Day 2: I'm really tired right now and this screen is just making my eyes water, so I'll keep this as short as I can. I managed to sleep in until almost midday today, though I'm quite sure that I still haven't managed to catch back up on enough sleep yet. Housekeeping lady woke me up at around 8:30ish, but when she saw I was still sleeping she told me she'd be back at 12:30. She was back at 11ish and let herself in this time, but I was still asleep. She kept apologising as she closed the door and said that she wouldn't disturb me again. Anyway, I eventually got my butt out of bed and after midday I decided to go for a random stroll in the city. Well, five minutes into it, Raffy called, and he was in the city. So we went to get me some lunch (the advantage of sleeping in was the fact that I avoided the costs associated with buying breakfast) and then we ventured around the city - essentially browsing through the many shops. A little later we went to go have a coffee with Ev, who works at The Royal Melbourne Hospital. So we caught a tram there to go see her. Short trip but it was my first tram experience. Not as exciting as I thought it would be. Still, that's another thing off my to-do list. So we had coffee with Ev, and Raffy had to duck off for work so Ev and I sat around for a little longer until she had to go back.
A tram! Not as exciting as I thought.
I caught a tram back to the city to do more exploring. In a bit to do something that didn't involve window shopping, I decided to go to Federation Square and see what the fuss was all about, as well as to check out the tourist information centre there and get a map of the city. I did just that, and also picked up a few information booklets which would come in handy for me over the next few days. I then sat out on some steps out on the square and just bummed around, as I was kinda tired and just wanted to chill out. Had a chat with one of the random locals, she was sitting on the steps reading Atonement, the movie for which I had seen less than a week ago. A street performer turned up in front of us and so I stayed to watch that, which was amusing. It would be fun to be a street performer, but I guess if you want to be like this guy you'd better be good at acting like a complete fool in front of mass crowds of strangers without getting embarrassed.
The view from Federation Square. After that I decided to go over to Eureka Tower and visit the skydeck there. Rather than using my new map, I figured I'd just wing it there - I mean, how hard is it to find a building that tall? I actually made it there alright (though I think I kinda took a bit of a long way around to get there), there wasn't too much more to it than crossing the Yarra River. It cost $16.50 to get up there, but it turns out that you need to pay another $12 to use their famous "Zone", a glass cube that projects out three metres from the building - the point being that it has a glass floor so that you can look straight down underneath your feet to what lies 300m below. Plus you couldn't bring your own camera in there with you and would have to pay $15 to get photos that they take. There was a terrace beside it, it didn't have a glass floor or anything but it was fenced so you were exposed to the outside elements (the wind was simply whipping through there, so I had to go out there in short stints to take shots), and I was quite content with being able to take photos from there - the issue with taking photos from inside was the reflection and glare off the glass windows. Anyway, I took heaps of photos, and decided that I would wait until sunset - forgetting how late the sun sets over here. So I ended up hanging around there for four hours, as I figured I may as well wait until sunset, and by then I figured I may as well wait until it was darker and the city was lit up. I could kinda see the A-League match between Melbourne and Wellington going on at Telstra Dome, I could see the big screen but not well enough to see who was winning. The skydeck closed at 10pm, but my camera battery died on me at about 9:30pm, so I left, buying a couple of postcards and a little Eureka Tower figurine (to go with my Q1 one at home) in the gift shop on the way out. Decided to take a bit of a long way back, taking photos on my phone camera, and picked up some dinner on the way home.
Melbourne at sunset. Melbourne by night. So now I'm watching some tennis on TV while typing this out. My head is really starting to hurt, I should really head to bed now, its 2:17am... Don't know what I have planned for tomorrow yet. We'll see.
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