Today was a very, very, very, very long day... and today's Montage is all about the Aquarium, which I think was about Item 396 on today's agenda...I had a few realisations during the course of today that I would like to share...
- Melbourne definitely doesn't seem to be calling to me the way that Sydney did... granted I'm still here, but I just don't feel it the same way.
- The people of Melbourne are actually pretty damn rude... they bump into you and don't bother to apologise.
- Going around lots of clothing stores/retailers/stalls when you know that nothing that they have will even remotely fit you becomes depressing after a while.
- The architecture in Melbourne is much more out there (for the most part) than Sydney... and definitely craps all over Adelaide.
- Having said that, the city just feels "grimy"...
Anyway... we had breakfast in this funky little café down the lane from the hotel (staffed by a very hot semi-cub dude, who sadly didn't serve me) and had a big breakfast which was very tasty.
After breakfast we went down to Melbourne Central via Royal Arcade and then hit Union Lane and Caledonian Lane for more street art photos (and the discovery of a GIANT untouched Benzo king in Caledonian Lane... woohoo). When we got to Melbourne Central we discovered that not a damn thing was open yet... and it was just on 9am... what the hell is up with that?!
I mean seriously... Melbourne makes fun of Adelaide because everything closes at 5pm (more or less)... but at least Adelaide starts the day at a reasonable time... nothing in Melbourne (other than eateries) opens before 10am... which is great if you live there because you have time after work to do things, but if you're a visitor it kinda cuts into the beginning of your day! *mutter*
Anyway, we threw in the towel on retail shops and headed up to the Queen Victoria Markets... which is where some of the above realisations started to set in. I did buy one or two little bits and pieces (knee high argyle socks, a brass Ganesha, some cute friendship bracelets) but nothing major... I could have gone nuts with cute teeshirts and some jackets and stuff... but like I said, nothing was going to fit me.
So essentially we just wandered around looking at the stalls (it seemed like there were really only about a dozen different stalls and all the rest just had some variation of those twelve). And PT had her make-up done at this overpriced chichi makeup place (you know the kind, it's all "natural" and they talk a lot of bollocks at you)... and while she was doing that I wandered inside because it was warmer and the other woman started talking to me about whatever I was looking at (something with aloe vera in it)... I let her rabbit on, and towards the end she asked if I wanted to try their bronzer (which she designed to be used by guys... a very particular type of guy though, I'm sure)... what I wanted to say, and really should have said was "I know I'm gay honey, but I'm not THAT gay!".
In the end PT went back to two of the first stalls we had looked at to get a leather jacket and an Australian flag bikini. By that point though I was completely freezing... I stupidly hadn't taken a jacket with me, thinking that the walking would warm me up, but it was beyond cold and I was freezing my nads off, so I spent $25 on the mother of all jackets (which I ended up not really needing about five minutes after I bought it)... it's green, it's lined with about half a polar bear and it has a hood. It will probably come in handy in Winter though when it's freezing in my apartment, because that fucker is warm!
After the markets, we headed back to Melbourne Central and went into Max Brenner for a hot chocolate to warm up... seriously yummy, I had the Thick Italian Chocolate, which came in a Hug Mug... too cool. Anyway, once we'd warmed up a bit we went back to wandering around looking at more trashy clothes stores. In the end I stood outside most of the stores... between carrying my Barney Rustle Crumpler bag and the biggest green jacket ever, it was hard to follow PT around the stores. Plus I will admit I was having a little bit of a sad as the day wore on. Add to that the fact that the ONLY store in the whole of Melbourne Central that I wanted to look in (Robio) turns out to have shut forever on Wednesday *sulk*.
Our next stop was QV Square... and since I'd managed to put a serious hole (figuratively not literally) using my back-up memory card in my new camera (since it's only a 512MB card), we went up to Hardly Normal and I got a 4GB card for $15 (not exactly sure about the brand, but it's held up pretty well so far). Which means I should be able to take about 1500 shots on it.
We didn't have any luck with clothes for PT... I really have no idea what the hell it is that she's looking for/wants/likes... but once she was done looking around we went and had lunch downstairs in the Food Court (Ma and I both got stuff from The Soup Place which was very tasty).
After that we went down the street to Chill On, the "ice bar"... I have to say, while it was an experience, it was pretty much a waste of time/money, especially since they've stopped you from taking photos since the last time Ma was there (due to cameras freezing up and/or people dropping them because of the big thick gloves). And it was very, very, very cold (my big green jacket came in very useful)... so cold in fact that I'm sure my jeans were starting to freeze up.
Part of your entry fee entitles you to a free shot and a free cocktail, so I had a shot of tequila and something red with vodka in it... both served in glasses made of ice (which you get to smash afterwards... and that's strangely satisfying) and both within the space of about five minutes. But because I'm a complete and total cheap drunk, it was probably a mistake to have both of the drinks... it made my already existing headache worse.
We didn't even last the half hour... once you've had a drink and looked around the very, very small bar (it's essentially a refrigerated shipping container) and the ice sculptures and realised how incredibly cold it really is... there really isn't that much else to do. Especially at 1 in the afternoon when you're the only people there.
Since we were all a little over the wandering thing at that stage, we hopped on the City Circle Tram and took the loop back around to Queen Street, then legged it up the hill to the hotel (stopping on the way to get some drugs for my headache). Once we got back we dumped our purchases (and my freakin massive jacket), I booked the car to take us back to the airport on Monday morning and we headed back out again. I really was a total pumpkin head today thought... I still didn't take my blue hoodie with me when we went back out (because there was a patch of sunshine for about five minutes as we were getting back)... and it was still freezing out and about.
And as I mentioned at the top of this post, Item 396 on today's agenda was the Melbourne Aquarium... it's kinda hard to say, but I think the Melbourne one comes out ahead of the Sydney Aquarium... partly because of the penguins (and we had little discount voucher things which meant we didn't need to line up with everyone else which was nice). The penguins were totally adorable... and you definitely get up close with them... once you can fight your way through all the other people that is.
And the Canon definitely ran circles around the old Nikon... there are a few shots that ended up blurrier than I thought they were, but the new camera managed much better in the low light shots.
I did enjoy playing with the sea turtles in Coral Cove too... there was one particular one I was trying to get a clear shot of, and every time I tried it would switch directions on me... until I stopped, and then it would circle back towards me.
Unfortunately because there were a large number of kids running around the Aquarium (it being the last Friday of the school holidays for them) and me having had alcoholic beverages that had gone straight to my head... well, let's just say it wasn't great. It would be nice to go back there when it wasn't quite so packed out.
I bought Miss O (Princess T's sister) a plush purple sparkly penguin in the gift shop, but I resisted buying myself anything since there really wasn't anything that I wanted/"needed".
Once we were done we took the City Circle tram for the full loop... and I have to say, Docklands (where we're going tomorrow) looks radically different to how it did five years ago (dur!). I was kinda amused when PT was having a conversation with La Cousina (via the ever present mobile phone) while we were on the tram and she said "he takes photos of EVERYTHING" in reference to me. Which is true... but still funny, especially since I don't even think about it any more...
When we looped all the way around to DFO, we hopped off and went to do more "looking at things". The DFO is just massive though... there is nothing on that scale in the CBD in Adelaide, it would be like taking one of the smaller suburban malls and dropping it on top of the Railway Station.
Anyway, there were lots more things I couldn't buy at DFO, but I did get some Converse socks (thanks to Cute Homo #2186, Luke, who served me), and poked around the Smiggle store (woohoo Melbourne Smiggle), which is also a much bigger store than the one we have.
When we were done we headed back to the hotel on foot (woohoo... not), and I wanted to segue over to the Bourke Street Mall to pick up some superhero underwear I'd seen, so the girls headed back to the hotel and struck out by myself.
It was actually pretty freeing to be out on my own and not feeling quite so much like "la touristo" (I even had the required Crumpler bag.... I must have seen dozens of them all over Melbourne). While I was browsing the superhero boxerbriefs I got chatting with Peter who worked there about this, that and the other (it started with a Superman vs Batman conversation and went from there), but I never let on that I wasn't local. Eventually I picked out a pair of Batman boxerbriefs, bid farewell to Peter and headed down Royal Arcade to look for toy soldiers at Jasper Junior and Babushkas... I didn't have any luck at Jasper Junior, but I did get chatting with the girls that work there about the whole toy soldier thing (sadly they couldn't really recommend anywhere I should try). I did have better luck in Babushkas though... when we'd swung through in the morning (which feels like 100 years ago), I'd seen a Russian style toy soldier money box I quite liked... and while it was kinda expensive (I actually did the whole "I'll have to think about it" thing... then turned around about two stores away and came back and bought it), it's very different and very cool looking.
My next stop was Minotaur again, since I had time to myself, and while I didn't spend that long there, I did pick up the first Buffy Season 8 graphic novel before I toddled off back to the hotel.
I pottered around my room for a bit (after letting Ma know I was back), then we headed down to the Mexican restaurant just around the corner. Unfortunately when we got there it was packed out and very noisy, so we ended up getting take-out and bringing it back to the hotel.
Once we were finished, I bit adieu to the ladies and came back to my room to do a spot of journal writing and generally collapse. I'm just flat out tired now... and the lanes around the hotel are home to all kinds of pubs and clubs... the pub across the lane seems to be surrounded by people from around noon, and there's an underground club right across from the hotel, and another just across the street. Joy of joys...
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