Hostel

Our first day in Melbourne was spent getting settled. We are staying at a hostel downtown. Ten room bunk, theres a Canadian, a couple of Sweds, and Fins, and a british couple. We walked around the city for a bit, ate at a cute cafe and had a garden salad and a trio of spreads plate and a Victoria Bitter, walked around a bit more then hung at the hostel. We ended up falling asleep by 6pm, jet lagged and exhausted. We slept until six the next morning. That day we walked around the whole city, stopped at the farmers market, it reminded me of global market on lake street, and to the beach at St. Kilda- which is about a 1.5 hour walk. Went window shopping, got a "burger", and played at the beach for a bit. We walked 11 hours that day, and fell asleep by 7pm. Yesterday we were up early again and spent the morning at a park reading. Spent the afternoon at Melbourne Museum. They have a live rain forest with birds lizards and snakes. A bug exhibit with live and dead bugs. It was helpful to see that to prepare myself for whats to come. There was a mind and body exhibit, and an aboriginal exhibit with lots of artwork and historical information. That evening we hung out at the hostel with the dorm mates, and I was asleep by 8. Today we visited the Federation Square, which is a the National Gallery of Victoria. We looked at all the aboriginal art, which is unlike anything i've seen, they use a small round tool and dip it in natural earth colors and make their pictures out of little dots. I really like them and if I come across an affordable picture i'd like to purchase one. There was also a ton Austalian paintings from the 18-1900's. The highlight was an exhibit called No standing only dancing, which was a collection of photographs by Rennie Ellis, an Australian photographer who died in 2003. His collection comprised of pictures from Australian society in the 70's and 80's. It showcased over 200 photographs of famous parties with the Bee Gees and ACDC, to every day photos, just great ones of getting people off guard and doing their daily things, I really really enjoyed this gallery! One more night at the hostel and then we are off to the Mays. -Cheers!