Monday, October 17, 2011

City of FREE Surprises
Day 14-Melbourne, Australia Thursday, Oct. 13, 2011
Had a lovely day in Melbourne today. Woke up early and headed out to take an aboriginal heritage walk at the Royal Botanical Gardens that I had read about. On the way, I spotted a tourist information spot and decided to have a look. Good thing because they told me about the 2 FREE shuttle and tram car buses for tourists around the city and how to get to the garden. It took me walking the entire garden (which was quite lovely only I was nervous about time) to make it to the proper gate for the tour…only to find out it was $25 and that was way out of my budget. But, they had a tour at the same time for FREE and that was just in my price range! I took the 1.5 hour walking tour of the gardens and learned a lot about the history of the gardens as well as some of the aboriginal uses of plants so turned out not half bad! On the tour with me was an Australian couple from the countryside and an American woman who's husband does business here. Ruth was the volunteer tour guide and was very sweet. My favorite spot in the garden was the ladies craft cottage where they make crafts entirely out of nature—I took lots of photos and can't wait to try out some of their ingenious ideas! After the garden, (where there were LOTS of runners and I was mad I didn't have my gear with me) I decided to check out St. Kilda pier since it was close by. My entire reason for coming to Melbourne was to see the Penguin Parade at Phillip Island, however, it is about a $90, all day tour, that would have me back at night and I didn't want to do that alone. After talking to the Spanish guy the first night, he gave me a tip on a local pier that has penguins as well and is a local best kept secret spot.
While waiting for the tram, I met 2 Aussie girls and an Irish guy who were also headed that way. At the pier, the girls went off to pick up a cake (it's a big baking area) and the guy (Kevin) and I headed off to find penguins. We saw one but were told to come back at night time to see them out. So, we grabbed lunch on the pier, rode around the FREE trams for the rest of the afternoon, tried new Zealand ice cream, sat in the public square for FREE wifi to post my blog : ) (and witnessed a commercial filming), met up with his Irish buddy at a pub, and had finally killed enough time to head back for penguins. They are the smallest species of them in the world and they were quite cute! Got some photos and video but they didn't turn out well since you are not allowed to use flash (that can damage their eyesight and frighten them). Along with the penguins, came a free showing of HUGE water rats that live there too…I could have done without that added bonus. It was a fun time and best of all…FREE! By the time we were done, it was 9 pm and I still had to get back to my friend's house where I'm staying, outside the city. So Kevin rode with me and walked me back safely where I was greeted with the remnants of a dinner party—homemade pizza and fantastic, worldly conversations with a living room full of people representing 4 nations! I love those kinds of nights!