Marvelous Smellbourne

Melbourne, city of culture and rain and home to the worlds wrongest right turn where you have to go in the left lane to turn right at an intersection. Enough to make one find a good parking spot and just tram around instead. The drive in involved a trip through the Snowy Mountains, or more accurately, Snowpatch Mountains. To be fair, one of the winding roads we intended to take was closed due to snow. We stayed in the foothills in a quaint town at a pub hotel. It was a cold night indeed, and to add insult to injury we found out we both had slept all night with our electric blankets off.

We hit a museum or three museum, saw some dinosaur skeletons, as we do in almost every city, working out Saurischians from Ornischians, admiring ancient books in the gorgeous State Library's exhibit, Ned Kelly's famous armour, and the typical marble busts of DWGs (dead white guys). We walked around the Botanical Gardens and crisscrossed the city on foot and on tram across precincts. We enjoyed the permanent collection at the NGV (National Gallery of Victoria) which boasted a choppy collection of artifacts from Mesopotamia through the Classical roman right to Maori sculptures from the 60s. 

Wildlife was cute and cuddly on the surface but turned out to be dark and evil, a little possum bit Kent's hand before posing politely for a picture with Louis.

We went out with Bec and Mr. Whiting (Jacqui's sis and dad) and stayed with them as well for the first few nights which was great. We enjoyed their neighbourhood St. Kilda, the nearby beach and their dogs Mr Gus and Saf. They treated us like royalty, showing us around and taking us to some of Melbourne's best haunts.

Then our old friend Michelle Deakin came down on the train all the way from Orange, NSW on a day-long journey to hang out with us for the week-end. How jubilant we were to see her on the platform! We were Melbourne experts by then and knew just where to go for the best cafes on Degraves lane, the hippest shops in Fitzroy, and the coolest bars on Chapel Street in South Yarra where we broke the bank on fancy drinks. The highlight was a bar called Borsch, Vodka and Tears which boasted an unprecedented selection of vodkas and cocktails and served amazing soup too. Fireplaces and cheap beer were welcome commodities breaking up the stylish scene and fancy cocktails.

We now look forward to driving along the Great Ocean Road with our spankin' new mix CDs!

Love!