First day in Melbourne

Yesterday I was quiet tired, tired enough I couldnt give enough energy to walk 2 steps or put a sentence together so i decided to walk until morning to write this post. Needless to say, it was a great day...a very ventureous and adventurous day as well. Caitlin and I had planned on meeting at the train station to catch the 7:50am train. Therefore, I got up at 6 am got dressed, washed up and buddled up for the cold and the 30 minute walk to the train stration I had ahead of me. After all that I just had a bit of time, so I called Ryan just to say hello, and see what he had planned for the rest of the day. I told him I would be gone all day and I would call him when I got in- which would be very late where he was. He still insisted that I called when I got in, just so he knew I was safe and I agreed because I do the same when he goes out.

It was now time for me to leave, I bundled up (and by bundling up, I mean a long sleeve shirt under a short sleeve short and a hoodie-because thats all I have)...and plugged in my ipod and headed out the door. I found that the walking really goes by easier when I am listening to my ipod...maybe nicer than a bike would. I enjoyed the walk to the train station, there is this huge cemetary that I pass and it puts me in awe everytime i pass it as to how huge it is. Maybe next time I make it out into town I will take a picture of it on my way- I dont know if I would be able to capture something so huge though with a camera.

When I got to the train station, I wasnt really sure where I was going or where I needed to go. I walked around to something on my left that looked like part of the train station but eventually realized I was on the wrong side of the train and I hadnt gone through ticketing yet so I walked back up to the road. As I walked back up, Caitlin was on my right so it seemed like we made it in perfect timing. From there I just followed her because she had been here before and knew what she was doing. We walked in and bought a $14.70 one way ticket to Melbourne and headed to the train and got in and made ourselves comfortable for the next 2 hours.

The train ride wasnt a bad one- a good one in that because to be honest i dont remember the last time I took a train somewhere so it kept me intrigied. The only thing that bothered me was that the farther we got, the more clouds I saw and the more I was afraid the rain was going to ruin our day. But to keep our minds off of that, Caitlin and I looked through our travel books and what is suggested and what is going in Melbourne (the large Australia book I got from AustraLearn). Anyways we looked and talked about what we planned on doing and what we wanted to see today. We decided to go to the Melbourne Aquarium first because it was close to the train station and maybe once we were done the rain would pass by a little bit. We also wanted to see this famous river that they talk about alot, something they must be very proud of. We talked about maybe the zoo, some art exhibits, some shopping and definatly the Royal Botanical Gardens and if we had time we wanted to make it to the main campus of La Trobe in Mebourne called Bundoora. Now that we had some ideas on what we wanted to do, we would just see where the day takes us.

After arriving at the Southern Cross train station, it was raining and cold but that was an even better reason to go to the aquarium first. We crossed the street, and ventured out to the aquraium which was realativly close to the train station as I said before. Before heading in, I used the ATM that was just outside. I was afriad at first because this was the first time I was using my US bank card in Australia but it was fine and gave me what I needed. We headed inside and were able to get a student discount so we paid $16 to see the aqurium which was actually quite good because it had alot in it and even had 3 levels. To me this acquarium was amazing, they had so many different animals all of which were really awesome to look at. Caitlin kept talking about her aquraium home in Oregon and how it compared to this one- seemed to be alot larger at home. But, I was quiet content with the one here, and I was really enjoying what I saw. The animals were so huge and exotic and it was really neat to see the things that I saw. We saw some fish, most of which were larger than me, and some sharks that were even larger. We even got to see the certified scuba divers feed the sharks and stingrays which were really awesome to watch. Interesting enough, sting rays have their eyes and mouth on the bottom side of them so they kept bumping into the divers. It was really interesting to see this demonstration. They said they were feeding turtles too but I never once saw a turtle so I was very, very dissapponited- and if you know my love for turtles, you would understand. The demonstration was in the middle of a huge aquarium.. you could see fish swimming on top of you and on the sides, it really was pretty neat. We also saw some sea horses, many different types of Jelly fish, tree frogs, starfish, and clams all of which were vibrant of color! It was a wonderful. Eventually we saw a turtle, but he was laying on the top of the water and didnt really move much. He wasnt the best turtle I have seen. I have to say my favorite display of turtles have to be the ones Ryan took me to see near his house. They were incredible.

After the aquarium, Caitlin and I just kept walking. We walked on Flinders street along the Yarra River which was a means of raw sewage until 1990 which sounded quiet disguishing to me but it explained why it was so brown and gross looking. We looked through our travel book and decided to try and find federation square. Itv was talked about alot so i was expecting to find something huge with alot of attraction. But really it wasnt anything big, just some cool looking buildings really. But now I can say I have been there. Who knows maybe where we were wasnt even federation square..who knows. I guess we will never really know. Caitlin and I then decided to cross the street and do some shopping and get some lunch. We stopped into a suvenior shop and got a few things for family and friends to bring back home. Along the strip we saw some fast food that we thought we would recognize.. there was a Hungry Jacks (known as Burger King in America). There was also a Macca's (known as McDonalds in America) and a KFC. We decided to try the KFC. KFC was alot diffrent and the only thing similar was that it had chicken, so I was sad when I couldnt get the coleslaw that i usually get. But oh well, I guess that comes with not being in America. While we were eating, some pigeons and bords came flying in and no one even gave it a second glance. It was all so strange to me. I guess Australians are all so friendly that they open their doors to anything that wants to join them.

After lunch, Caitlin and I went back outside which had stopped rained and was quite nice in the sun. It was only the shade and wind you had to now worry about. We decided to go past federation square and see what else we could find. We wanted to get to the Royal Botanical Gardens, but on our way to find it we stumbled past an exhibit for Pixar so we went on in and checked it out. It was held at the Australian Centre for Moving Image. It was very interesting and I am glad that we found it accidently. We went on it andpaid $15 for a ticket, in which I paid with all coins. But here thats not hard because they have $1 and $2 coins which I had a million of by this ponit. After buying our tickets we headed down the hallway to the exhibit. They had so much to see and some of it was absolutely umbelievable. As we walked through we outlined every movie made by Pixar. They included originaly sketches and ideas and what was eventually the final. It was really neat to see the different stages from start to finish. The exhibit explained the process of making a film, which really kept me interested but at the same time wondered why the exhibit was here and not in America. About 90% of the people listed were Americans and none were Australians so that kept me confused but something I didnt care enough to actually ask about. They showed the stages of teh charcters through clay models. It was really funny to see what they thought someone was going to look like to what it actually looks like now. They showed these stages and processes from movies such as Toy Story, Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, Cars, and even their newest one that just came out Ratatouille.

After the exhibit, we went upstairs to get pictures with Mike and Sully from Monsters Inc and continued back on our journey. We continued on Flinders street until we wondered onto something new. We found ourseleves on Batman Avenue, this headed towards the arena in which they held the Australian Open so we kept walking until we found it. Because it wasnt summer time and there wasnt anything being held there now there wasnt really much to see. I took some pictures of the buildings including the Olympic rings and some statues and things I found interesting but didnt really find much else. I guess it was just one of those things to say you have been there. From there we found ourseleves completely lost and turned around, but in my opinion thats the best part in exploring a new town. The streets here are really strange and dont really lead us in the direction we needed to go. We wanted so badly to find the Royal Botanical Gardens but never found them. It searched and asked and walked and never found them. We saw just about every other garden. But, I guess thats something we will have to leave for another day.

We saw so much today but there is still so much I wanna see! It was about 4 pm when we finally made it to the train station, and our next train the Bendigo was at 4:15. We were both so exhausted and tired and I was happy to sit for the next 2 hours. Caitlin on the other hand was very restless and wanted to get off the train. We finally made it to Bendigo after about 7 or 8 different stops along the way. I walked my 30 minutes back to my hall at about 6:30- kinda late and very dark but I made it back just fine. As soon as I got back, I laid down and checked my email and was happy that the wireless finally worked again in my room. At about 7 pm I made myself a english muffin with jelly because I forgot that there wasnt any catered meals on friday nights. Soon after that I washed up for bed and laid there relaxing for the remainder of the night. I knew tomorrow would be perfect time to relax because I didn't have any money (well not until i finally get my NAB bank card) and I couldnt do much. Sleep will be in order.

Sorry for the LONG post, but it was a great day and I had alot of fun. Thanks for the support and love and keeping up with my travels!!