Long time, no .. writing

Pff.. almost 3 months since last post...
Yes, I'm still alive :) I think I hibernated during the winter / spring, but the summer is here (is it ?).

Cold and foggy winter morning in Melbourne

Pretty cold morning (Friday, 12/08) in Melbourne, but this is nothing comparing to the view of the CBD's surroundings from 42nd floor.

South-east of CBD, Eureka Tower / Southbank:


South Melbourne / Port Melbourne :

North-west of CBD, (West Melbourne suburb) :


Towards Southern Cross Train Station/Docklands :

How to get home in 2h:30min instead of 30 minutes

.... it took me 2h and 30 minutes to get home on Thursday evening ... instead of 30 minutes.

Police closed the Flagstaff train station just when I was about to enter - they were after a man with a (fake) gun and stopped all trains going through the city loop during this time.

Imagine how a CBD train station looks like at peak hour (5-6pm) after few trains don't run ... Every station was crowded.

And this is not all ... other train had problems on the line so that added delays.

I don't understand why they usually choose to stop the train between stations and to wait for 10 minutes or more, instead of stopping in a station so if somebody (that would be me) wants to get a taxi can get out. Too bad I got the wrong express train (Metlink's mistake showing different train on the screen) as it didn't stop at my station, only between....

Yeah... cool...

Silvers Grand Magic Circus

Today we saw Silvers Grand Magic Circus - very good show.

Don't miss the chance and take your kids to the show @ Caulfield Racecourse - Gate 21 Car Park, by end of July.






You can find parking there (2 AUD/day).



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A tribute to the spirit of Migrants

Nice hobby - a tribute to the spirit of Migrants.

I think for somebody born here in Australia this is very interesting - to find a part of your parents or grandparents courageous act to migrate to Australia ..
An old man was selling pictures with the ships. Very impressive to see the lists he has with the ships, names and photos...

Very impressive collection - "Your migrant ship -- 50 years ago" and very interesting times ....

Well, can you do the same for the migrant today ? Maybe collect some pictures with airplane models ? :))

Palais Theatre

A former cinema (DION), now functioning (!?) exclusively as a concert venue, The Palais Theatre is located in St Kilda right next to Luna Park. It is the largest seated theatre in Australia(a capacity of 2,896 people).

From outside, it doesn't seam to be functioning. This is, I think, because - "the redevelopment attempt failed to go ahead and the planned $20 million restoration of the Palais was abandoned".

Abandoned ... yes, by looking at the building it seams the builders ran away ... Not good for a building that is on the Victorian Heritage Register and is considered one of the finest examples of Art deco architecture in Australia.

But it still hosts shows, for example right now you can see "SOWETO GOSPEL CHOIR" so go there and enjoy.






From one side and from the back you can see a combination of Art deco architecture and modern construction plastic pipes.

Luna Park

We finally visited Luna Park - a historic amusement park located on the foreshore of Port Phillip Bay in St Kilda, Victoria, an inner suburb of Melbourne, Australia.
It opened on 13 December 1912 and has been operating almost continuously ever since.

This was the first of the four Luna Parks that were built in Australia, of which only Melbourne and Luna Park Sydney are still operating. The other two, now defunct, Luna Parks were at Glenelg in South Australia (1930–1934) and at Redcliffe in Queensland (1944–1966).


Location: 18 Lower Esplanade, St Kilda VIC 3182

"C" is for cookie?

"C" is for cookie? No!!! Right now "C" is for bloody Cold !

Melbourne - yesterday morning - 4C, cold
Melbourne - this morning - 6C, windy - bloody cold ....

So 2 things for you :
- don't come in Australia (Melbourne) with the impression that the weather is very hot, as it isn't (last summer for example there were 2-3 days with temperature around 40C, but the rest of the days were colder than we were used in EU)
- search for a house to rent with ducted heating, preferably few minutes from the train station (you might have to walk to the train station when/if you don't have a car).

But, as we've been told, this year is a strange year - it was not like this before... who knows what to think about this global warming ... But if this is global warming, I wouldn't be surprised to see snow in Melbourne soon....

Visit at the Farm

Yesterday we visited the Collingwood Children's Farm - located only 5km from the centre of Melbourne.
- established in 1979 as a not-for-profit community resource providing country experiences for city people.
- open every day of the year
- address : 18 St Heliers St Abbotsford, Melbourne, VIC, 3067


View Larger Map

Some photos below.

Nice map of the farm :




Beware of snakes !!



* there wasn't any at that time :)






















It was an interesting and relaxing experience.

Melbourne - night lights

The winter is coming so the day is shorter. The only good thing about this is that before leaving the office it is dark so I can admire the city lights & night sky.

Melbourne - photo taken from CBD facing western suburbs

Middle left - Southern Cross train station bridge and Docklands

ANZAC Day

Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand, and is commemorated by both countries on 25 April every year to honour members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I. It now more broadly commemorates all those who died and served in military operations for their countries.

An event is being organized at The Shrine of Remembrance on Monday, 25 April.

Good Friday

Good Friday (today) is a religious holiday observed primarily by Christians commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary. Based on the details of the Canonical gospels, the Crucifixion of Jesus was most probably on a Friday.

Almost everybody is on holiday here in Melbourne/VIC until next Wednesday - the last longest public holiday until Christmas.

Fly over Melbourne

While I was going to work this morning I noticed some people were doing something much more interesting - they were flying in a hot air balloon over Melbourne.

Canberra

Ok, now the last part about our trip - Sydney to Canberra and back to Melbourne.

Sydney to Canberra - the rain stopped when we entered ACT.
The freeway / highway was not crowded.


The Parliament House was one of the few things we've been able to visit (or where we saw something interesting) as we arrived around 17:00 on Saturday so everything was closed at that time.

The parking space is somewhere under the building and it was quite strange as we didn't saw any sign that the parking space is for visitors. Remember, we were coming from Sydney, so I was expecting to pay the parking at least here at the Parliament House...


You can go on the hill almost to the top. If you go during visiting hours, you should be able to visit more.




You'll have a nice view over the city from here.



Somewhere in the city - the autumn looks nicer in Canberra.


On Saturday evening there was a big event - Canberra day or something..

The streets of Canberra - it was early on Sunday morning so almost nobody on the streets.


On the way back to Melbourne




I noticed that in Victoria the Rest Areas are nicer than in NSW or ACT. Many of them have BBQ areas with 3-4 bbqs. Don't know if they work as I haven't tried, and some were not clean (I wouldn't eat something done on them), but anyway, you have options :)
This is nice for example if you go on a holiday with a camper van, and you want to stop for a bbq :)



I noticed I was more tired after Canberra to Melbourne, than the initial Melbourne - Sydney, but we made it back. Our Verada is very nice to drive on such long trips.

Last impressions after this trip:
- it was nice that we saw that part of Australia, it is ok to drive there as the roads are not crowded, but there is not much to see. If you want to take the time to stop on the way there in some other cities, it might be much more interesting.
- the parking in Sydney is very expensive. I recommend, if you don't have any plans/time to visit something else while you are there, to go there by airplane and rent a car if you really need to do some trips (Blue Mountains etc). As I was busy during the day (training), we didn't have time to do any trips so the car stayed in the parking all week (at level 7 - underground. I was not able to understand the floor numbers, as it started from 3 ... so only 4 levels down, but anyway considering the age of that building it was an unique experience to get the car from there).
- not much to see/do in Canberra and the restaurants are expensive (we stayed there from Saturday to Sunday morning, so this statement might not be correct, but the city is not really a touristic destination).