Day 13 - EPIC Walk

Our early mornings in Frank are a distant memory, sleeping in a real bed, in a real building has resulted in lay-ins.

Having explored enough to get our barings on Saturday we planned to use Sunday to get to MCG and the Olympic Park. On our way there we had identified a Bazaar to visit; we set off, map in hand.

Our first pot of call was Chapel Street, one of the main streets linking South Melbourne to the city, and it is long! It's starts of very residential, with higgledy piggledy house lining the road. About a mile up the houses turn to shops of every sort imaginable! From greasy spoons to laundrettes, pawn brokers to prawn brokers, off licences and every takeaway you could wish for. It got busy too. People on the pavements impatient to get their chores done and get back home to finish their Christmas preparations.

Just as we were starting too doubt our orienteering skills we stumbled across the Bazaar. We found an Aladdin's Cave of junk. Junk, crap and tat! I'm sure if you've got an eye for that sort of thing you'd find the odd priceless antique but neither Holly or Clarkey have an eye for that sort of thing! We spent a good hour perusing the wears before deciding it was unlikely we'd find Del Boys pocket watch and suddenly become 'millionaires'.

We continued our walk to the city, Chapel St became Church St, and a left onto Swan St gave us our first glimpse of the MCG's floodlights in the distance. The MCG is on the same site as what was the Olympic Park. Whilst the stadiums remain and are now the homes of Soccer, Cricket, Aussie Rules and Tennis, there is no sense of the Olympics at all. The MCG is a pretty dull building made of concrete and RSJ's. We went the shop entrance but had just missed the last tour so settled on taking photos of the square through the gaps in the stands. As a venue it's not a patch on Lords but it is considerably bigger.

Next our walk was to take us to Melbourne's CBD via a bridge way not dissimilar to Wembley Way. When we came into the city we found ourselves in Federation Square, which is a modern architectural assault. There was an African Tribe celebration going on with performers on the live stage, broadcast on the massive screen above. The square was packed with African Tribes in their tribal colours, dancing and signing. Not very Christmassy but definitely lots of life and celebration.

Once we'd recuperated we headed to the tram stop. Unable to fathom the ticketing system for the trams we decided that given our epic efforts so far we would complete the journey on foot this final stint turned into a bit of a slog, not helped by the incessant files swarming around us. Just over an hour and about another 4 miles later we got back to our apartment. On the plus side we saw more of Melbourne then we'd have seen on any other form of transport.

We finished Sunday off with a well deserved dinner at a lovely Malaysian spot on Acland St. We did have to scoot our table under the awning when a sudden shower took everyone by surprise, but being British and determinately on holiday we stuck it out rather then go inside.