Day 3 - The City

Today I managed to get up and get moving quickly so I wouldn't oversleep and be a crank all day. (somewhat successful). We started off by walking to the Melbourne Museum where we were given the chance to roam for an hour. It was a decent museum but an hour doesn't really do it justice to explore. I saw some crazy finches on the feeder, or at least I think they were crazy finches. After the museum we had to the option to keep looking or walk to the Queen Victoria Markets - I opted for the market but now completely regret because it turns out the museum dissected a giant squid live for the people who stayed - CRAP! Oh well at least now I know where to go for cheesy merchandise, meat, cheese, and fresh produce. After a quick lunch back at Queen's we took our first tram ride into the city to be toursity and visit the Eureka Sky deck, 88 floors up, 267 meters or something - it was HIGH!! Gave a great view of the city. Afterwards we picked groups and went on a scavenger hunt around the city to "learn Melbourne" My group consisted of me, Thanh (from Maine), and Chaenny (from Korea) and we had a good time rumbling around. I got a little frustrated because many of the tasks required us to buy things (ie, buy creme filled donuts and return to Queens with them = 50 pts each) UM HELLO - donuts cost 2.50 a piece!!! One task asked you to buy a bar a round of beers. (Beers cost like 4 bucks) I was just annoyed since we had spent so much money already and then they were expecting us to drop 20 on game. So my group took the cheap way and we avoided costly tasks and tracked down everything else. We met many Aussies and all of them wanted to help us, which made it more exciting! We made it back just in time to beat the deadline. I had about 20 minutes to change for the "formal dinner" - which was really formal apparently cause many of the girls were in dresses (cocktailish) and some the guys even had suits. I wore a skirt with a nice top and called it a night. I decided to skip the pubs and catch up on some emails and work on preventing jet lag. Hopefully tomorrow I wont be soooo tired!

PS: The foot has definitely been improving - it's hardly swollen anymore and now this is just a hideous bruise.


Finches? UPDATE: Red-browed Finch (Firetail)




Penguin Display :)


The gateway to the market...





"The City" - this is the Melbourne from all of the books, probably a lot prettier on a non-overcast day

View from the Skydeck




Another View from the Skydeck


Buidling in Federation square (area for outdoor concerts and tourists...not that I know any)