Elusive Travels

We landed around 6pm on Friday 7th December at Melbourne airport after a  five hour flight from Cairns. At the airport we booked a Sky Bus return journey that costs $28/per head which took us to Southern cross station, and from there we took a free shuttle bus into the city to the Crowne Promenade hotel where we spent the weekend.

The first thing I noticed when entering the metropolis, was that the look and feel of the city was similar to London, in the sense that you had towering skyscrapers but lots of old buildings and side streets that reminded me of  Oxford and Regent street in London. 
Gettting around the city was fairly easy, around 10-15 mins walk to Southerncross station and about and eight  minute walk to Flinders Street station.  There are numerous ways to travel around the city, buses, trams, taxis or simply just walking.

Since we were quite tired we decided to relax at the hotel, grab a quick dinner and then at night we decided to check out the clubbing scene. The Hotel recommended us to pay a visit to Fusion and Co, we opted for fusion and for the first time in 2 years it was a fantastic experience to be in a club that played R&B music, a genre of music which seems to be lacking in Singapore's nightclubs. Another good thing was that as guests of the hotel which owned the  Crowne entertainement complex where Fusion and Co are located, we were given free entry.   Overall the club is a great venue if you want to enjoy good music, and dance, the crowd can be a little hit and miss depending on which nights you go.  Co which we visited on Saturday and Sunday night was also similar to Fusion.

On Saturday morning after being well rested, we had brunch at Brown Sugar Cafe located at 25 Block place and then  we headed over to Flinder's street station and hopped on the City Circle tram, an old style tram providing a free tour of the city with a recorded voice telling you all about the important locations, we passed Melbourne Aquarium, Docklands, Etihad Stadium, City museum and many other locations. It's a great way to see the city and you also get to learn interesting facts.  As it's a free service  you also tend to find a lot of people using it as a quick way to get to their next destination without having to wait for the paid tram service.

The tour lasted one hour, after which we visited David Jones department store to buy Christmas pudding for my aunt, who had invited us over for dinner at her house in Dandenong, located in the suburbs of Melbourne.  Around 6.45pm we headed by Taxi to Dandenong arriving at my Aunt's around 7.30, after many discussions and laughs we enjoyed a delicious Sri Lankan home cooked meal before saying good byes and making our way back to Melbourne around midnight where we then decided to go clubbing at Co.

The rest of the remaining days, we spent wondering the city trying out different foods and night life  and on  the last day, Monday 10th we metup with an old school friend of mine whom I had not seen in 17 years. We left each others company with a promise that the next time I visit Australia we would visit more of Melbourne, in particular "Great Ocean" road and take a road trip around the outback, which I was told was an amazing way to see the country especially for a keen photographer like myself.