffee was good  Melbourne's answer to The Crystal Palace (No, not the South London football team, the big glass building after which Crystal Palace is named). According to a plaque, this is the only International Exhibition Building still remaining where it was built in 1880. (We moved the Crystal Palace then we tore it down. Maybe someone started throwing stones inside it)  A turtle inside the Melbourne Museum  I thought the Lizard on the right was fake till I came back later and it was gone.  Bidgee-widgee, hehe  This sign talks about how "hundreds" of Communal Huntsman Spiders enjoy living under the bark of rotting logs, like the one in the top right of this photo. After looking through the viewing box just outside the picture, I can confirm there were spiders in the log. (I had to get Dylan to look through it first because I was scared)  Some iron ore, how pretty  Me in the library  This is where batman was born What a busy Monday! Tuesday was more quiet. I went round St Kilda a bit more. It gives Blackpool but a bit nicer. Its not quite my vibe. I'll be changing hostels soon. I did however spot some interesting things on my walk round the area.  I don't think whoever owns this restaurant has ever been to Derby (Neither have I)  Someone was clearly not happy with their yoghurt (they were all full) And that brings us to today. I went round the Shrine Of Remembrance, built in the wake of WW1, which contains a museum detailing Australia's war and peacekeeping activities. They failed, however, to mention the war they lost against Emus.  Imagine going to someone's house and they have a 9/11 rug on the floor. Beautiful craftsmanship  I don't think this road is up to health and safety regulations  Memorial for the very brave, very fast (34mph average speed), WW2 carrier pigeon, DD.43.T.139, in the newly opened Anzac Metro station (Yes, I did ride the new metro tunnel just for the fun of it and no I don't have a problem with trains) Thank you for your service, DD.43.T.139. (For anyone interested, DD = Department of Defence, 43 = year of enlistment (1943), T = T Detachment of 10 Pigeon Section, attached to Detachment 55 Port Craft Company & 139 is the pigeon number. Don't ask how or why I know this) After catching the metro tunnel north, I wandered around the Uni of Melbourne campus. It's such a nice uni.  A pretty butterfly I chased round the garden in the uni till it landed  My reading spot in one of the uni gardens. We didn't get this in Lancaster! Bye for now! P.S. P.P.S |
