7/16 Hello Melbourne

Roxie woke me up at 7 yelling about the free breakfast, I debated with her about that the workers need some time to prepare so we shouldn’t go so early. Still she got me dragged on to my feet at half past seven. I climbed the stairs to the lobby and poked our heads into the kitchen. No bacon or sausage I’m afraid, there were only some toast, milk, corn flakes and spread scattering on the table. We baked four pieces of toasts and had some cereal to fill the stomach of the early birds, us, it was fine. By the time we finished our plates, the ingredients on the table were mainly gone and it was only about eight, if they don’t fill up, the people who got up a bit late might have nothing to eat. I really wished for some nice spaghetti tonight but considering the breakfast they provided, don’t get my hope up high. Hack, this was a backpacker hostel, remember?

Three main touring spots today: city square, federation square and the tallest building in the CBD: Eureka Skydeck. I put on a T-shirt before my thick north face jacket, a pair of jeans and scarf. The weather was better than yesterday and seemed very peaceful. We missed City Square by accident and we weren’t diligent enough to go back. A Chinese lady asked for our help on the way for she and her husband were traveling to China Town through a wagon and they were having some communication problems with the driver. We translated for her and they got a deal! A 80 AUD ride from the CBD to China Town, it wasn’t cheap but they seemed pretty happy about it. I admired their guts and courage to come to Australia only with money but no English speaking skills, good luck to them!

Federation Square was full of artistic buildings and it was even showing a King Kong stage drama not far away! There were bike for rentals around, operating just like a vending machine, Melbourne was staring to look like a real convenient and modern city despite its old and ancient buildings. We gave up the idea of renting some bikes due to Roxie’s unreliable riding skills, another time perhaps. Then it was our first visit into a real foreign church: Saint Paul’s Cathedral. It was big and decorated with loads of colored shining glasses, there was a gigantic piped piano at the front and many people on the chairs either praying or speaking. Unfortunately they charge extra for pictures inside the church.

We walked around Flinder Station and crossed a bridge to the Southern part of Melbourne. We located the Aquarium and King’s Entertainment Centre by accident but we still followed our plan and continue on, they can wait for another day. Through the guidance of map and personal instinct, I succeeded in leading us to the bottom of Eureka Skydeck and we stood awed looking at the tall skyscraper. Holy moly! They charged 39 per person just to go up and take some photos, it was just ridiculous. So we bought a bag of chips and shared some mango+strawberry+cranberry+kiwi slurpy at a 7-11 which tasted great.

Continuing on the river banks, we came across another tourist spot mentioned on the book guide: Southgate. There was a department store inside full of antiques and smelled strange, people would order a cup of coffee and maybe a piece of cake, then sat on the banks and relaxed, looking just like a peaceful and casual afternoon. MelbourneTheatre was just behind Southgate and it was showing a exhibition about the actor who acted as Barbosa in The Carribean of Pirates, he even did the vocal job for the pelican in Finding Nemo! Just next to the theatre was Melbourne’s Art Museum which greeted tourist with a big piece of wall that had water streaming on it. We missed Monet’s paintings Exhibition sadly for it was only on Fridays and today’s Tuesday, maybe we can come back another day. We went home at about six, getting ready to have some free spaghetti!

Many big steel cauldrons filled the kitchen and they were smelling delicious! All of these including cups of fruit, salad, the sauce and spaghetti were cooked by the workers themselves. We clapped our hands for their hard work and dived into our meal.(they even have two kinds of sauce to choose from: meat sauce and tomato vegetarian sauce with cream) The spaghetti was great but unluckily, my stomach wasn’t satisfied. There was no refill policy due to the amount of people so I went downstairs with Roxie to a local KFC for some night snack. 

The KFC in Melbourne provided boxed meals that were never seen in Taiwan, more food but with just a few more dollars. I got us a Zinger Box: a dry chicken burger with 3 small fried chicken and some mashed potato. It was just an Okay and we both preferred Hungry Jack’s more. The supermarket Coles was just by our side, the big bottle of salt we got in the free basket of Brittania was of this brand. Coles was pretty much like Woolworths but we like the later better, with a little bit more varieties and cheaper price. But since it was so much closer to where we lived, it would have to do. I got a big box of mango yogurt and felt extremely pleasant, there were very few brands and flavors to choose from in Taiwan when it comes to yogurt and most only comes in small packs, this time I’m going to have my own yogurt time and enjoy!

The yogurt tasted amazing the time I dug in after getting back to the common room, Roxie even managed to cook some milk tea with some teabags and fresh milk. It was very sweet of her but the drink tasted odd due to the strange odor from the tea.

There was this one little incident when Roxie went to take a bath leaving myself to the whole room. My eyebrows were looking messy and I would love to fix them myself. Unlucky for me, I have no tweezers or small scissors by my side but only a big electronic shaver. I tried to steady my arm in order to shave out a nice shape for my eyebrows but the machine was too fierce and it ate half of my right eyebrow! I tried to make them even so I shaved off some on the left side but it made my face strange. Finally I made up my mind and shaved all of my eyebrows…and I turned into a ghost, or some kind of freakish monster. My face even gave Roxie a shock by the time she came back. I looked better when I had my glasses on but I guessed I would have to buy a facial marker to cover that up!