Day 124: 4/5/13
I was up early enough this morning as I wanted to get this Vietnamese visa sorted. I had rang the embassy during the week and they sounded fairly official and fairly good. It seemed like it would be okay to send the passport and all the trip advisor type comments on the Internet I read all had no problems sending their passport, so I decided I had to go for it!
I got the form and documents and everything sorted and was at the post office in time for them to open at 9! I had to buy the envelopes and get a money order for the cost of the visa. I wanted to send it by registered post obviously. But I had to send the return envelope aswell and I wanted that to be registered coming back to me! The guy at the counter wasn't sure about it as you need to weigh registered post but I managed to convince him that the weight I would be sending would be the same weight I would get back and then he put in the registered post and gave me the tracking number for both. It will be probably a week and a half by the time it's posted an sent back so hopefully there's no dramas with it!!
I had gone early to the post office so I'd be back for the market tour at 10! Alex, the German girl, and Triin, the Estonian girl were both doing the tour aswell. An English girl, Hope, joined us too as she was on her own. We stopped at the Shrine of Remembrance on the way as most people on the bus hadnt been there. So I was there for a third time!! We just sopped for a few minutes so they could see the view from the top! We went to Prahran market first. It's a bit like Victoria market and its open most days. It was indoors and had a fruit and veg section, some bakery sections, cheeses, etc. There were lots of things to taste so it was pretty cool. The most interesting thing I tasted was a date and pistachio ball. The dates were all squished into a round brown ball and it was covered in pistachio then and looked almost green. It was about the size of a tennis ball, but to taste it they just put a bit on a cracker and served it with really strong blue cheese. It isn't something you'd imagine putting together but it tasted really good!
After that we went to St Kilda's farmers market. There were loads of nice things to taste there- cheese, pâté, pastries, nuts, dips.... We were stuffed afterwards! There was an afl game on in the field behind the market aswell which was entertaining- I'd say it was the junior C version!
We drove on to Brighton beach then. Here they have loads of colourful little beach houses along the beach which look really good in photos! They seemed like boat sheds or something and some of them had locks on them so Id say they are definitely used but I don't know what for!
The driver changed the itinerary a bit then as he saw in the paper that there was a vintage market on in a hotel with clothes and jewellery and stuff. We went there but it was tiny. There were really cheap deals on the clothes and stuff but there wasn't a great selection! We went to the Rose street craft market then that we had been to last week. I didn't mind as it's a nice market to poke around and there was different stuff there this week.
The driver was full of information this week. We drove through chinatown and he said its one of the oldest in te world as all the chinese came during the gold rush. He was showing us the free tourist bus which I haven't gotten yet. Also, there is a free bicycle service- you just have to pay a $100 deposit and keep checking in at depots every half hour. I might think about doing that but have to check how you get your deposit back as there aren't any people at these depots!
A short while after the tour the three girls (English, Estonian and German) went for some food in Chinatown. We shared some dishes between us but they weren't great! I don't think the English girl was impressed with the prices even though it was no dearer than other restaurants.
The bus driver had reccommended a pub down the road called Section 8 so myself, Triine and Alex called in there for a drink. The bar was outside with barrels painted for tables. The bar itself was in a mobile home kind of a van thing so it was very different! There was lots of graffiti kind of art around aswell, which is typical of Melbourne! The other two girls were very excited as they had mulled wine and its something they'd always have at home in winter! I don't like it so I'd a beer instead!
We went back to the hostel then for a little while. It's Alex's birthday tomorrow and earlier in the week she said she wanted to go out so I said I'd go with her. Triine decided to come too. It actually ended up being her 21st which I didn't realise. I knew she was young, but all the Germans seem so much more mature and grown up than we do!! She definitely doesn't seem the same as Cliona!
I was talking to Shell and Mam for a few minutes before we went out. Mam and Dad are up visiting in the Cooley mountains for the May bank holiday weekend. They had no news really so I'll get the goss later in the weekend!
We didn't really know where to go out as there aren't many pubs in the city centre. Generally I think people go out to certain suburbs where there are while streets of bars and restaurants, like Chapel Street where Laura lives. We went to the bar downstairs in the hostel first anyway as there were two other girls goin to join us but then we didn't hear from them so they must have changed their mind! We walked down the road a bit then to a pub called Thousand Pound Bend. It had an arty kind of a vibe to it but there weren't hat many people there. Triine and Alex are very different so I don't think either of them were very impressed! Alex wanted to go somewhere where there was people and to dance as it was we birthday! Triine spent ages looking up pubs on her phone and reading reviews of them and things! Alex was saying why can't we just walk until we find a pub! I said very little!! I didn't care where we went anyway!
We went to another pub called Lala Land which sounded good according to the phone. It was a nice pub but it was quiet aswell. There were lots of couches so everyone was sitting around chatting- it wasn't the kind of place where Alex could dance! Two guys came talking to us for a few minutes. One was Portugese and he said the pubs aren't like the ones in Europe- they don't stay open late and they can be pretty boring!
We walked on then and there was a guy offering 2 for 1 drinks in his pub/club so went in. It was more a night club and there was a dance floor but there weren't many in it yet! Most people there had a Maori look about them and the music was very hip hop. There were girls dancing on a pole then, just customers on their night out though! They gathered up their handbags after a few minutes and off they went! We definitely weren't gangsta enough for the place!! Alex wanted to get the 2 for 1 drinks. Triine didn't want to stay at all but we ended up having one drink and leaving the second one behind us!
We went back to Section 8 then, the one we had been in earlier in the day. It was fairly busy. There's a nice atmosphere there even though technically we're all just standing outside! We were talking to some Brazilian guys there who have been here for a few months but they couldn't tell us where the best bar was!
Triine then knew some guys from her farm work that were working in a bar here and just finished so we went to their bar- the Carlton hotel. That one was good and full of people! We went up about a million stairs as the guys were up on the rooftop. It was pretty cool to be on the rooftop as you could see all the high rise buildings around. Luckily they had heaters in all these outdoor bars as it was freezing out!! Triune went off talking to the lads so Alex and I had a drink and were just chatting. The place was closing soon and we were getting tired so we decide to go shortly after and Triine stayed o with the lads. We were hungry so popped into KFC on the way home!
The walk home was pretty long as it was fecking cold at 2 in the morning and I've no right jacket!! It was an okay night- it was nice to see some pubs and see what they are like- nothing compared to any Irish pub really! I did feel pretty caught in the middle with the two girls though!!