Recap: Melbourne
Nov. 9th, 2008 10:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canadian_turtleMood: 
|| Accomplished
Tune : Watching Australian Idol *shock* Well, not really watching, but it's on TV
I managed to write a recap within a week's time, hallelujah! Melbourne was great, the highlight for me was definitely finally seeing the musical Wicked. I love theatre, and musicals in particular, and it's been a few months since I've had a chance to see one so I was kind of going to withdrawal. I've been listening to the soundtrack pretty much all the time since (when I am not working or sleeping) it's really good.
October 31:
Got up at 4am (!) and met Sherrie at Central station at 5.30. We were both surprisingly awake after not really sleeping that night. The trip to Melbourne went well and before we knew it we were at our hostel. Far too early to check in so we asked the girl there what would be a good place to have breakfast as she suggested Degraves Street. Which was a cute little street (like so many in Melbourne) with a lot of cafes, as you can see below:
^ This store was just around the corner from it and obviously we had to go inside ;)
^ On our way back to our hostel we came across the sci-fi store Minotaur which we checked out. We drooled a lot but were very good and not buying anythingyet
When we got rid of our bags we decided to take the Circle Line Tram and Tourist bus around the city to see what Melbourne had to offer. Both were very interesting, though I fell asleep in the bus and missed half of the route, whoops.
^ We got off at Victoria Market, which was awesome. It's kind of like Paddy's Market in Sydney but much spacier, bigger and with a lot more variety.
^ We saw odd lamps O_O
^ Cute fuzzy animals
And loads of other stuff like amazing selections of cheeses and olives, nom nom nom
^ Something random, but pretty we saw on our way
^ Federation square. As you can see, the buildings in Melbourne are very divers. Some look modern, others look really old
^ Flinders Station
^ You could text message to a certain number and it would appear on this wall
^ I know, right? Ozzies and their Christmas *shakes head*
In the evening we met a friend of Sherrie's for dinner and she was really nice. We had a great time geeking out over TV-shows and getting excited for the Armageddon con the next day. After dinner we dropped her off at the address for the con cocktail party with the guests (which I wanted to crash but wasn't allowed, such a shame) and bought some groceries before we headed back to the hostel. Not too much later Gen arrived as well and I have no clue what we did after that, I was too tired to remember :\
November 1:
Before the con we had breakfast with some online friends, amongst which was![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
yokiem, who was a real pleasure to meet :) The con itself was honestly not that great. David Anders had cancelled so for me and Gen there was no one in particular we went for. Not a big deal, because I had hoped I would be able to score some cool merchandise but in contrary to what I am used to in London there weren't a whole lot of stands, so there wasn't much to pick from. In the end I left with a Sylar action figure (I know they’re ugly, I just wanted to buy *something* :P) and a few Doctor Who books.
^ Didn't get any autographs, I did go sneak a glance at William Katt who most people probably know as The Greatest American Hero but I know as the guy that got iced by Tracy in Heroes.
I was personally not interested in seeing any of the panels but Sherrie liked to see the David Hewlett one, so we went to the talk area for that. We caught most of the panel before that as well which was with a bunch of voice actors from TV-shows I don't know. It was mostly those Japanese shows, the only one that was different and I do know is Fairly Odd Parents. Nonetheless were the guests really funny and I wasn't completely bored out of my head while sitting there.
And David Hewlett? OMG! I haven't seen a single episode of Stargate Atlantis and I honestly don't remember him from Stargate SG-1, but his talk was AMAZING! Easily one of the best talks I have ever seen. He was just so damned funny and spot on with everything he said. He really made me want to check out stuff he's worked on.
^ Paparazzi pic I took of David
After the con we went back to Minotaur because it actually had a better selection of sci-fi stuff than the con and I bought a Doctor Who magazine and the 2008 annual, comics (Fringe, a few from Chuck, Rest) and uhm basically spent a lot of money. We went a bit more shopping after that though it was mostly window shopping for me. After that we went to Chinatown to a dumpling place Gen knew. I had never had dumplings before but there were very yummy.
^ Chinatown
I think we did some more shopping after that, I don't really recall :\
In the evening we had dinner at this great place near the water. I had a delicious pizza which didn't really look like a pizza (it was folded up) o.O And every hour these pillars would spit flames, which was quite impressive to see. Though we had a better view when we were walking back to the hostel and the flames came on again as we were crossing the bridge:
When we got back to the hostel everyone was standing outside and there were cops. We asked what was going on and apparently there had been a guy (or two, still not sure) who had broken down the door to the hostel and was trying to get into the rooms searching for someone. We were outside for a good half hour before we were let in and saw the impact inside. There were more cops and they told us not to touch some of the walls because they were fingerprinting it (I saw them doing it which was actually pretty cool).
On our floor one of the doors was broken down and there was blood in the room from the guy who had broken in. Apparently a beer bottle had hit him in the head or something. He had been taken away before we came to the hostel, so we don't know for sure what happened. Our room however did no longer open and our neighbours said that someone had knocked loud on their door and we figured the same had happened to ours and something in the lock had moved because of that. We eventually got in with another key though, but it was quite an exciting evening and I am glad we weren't there when all the action had taken place.
November 2:
Today we went to St. Kilda, which is I believe the most popular part of Melbourne. It's where the beach is and loads of palm trees that make it all look really tropical (even when it's chilly). We wandered around the Esplanade Market which was really cool and I picked up a few presents there to send overseas.
^ Also really well known from Melbourne is the Luna Park. We didn't actually go into any of the rides, but it's free to get in there so we just grabbed lunch there
^ This wasn't called a hot dog, but it had a really odd name. I forgot though :\
^ In the evening we went to the musical Wicked, which, as said before, was truly amazing. The songs were very good and catching, I loved the majority of the actors and the story was just really clever. It rewrites the story of The Wizard of Oz, making the Wicked Witch of the West one of the good guys, without changing anything of what we know from the original story. Brilliant.
^ The theatre was beautiful by the way. My pictures didn't really come out well, but hopefully this can give a small impression
^ And then we had to go back to the real world :( It's always hard after such an amazing show. We went to Chinatown again for dinner and had dumplings again. What do you mean addicted :P
November 3:
Our last day in Melbourne we didn't do a whole lot, but that's alright. In the morning we watched a bunch of LOST season 4 episodes as Gen had bought the DVDs and we'd watched an episode the day before and had gotten really addicted to it.
After that we planned to take the bus to an interesting point and get off to explore it but in the end we only went a few blocks further as we heard there would be a Melbourne Cup Parade and we were interested to see what it would be like. It was alright, not overly interesting, there were old winners of the cup in the parade as well as general entertainers.
^ This is a Dutch musician who's apparently huge in Australia. I see his face everywhere and there's piles and piles of his CDs in the stores. It's so weird. I can't stand the guy
The parade:
After the parade we went back to Degraves Street for a delicious brunch. Finally we made our way back to the hostel, picked up our stuff and went to our ride (which Gen had arranged \o/) which brought us to the airport.
I always have a window seat in the plane and I love making pictures from the air *is weird*
^ Back in Sydney! I loved Melbourne, but unlike most people I've spoken to Sydney is still my favourite city in Australia.
I've copied the URL which I used to tag my pictures and I only just now realised I copied the wrong address for this batch *facepalms*
|| AccomplishedTune : Watching Australian Idol *shock* Well, not really watching, but it's on TV
I managed to write a recap within a week's time, hallelujah! Melbourne was great, the highlight for me was definitely finally seeing the musical Wicked. I love theatre, and musicals in particular, and it's been a few months since I've had a chance to see one so I was kind of going to withdrawal. I've been listening to the soundtrack pretty much all the time since (when I am not working or sleeping) it's really good.
October 31:
Got up at 4am (!) and met Sherrie at Central station at 5.30. We were both surprisingly awake after not really sleeping that night. The trip to Melbourne went well and before we knew it we were at our hostel. Far too early to check in so we asked the girl there what would be a good place to have breakfast as she suggested Degraves Street. Which was a cute little street (like so many in Melbourne) with a lot of cafes, as you can see below:
^ This store was just around the corner from it and obviously we had to go inside ;)
^ On our way back to our hostel we came across the sci-fi store Minotaur which we checked out. We drooled a lot but were very good and not buying anything
When we got rid of our bags we decided to take the Circle Line Tram and Tourist bus around the city to see what Melbourne had to offer. Both were very interesting, though I fell asleep in the bus and missed half of the route, whoops.
^ We got off at Victoria Market, which was awesome. It's kind of like Paddy's Market in Sydney but much spacier, bigger and with a lot more variety.
^ We saw odd lamps O_O
^ Cute fuzzy animals
And loads of other stuff like amazing selections of cheeses and olives, nom nom nom
^ Something random, but pretty we saw on our way
^ Federation square. As you can see, the buildings in Melbourne are very divers. Some look modern, others look really old
^ Flinders Station
^ You could text message to a certain number and it would appear on this wall
^ I know, right? Ozzies and their Christmas *shakes head*
In the evening we met a friend of Sherrie's for dinner and she was really nice. We had a great time geeking out over TV-shows and getting excited for the Armageddon con the next day. After dinner we dropped her off at the address for the con cocktail party with the guests (which I wanted to crash but wasn't allowed, such a shame) and bought some groceries before we headed back to the hostel. Not too much later Gen arrived as well and I have no clue what we did after that, I was too tired to remember :\
November 1:
Before the con we had breakfast with some online friends, amongst which was
yokiem, who was a real pleasure to meet :) The con itself was honestly not that great. David Anders had cancelled so for me and Gen there was no one in particular we went for. Not a big deal, because I had hoped I would be able to score some cool merchandise but in contrary to what I am used to in London there weren't a whole lot of stands, so there wasn't much to pick from. In the end I left with a Sylar action figure (I know they’re ugly, I just wanted to buy *something* :P) and a few Doctor Who books. ^ Didn't get any autographs, I did go sneak a glance at William Katt who most people probably know as The Greatest American Hero but I know as the guy that got iced by Tracy in Heroes.
I was personally not interested in seeing any of the panels but Sherrie liked to see the David Hewlett one, so we went to the talk area for that. We caught most of the panel before that as well which was with a bunch of voice actors from TV-shows I don't know. It was mostly those Japanese shows, the only one that was different and I do know is Fairly Odd Parents. Nonetheless were the guests really funny and I wasn't completely bored out of my head while sitting there.
And David Hewlett? OMG! I haven't seen a single episode of Stargate Atlantis and I honestly don't remember him from Stargate SG-1, but his talk was AMAZING! Easily one of the best talks I have ever seen. He was just so damned funny and spot on with everything he said. He really made me want to check out stuff he's worked on.
^ Paparazzi pic I took of David
After the con we went back to Minotaur because it actually had a better selection of sci-fi stuff than the con and I bought a Doctor Who magazine and the 2008 annual, comics (Fringe, a few from Chuck, Rest) and uhm basically spent a lot of money. We went a bit more shopping after that though it was mostly window shopping for me. After that we went to Chinatown to a dumpling place Gen knew. I had never had dumplings before but there were very yummy.
^ Chinatown
I think we did some more shopping after that, I don't really recall :\
In the evening we had dinner at this great place near the water. I had a delicious pizza which didn't really look like a pizza (it was folded up) o.O And every hour these pillars would spit flames, which was quite impressive to see. Though we had a better view when we were walking back to the hostel and the flames came on again as we were crossing the bridge:
When we got back to the hostel everyone was standing outside and there were cops. We asked what was going on and apparently there had been a guy (or two, still not sure) who had broken down the door to the hostel and was trying to get into the rooms searching for someone. We were outside for a good half hour before we were let in and saw the impact inside. There were more cops and they told us not to touch some of the walls because they were fingerprinting it (I saw them doing it which was actually pretty cool).
On our floor one of the doors was broken down and there was blood in the room from the guy who had broken in. Apparently a beer bottle had hit him in the head or something. He had been taken away before we came to the hostel, so we don't know for sure what happened. Our room however did no longer open and our neighbours said that someone had knocked loud on their door and we figured the same had happened to ours and something in the lock had moved because of that. We eventually got in with another key though, but it was quite an exciting evening and I am glad we weren't there when all the action had taken place.
November 2:
Today we went to St. Kilda, which is I believe the most popular part of Melbourne. It's where the beach is and loads of palm trees that make it all look really tropical (even when it's chilly). We wandered around the Esplanade Market which was really cool and I picked up a few presents there to send overseas.
^ Also really well known from Melbourne is the Luna Park. We didn't actually go into any of the rides, but it's free to get in there so we just grabbed lunch there
^ This wasn't called a hot dog, but it had a really odd name. I forgot though :\
^ In the evening we went to the musical Wicked, which, as said before, was truly amazing. The songs were very good and catching, I loved the majority of the actors and the story was just really clever. It rewrites the story of The Wizard of Oz, making the Wicked Witch of the West one of the good guys, without changing anything of what we know from the original story. Brilliant.
^ The theatre was beautiful by the way. My pictures didn't really come out well, but hopefully this can give a small impression
^ And then we had to go back to the real world :( It's always hard after such an amazing show. We went to Chinatown again for dinner and had dumplings again. What do you mean addicted :P
November 3:
Our last day in Melbourne we didn't do a whole lot, but that's alright. In the morning we watched a bunch of LOST season 4 episodes as Gen had bought the DVDs and we'd watched an episode the day before and had gotten really addicted to it.
After that we planned to take the bus to an interesting point and get off to explore it but in the end we only went a few blocks further as we heard there would be a Melbourne Cup Parade and we were interested to see what it would be like. It was alright, not overly interesting, there were old winners of the cup in the parade as well as general entertainers.
^ This is a Dutch musician who's apparently huge in Australia. I see his face everywhere and there's piles and piles of his CDs in the stores. It's so weird.
The parade:
After the parade we went back to Degraves Street for a delicious brunch. Finally we made our way back to the hostel, picked up our stuff and went to our ride (which Gen had arranged \o/) which brought us to the airport.
I always have a window seat in the plane and I love making pictures from the air *is weird*
^ Back in Sydney! I loved Melbourne, but unlike most people I've spoken to Sydney is still my favourite city in Australia.
I've copied the URL which I used to tag my pictures and I only just now realised I copied the wrong address for this batch *facepalms*
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-11-10 04:03 pm (UTC)Those lamps. He. He. HE. So pervy.
Is it wrong of me to wish they should have put Zach's face on them?Awww goodness, look at the Converse overload of win! (too bad I'm not allowed to wear Converse on account of having short calve muscles. I love those shoes!)
no subject
Date: 2008-11-10 09:09 pm (UTC)Aww that sucks :( I only wear Converse at nothing else (even in Winter :$)
no subject
Date: 2008-11-12 05:46 pm (UTC)As of now I'm no longer supposed to wear high heels so you'd think there's nothing wrong with Converse, BUT, according to this doctor I visited a few weeks ago, the material they're made of isn't supportive enough and eventually I might get sore feet - and calves -, which is exactly what we're trying to avoid here. Oh, body, why are you made of fail? *kicks herself*
no subject
Date: 2008-11-13 03:56 am (UTC)Aww sucks :(
(kind of matching icon, ha!)
no subject
Date: 2008-11-13 03:06 pm (UTC)I knoooooooow. And just now so many of my fandoms/fave actors are wearing them! Sasan, Zach, The Doctor.. ack, not fair. *pouts*
no subject
Date: 2008-11-14 02:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-14 12:55 pm (UTC)