Tramming it in Melbourne

Let's see. Where did we last leave you? Oh yes, we were getting ready to have dinner last night. Alan and I ate at a great Spanish restaurant near our hotel for some tapas and Australian wine. For those of you that have not yet discovered tapas- they are delicous smaller appetizer-like dishes that you share and I highly recommend them. We had some salmon ceviche, a scallop / cauliflower dish and a pan-fried cheese dish. Yummy. After that we ventured into The Evelyn, a local Fitzroy bar, for the evening. They had a electronica reggae band playing that was interesting to say the least. All in all a great evening.



We started off our sightseeing today by catching a tram to Melbourne's Royal Botanic Gardens. The highlight of the Gardens- judging by Alan's camera flashing- was most certainly a lake on one of the lawns that was infested with eels. I don't know what kind they were but they were fairly large (some perhaps 3 feet) and they would swim to the surface when you approached the water's edge (presumably they are accustomed to being fed). Gross! After that we got slightly lost on the city's tram system (I have been designated the Cheri of our trip, i.e., navigator extrodinare, so this was my fault), but finally ended up at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, aka, the "MCG". It seems that Mebournites are sports fanatics and this is their shrine. Unfortunately, by the time we got there, the damn thing was closed for the day, so we were left peering through the gates just like at the St. Kilda lawn bowling club yesterday. (I guess we were not meant to have a sporting experience in Australia).

As an aside, you may have noticed that our Melbourne blogs frequently mention the Tram. The Melbourne Tram system (similar to San Fran's cable car system) is extensive and has been pretty much vital to our getting around. We love it. Public transportation rocks. No parking, less traffic congestion for the city, and -most importantly- it's cheap. It costs about 6 dollars for an all day ticket (which, by the way you can also use on the city's bus and train system). The only problem?- The sytem is so extensive that it usually takes me about an hour of studying the map to make sure we get on the right ones to get where we are going. It's exhausting.



Now we are off for dinner and who knows what after that. Tonight is our last night in Melbourne. I can't believe that I am typing this but, tomorrow we are actually heading back to the states (Hawaii). Friends and family have your phones at the ready!


--Kelly