Today was the day I tried not to spend any of my budgeted money because I bought expensive insoles. Argh. Darn my feet, anyway.

Mission accomplished. Yesterday I skipped a museum so at least I had coffee money, and leftovers for dinner. Luckily, all my daily activities didn’t cost anything but footsteps.

The country’s capitol was here in Melbourne for a few years so they have a very nice capitol building to show for it. The guide was lucky to have a small group, and we got lots of extra time in the rooms too.

It is great to see a parliament building that has never been bombed, or burned, or torn down in a revolution. All original finishes and woodwork.

After lunch, the treasury. Gold was discovered here just after the area was granted independence from New South Wales. Very convenient timing. Melbourne the city grew like crazy. The area under settlement went from a European population of zero to 5 million in less than 200 years. That’s nuts! The building itself is partly now a museum.

Of course I went in some churches too.

Its chilly here now, so again I went home early to watch a move before dinner. Now I’m hooked on Peaky Blinders, thanks a lot Netflix.

After dinner I roamed around the Japanese dollar store. So much crap, and so much more awesome than the dollar store junk we have at home. Not really, but it’s cuter.

Good night, beautiful people

After a generally shitty night, we were all blessed with the dulcet tones of a bullhorn at 530 this morning, announcing all kinds of unimportant crap about a road race. Whose starting line was directly outside our window. Arrrrrrgh.

That’s what you get for staying across from the main train station, I guess.

Anyhoo, since I was up now and love runners, I went out to watch the race and get a walk in. Also, that much activity gets me second breakfast. Wheeee!

At ten, I found the art gallery buzzing. There’s a MOMA traveling exhibit that the locals are mobbing. This leaves the rest of the permanent display for mostly me. It’s a nice place for a city of 5 million, not too big.

It was supposed to rain today, but after some lunch it was still so sunny that I walked to the Victoria market.

It’s a super popular day market, with produce, food stalls, and the most dissatisfying collection of Made In China garbage. What a bunch of junk.

Thank God for donuts. They swooped in to save my afternoon…and then ruin my night with the resulting heartburn. Because when you buy a bag of 5 donuts, you eat a bag of 5 donuts😑😑😑😑.

I’ll never learn. Good donuts tho.

After a savage, sudden rain shower…….another museum!!

Surprised?

This one, ACMI, was darn neat. It shows the history of moving images from the very beginning. Lots of neat displays about movies, TV, video games, you name it. There were virtual reality units showing movies, this was new for me to be able to watch. VR makes me queasy, and with those freaking donuts on board it was rough going. I persevered.

Now it’s only 4 but I am tired so I called it a day.

The hostel has a great TV room with beanbags and Netflix. It goes like this; somebody picks a movie and everybody has to kinda agree. Only, nobody WANTS to pick. So if you just pick something, nobody really complains if it’s bad. Sooooo….its been so much fun putting on bad movies and making everyone watch with me. I’ll pick something awful, wait 5 minutes and leave. Everyone left just sits and watches it because its easier than changing the movie. Also, I kinda hide the remote.

I’ve made everyone watch The Fifth Element 4 times now lolololololololololol.

However, today nobody let me pick. I very pointedly wasn’t given the remote. Somebody else picked Inception. What a trippy and great movie.

The bar downstairs had a open mic night. Kinda awful, but I couldn’t complain. A roommate performed 3 songs she’d written herself. Neat!

Finally, finally its bedtime. I’m so excited to sleep.

Yay!!

Melbourne continues to be awesome.

Today’s walking tour was in a cute beach neighborhood of the city. I got there way too early as usual, and spent an hour in the shops. St Kilda is a mix of run down cool and gentrifaction. Very enjoyable morning.

After the walk, me and a new friend tried out one of the many cake shops. Originally run by the Jewish people who came here during/after WWII, some of the recipes are 100 years old. The cheesecake was good, I was told.

My afternoon was spent at one of the 5 or 6 museums downtown. Its great that you don’t have to go far to see art. Its literally one block from my hostel. Also it’s free, so that’s cool.

I bought some crap at the grocery store to eat for dinner because I spent my daily budget on coffee and sweets and a souvenir lol.

Saturday night is very lively here. I’ll go out for a walk later to see the ridiculousness.

Good night!!

It was delightful.

Reasons that this city is awesome:

• Trams in the city center are free
• Great coffee culture
• Lots of different types of folks
• There’s a Daiso here (kind of Japanese dollar store)
• Pub food is awesome
• Have I mentioned the coffee?
• Many museums are free
• So much more

The walking tour was great today; I learned a lot about Melbourne. The jail where Ned Kelly was hanged is now a nice courtyard where you can buy pesto sandwiches and boutique chocolates lol. Progress.

There’s the river Yarra and a waterfront promenade with tons of shops and restaurants.

So much to see in town, and an easy day trip to the beach is a train ride away.

I love it already!