Australia, a land of dreams but also of all dangers. My cousin and I had long dreamed of setting foot in Australia, but the duration of the flight and its reputation as a hostile land was a little discouraging. Indeed, it takes not far from 24 hours of flight to reach Oceania, which seemed absolutely huge to us. In addition, this country is well known for the dangers of its wildlife, including particularly monstrous spider specimens. Being both arachnophobic, we were afraid of coming face to face with one of these horrors. The Guide du Routard, which I can no longer do without during my travels as you already know, did not really help us. A list of all kinds of scary spiders almost dissuaded me but I took it upon myself and decided to go with my cousin. We thought it would be enough for us never to open the windows of our hotel rooms, always close our suitcases and buy an insecticide bomb once we arrived in Australia. In the worst case, we would call the hotel reception to come to our rescue.
Once the dates had been set (October 4 to 19, 2019), we went to Promovacances about 9 months before our departure to book our trip. We wanted to leave for two weeks: one in Sydney and one in Melbourne. The agency booked us a hotel in each city and a flight from Paris to Sydney and Melbourne to Paris. My cousin wanted to travel Sydney-Melbourne by night by train as she had already experienced in Thailand. The train journey is particularly long, so the hotel for Melbourne would be booked one day after our departure from Sydney. My cousin and I would book the train on our own later in the year.
A few days before our departure, I wanted to check the travel time between Sydney Airport and the hotel. It turned out that the hotel booked for us by the travel agency was in the USA (Nebraska) and not in Australia. Indeed, the person who handled our reservation had written Sydney with an "i" and not a "y". I talked to my cousin who called the travel agency to fix the problem. The agency first offered her an Ibis Budget hotel that we didn't like because there was no bathroom in the room and according to the opinions on the Internet, this hotel was not very well soundproofed because of the proximity of the airport and the MacDonald's. The agency then offered her another one, the Bayswater, much better.
For this trip to Sydney, we took 2 flights; the first one, about 6:30 hours, to stop in Abu Dhabi (3:45 hours stopover) and the second one about 2 hours. We travelled with Etihad, a company from the United Arab Emirates. The first plane was very comfortable, the seats were spacious and arranged on two floors. The plane was so large that the agents at the airport had planned 2 lines to be able to access the plane according to our seat numbers. During the flight, we were served a meal (I chose a dish made of rice and lamb) and watched the movie Gatsby the Magnificent that I had never seen before.
Next to us was a young Frenchwoman who thought we were barely 20 years old. She was an au pair and returned to Sydney after spending 3 weeks in France with her parents.
During our stopover, we had a hot drink in a café before going back to the plane. Before accessing the aircraft, our carry-on baggage was checked a second time (after the x-rays) and all passengers with a water bottle had to throw it away. With my cousin, we found it strange because liquids are generally accepted if they were bought at the airport. So my cousin had to throw away the bottle of water she had just bought.
The second aircraft was from the same airline but the seats were much smaller. We were served 4 different meals during the flight but I had the impression that the flight attendants were always serving us food. During the flight, I watched The Hate You Give, a very moving film that made me cry several times, then Bohemian Rapsody. 14 hours of flight is just horrible, it feels like time goes by so slowly despite the films screened. We were only looking forward to landing so that we could finally set foot in Australia and above all take a hot shower.
Once we arrived, we passed the security checks (with a sniffer dog because some foodstuffs must be absolutely indicated to the officers). The dog detected a smell that seemed suspicious in my cousin's bag but in the end it was Kit Kat, which made the officer who searched her bag laugh. Despite the number of important checks, I found that the Australian agents were quite cool unlike the USA where they are not kidding, are very impressive and make you want to cry and make you forget your name.
Before leaving the airport, we bought a SIM card (25 AUD for 20GO) from Vodafone. The guy who took care of us, a young man, had a don't-give-a-toss attitude. He made me pay 50 AUD instead of 25 (I was reimbursed a few days later), broke my SIM card drawer, almost forgot to return my French SIM card and left my cousin's French SIM card in her phone. While trying to use the Internet, she realized that it didn't work and I told her that it might be because she had the French SIM and the Australian SIM card in her phone and the phone first detected her French SIM card. So she took it off and that was the problem. We then drove off to buy tickets to get to the hotel and my cousin received an SMS telling her that she had more than 50 euros outside the package. This was due to the fact that she had tried to connect to the Internet while her French SIM card was still in her phone.
To get to our hotel, we bought a ticket that cost us about 19€ each to make the trip to the nearest station to our hotel. We took 2 trains and the total journey took 30 minutes (including walking). Our train station, King's Cross (a little wink to Harry Potter), is located 3 minutes walk from our hotel.
For the quick info, our travel agency had booked our hotel for October 5th while we arrived on the 6th. This was useful to us because we arrived early in the morning and it is well known that it is not possible to access the hotel room before 2pm.
We had a little rest at the hotel before going for a walk.
We stopped in front of the Town Hall, the superb town hall of the city not far from which the St Andrew's Cathedral is located.
In order not to change our habits, we went to buy a drink at Starbucks, a mandatory ritual for each of our trips together.
After a few minutes of rest to enjoy our drinks and delicious wraps, we passed by the Queen Victoria Building, a beautiful shopping centre.
We then walked around Hyde Park from where we had a view of the Sydney Eye Tower.
At the end of the park was St Mary's Cathedral, which we entered.
As we left the cathedral, we passed the statue of Queen Victoria, the Sydney Eye Hospital and the statue Il Porcellino, which made us laugh. If you put coins in the fountain or donations in the box in front of Il Porcellino, legend has it that if you rub the boar's snout, you will be rewarded.
We then headed to the State Library NSW before entering the Royal Botanic Garden, a very beautiful garden in which we had the chance to meet cute koala statues as part of a temporary exhibition.
The park led us to the famous Sydney Opera House, near which we walked.
As we left the park, we had a drink at Terrace on the Domain.
In the evening, we went to dinner at Nung Len's, an excellent Thai restaurant recommended by the Guide du Routard.
Going to the beach today. We took the train and then a bus that took us directly to Bondi Beach where we landed for lunch. We then walked along the 4 other beaches of the coast: Tamarama Beach, Bronte Beach, Clovelly Beach, Coogee Beach.
The Australians were all out for a swim, surfing and even a BBQ with friends.
In Coogee Beach, we had a drink at the Coogee Pavilion.
On our way back from our beach day, we ate at The Apollo Restaurant, which served Greek specialities.
Today, we left the hotel quite late (around 3pm) because we slept quite a bit. We wanted to go to Chinatown but when we got to the subway station where had to go down, it started raining. So we rushed into the QVB, a huge shopping mall. We walked around there and then had a drink at Starbucks.
We went out once the rain stopped and passed through World Square where there is also a shopping centre.
It started raining again so we went to 3 Wise Monkeys, a nice pub where we had a cocktail.
We then headed to Chinatown, Darling Harbour and had dinner at the Hard Rock Café where our waitress asked for our ID (first time this happened to us).
Who says Australia, says koalas and kangaroos all cute and cute all over 😍. My cousin and I wanted to go and meet these animals, not to mention the adorable quokkas, on a reserve. Unfortunately, the price was very high and we reluctantly fell back on one of Sydney's zoos. The entrance to the zoo was particularly high (42 AUD) to which it was necessary to add money to get close to the koalas and take pictures with them. I sincerely think that this attraction was a real scam because we spent barely 5 minutes with the koalas, if not less. In addition, most of the pictures taken by the healer were very poorly framed.
When we left the zoo, we headed for China! We visited the Chinese Garden of Friendship and then had lunch at the Chinatown Foodcourt. The Chinese Garden of Friendship was very beautiful but the surrounding buildings spoilt the beauty of the garden a little.
Once we were full, we headed to Central Park Sydney where giant board games were available for free.
A little art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales allowed us to escape a little and immerse ourselves in the beauty of the paintings.
As we left the gallery, we returned to the Royal Botanic Garden just across the street. We met other koala statues there.
We then drove to Mrs Macqueries Point from where we could observe the Sydney Opera until sunset.
We then returned to our hotel area to dine in a bar, The Bourbon, in which was given a concert by a handsome dark brown guy playing guitar.
For this 5th day in Sydney, we headed to the Sydney Tower Eye to enjoy a magnificent view of the city.
When we left the Sydney Tower Eye, we went for a walk at the Barangoo Reserve, a very nice walk, especially at sunset.
We then went to Argyle to eat there. The bar was located in a really cool and very lively area. We even attend to a great concert.
For this last full day in Sydney, we went to Paddy's Market to do some shopping. The prices there are really interesting compared to other shops selling souvenirs.
We then had a drink at the Cyren Bar Grill Seafood located near Darling Harbour.
We walked along the bay through Pyrmont Bay Ferry Wharf.
Further on, we landed at ArtPark Australia where there are some sculpted works of art.
To sustain our momentum, we headed to Newtown where we also took advantage of street art.
In the evening, we had dinner at Fratelli Paradiso's, an excellent Italian restaurant.
Last day in Sydney for us. Before heading to the airport for Melbourne, we walked to Anzac Memorial and Hyde Park.
The Sydney Melbourne flight was fast: 1 hour and 35 minutes.
Once we arrived in Melbourne, we took the SkyBus, a kind of Roissybus that dropped us off in downtown Melbourne. We then took a train to our first hotel, The Jazz Corner. What about this hotel? It was just great! We had a superbly decorated hotel apartment, very spacious and allowing us to enjoy a beautiful view of the city.
After a few moments in our hotel room, we went out to eat at the Meatball & Wine Bar, a restaurant offering meatballs (pork, lamb, beef, chicken), fish and homemade vegetarian meatballs.
The next day, we had breakfast at the hotel before reluctantly leaving it to join our second hotel booked by the travel agency.
We left our things at the reception of our second hotel, City Tempo, until our room was ready. This hotel was located 5 minutes walk from the Jazz Corner.
While waiting to be able to settle in our room, we walked around the nearby Queen Victoria Market.
We then landed at the hotel, our room being ready, and then we went for a walk around Melbourne Central Shopping Mall.
We then had dinner at Lucky Coq's.
Today, we head for the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, a pretty garden in which we stayed for sunbathing.
We reluctantly left the garden (we felt so good with the sun's rays hitting our skin) to head for Eureka Skydeck 88, an observation tower with a view of the city of Melbourne. There, we tested the flagship attraction, the Edge Experience. It is a unique glass cube located on the 88th floor of the tower and 300 metres above the void. We enter the cube with special slippers. The windows of the latter are hidden for more suspense (on all sides as well as the glass floor). Once locked inside, the cube moves slowly and after a few seconds, the windows finally reveal the skyscrapers and the void just below our feet, shivers guaranteed!
On leaving the Skydeck, we had a drink at BearBrass before heading to the State Library of Victoria.
When we left the library, we went to Chinatown but we were disappointed because it had nothing to do with Sydney's Chinatown, which was much nicer to visit.
We then had dinner at Cookie's, an excellent Thai restaurant where the wine and beer list is so extensive that we no longer know where to turn our heads! The quantity of dishes is more than enough for two people. For the anecdote, my cousin and I had ordered the same dish for each of us. When he came to drop off our dishes, the waiter told us that one dish was more than enough for two people, and he was right (he reimbursed us for our second order). Indeed, he brought us three dishes. A few minutes later, a waitress came to drop off a fourth dish. We thought she was wrong, but it was a dish that was part of our order. Excellent restaurant value for money!
For lunch, we wanted to try a rather original restaurant, I named Easey's. Why is it original? Simply because the restaurant is located in subway cars themselves on the roof of a building. The day we went there, there was a group of people with mental disabilities. They sat behind us but we were not very comfortable because most of them were very loud, they were screaming. I know it wasn't their fault and it was due to their disability, but it kind of ruined the experience. In addition, one of the men in the group sitting just behind my cousin kept staring at the back of her head and it made her very uncomfortable. So we ate very quickly that day.
After leaving the restaurant, we took a walk in the Collingwood district near the restaurant for street art. We didn't feel very comfortable in this area, so we got out as fast as we could.
We went by bus to the St Kilda district to walk around the St Kilda Botanical Gardens.
As we left the park, we continued into St Kilda to get to the beach of the same name by taking the tram to Agland Street Village St Kilda.
After spending some time on this beach, we headed to Brighton Beach, a beach known for its string of painted wooden huts.
Day under the theme of Justice today because we visited the Victoria Police Museum and a prison.
On leaving the police museum, we visited Michael's World Famous Camera Museum, a store dedicated to photography.
After the photography museum, we went to prison. Be careful, it was only an attraction of course, we are good girls! We bought tickets for Old Melbourne Gaol Prison which offered the Watch House Experience attraction. What is it about? You are taken to a prison in Indian file, women on one side of the wall, men on the other. The agent in charge of you aligns you against the wall and asks you questions to find out your crime: drugs, drink-driving, armed robbery? Then you enter your shared cell (men are separated from women) and are plunged into darkness for a few minutes as if you had spent the night there. Then the lights come on again and you are taken to the prison yard where there are benches, tables and a single toilet. Very funny experience! At the end of the visit, you can pose in gangster mode in front of a poster to take your measurements. After visiting the prison, you return to the main building to visit the museum.
A short sweet break at Max Brenner's and then a beer break at P.J.O'Brien's.
In the evening, we ate in an excellent Korean restaurant, Seorae Galmaegi. We felt like we were back in South Korea.
This day was dedicated to street art and the Melbourne Museum, a natural history museum.
After the natural history museum, we ate at Sushi Hub and then did street art.
We finished the day at Fitzroy Gardens.
For this last day in Melbourne, we started by visiting the Fire Services Museum of Victoria. I expected to be greeted by beautiful and young firefighters but I was disappointed, the person who greeted us was a retired firefighter who fell asleep in his chair when we left the museum.
We then entered St Patrick's Cathedral before going to the Old Treasury Building, a museum that helps us understand the construction of the city of Melbourne.
As we were leaving the Old Treasury Building, we went for a drink at Icebar Melbourne, a bar where you put on a big coat before entering a room with a temperature not exceeding -10°C. Interesting experience but a little expensive for my taste for what it is.
We then had a snack at Sushi Hub before going for a walk on Princes Bridge and dinner at Brunetti's.
Day of departure for Paris.
The Asian community has a strong presence in Sydney and Melbourne, and even outside Chinatown. There are many Korean and Japanese restaurants there.
Surprisingly, we found that the prices in the restaurants were very reasonable, less expensive than in Paris. This was also the case in bars and pubs for cocktails and beers.
On the other hand, transport costs were high. You must validate your ticket by entering and exiting metro stations or getting on and off buses and trams.
Australian people are very sporty, we saw many of them jogging (in Sydney) and cycling (in Melbourne).
Australian people also like dogs very much, there was not a day without us meeting Australian people with their dog. Some of them were walking them in strollers; we all have our own wild ideas.
My cousin and I are delighted to have had the courage to travel to Australia despite the length of the trip and our fear of spiders. Besides, we haven't met a single one, they are not present in the city but in the Australian bush that we haven't done.
See you in 2020 for our next adventures, folks! 🚀💜
Day 1
For this trip to Sydney, we took 2 flights; the first one, about 6:30 hours, to stop in Abu Dhabi (3:45 hours stopover) and the second one about 2 hours. We travelled with Etihad, a company from the United Arab Emirates. The first plane was very comfortable, the seats were spacious and arranged on two floors. The plane was so large that the agents at the airport had planned 2 lines to be able to access the plane according to our seat numbers. During the flight, we were served a meal (I chose a dish made of rice and lamb) and watched the movie Gatsby the Magnificent that I had never seen before.
Next to us was a young Frenchwoman who thought we were barely 20 years old. She was an au pair and returned to Sydney after spending 3 weeks in France with her parents.
During our stopover, we had a hot drink in a café before going back to the plane. Before accessing the aircraft, our carry-on baggage was checked a second time (after the x-rays) and all passengers with a water bottle had to throw it away. With my cousin, we found it strange because liquids are generally accepted if they were bought at the airport. So my cousin had to throw away the bottle of water she had just bought.
The second aircraft was from the same airline but the seats were much smaller. We were served 4 different meals during the flight but I had the impression that the flight attendants were always serving us food. During the flight, I watched The Hate You Give, a very moving film that made me cry several times, then Bohemian Rapsody. 14 hours of flight is just horrible, it feels like time goes by so slowly despite the films screened. We were only looking forward to landing so that we could finally set foot in Australia and above all take a hot shower.
Once we arrived, we passed the security checks (with a sniffer dog because some foodstuffs must be absolutely indicated to the officers). The dog detected a smell that seemed suspicious in my cousin's bag but in the end it was Kit Kat, which made the officer who searched her bag laugh. Despite the number of important checks, I found that the Australian agents were quite cool unlike the USA where they are not kidding, are very impressive and make you want to cry and make you forget your name.
Before leaving the airport, we bought a SIM card (25 AUD for 20GO) from Vodafone. The guy who took care of us, a young man, had a don't-give-a-toss attitude. He made me pay 50 AUD instead of 25 (I was reimbursed a few days later), broke my SIM card drawer, almost forgot to return my French SIM card and left my cousin's French SIM card in her phone. While trying to use the Internet, she realized that it didn't work and I told her that it might be because she had the French SIM and the Australian SIM card in her phone and the phone first detected her French SIM card. So she took it off and that was the problem. We then drove off to buy tickets to get to the hotel and my cousin received an SMS telling her that she had more than 50 euros outside the package. This was due to the fact that she had tried to connect to the Internet while her French SIM card was still in her phone.
To get to our hotel, we bought a ticket that cost us about 19€ each to make the trip to the nearest station to our hotel. We took 2 trains and the total journey took 30 minutes (including walking). Our train station, King's Cross (a little wink to Harry Potter), is located 3 minutes walk from our hotel.
For the quick info, our travel agency had booked our hotel for October 5th while we arrived on the 6th. This was useful to us because we arrived early in the morning and it is well known that it is not possible to access the hotel room before 2pm.
We had a little rest at the hotel before going for a walk.
We stopped in front of the Town Hall, the superb town hall of the city not far from which the St Andrew's Cathedral is located.
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| Town Hall |
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| Saint Andrew's Cathedral |
In order not to change our habits, we went to buy a drink at Starbucks, a mandatory ritual for each of our trips together.
After a few minutes of rest to enjoy our drinks and delicious wraps, we passed by the Queen Victoria Building, a beautiful shopping centre.
We then walked around Hyde Park from where we had a view of the Sydney Eye Tower.
At the end of the park was St Mary's Cathedral, which we entered.
As we left the cathedral, we passed the statue of Queen Victoria, the Sydney Eye Hospital and the statue Il Porcellino, which made us laugh. If you put coins in the fountain or donations in the box in front of Il Porcellino, legend has it that if you rub the boar's snout, you will be rewarded.
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| Queen Victoria |
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| Sydney Eye Hospital |
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| Il Porcellino |
We then headed to the State Library NSW before entering the Royal Botanic Garden, a very beautiful garden in which we had the chance to meet cute koala statues as part of a temporary exhibition.
The park led us to the famous Sydney Opera House, near which we walked.
As we left the park, we had a drink at Terrace on the Domain.
In the evening, we went to dinner at Nung Len's, an excellent Thai restaurant recommended by the Guide du Routard.
Day 2
Going to the beach today. We took the train and then a bus that took us directly to Bondi Beach where we landed for lunch. We then walked along the 4 other beaches of the coast: Tamarama Beach, Bronte Beach, Clovelly Beach, Coogee Beach.
The Australians were all out for a swim, surfing and even a BBQ with friends.
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| Bondi Beach |
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| Bondi Beach |
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| Tamarama Beach |
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| Bronte Beach |
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| Bronte Beach |
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| Bronte Beach |
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| Clovelly Beach |
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| Clovelly Beach |
In Coogee Beach, we had a drink at the Coogee Pavilion.
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| Coogee Beach |
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| Coogee Beach |
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| Coogee Pavilion |
On our way back from our beach day, we ate at The Apollo Restaurant, which served Greek specialities.
Day 3
Today, we left the hotel quite late (around 3pm) because we slept quite a bit. We wanted to go to Chinatown but when we got to the subway station where had to go down, it started raining. So we rushed into the QVB, a huge shopping mall. We walked around there and then had a drink at Starbucks.
We went out once the rain stopped and passed through World Square where there is also a shopping centre.
It started raining again so we went to 3 Wise Monkeys, a nice pub where we had a cocktail.
We then headed to Chinatown, Darling Harbour and had dinner at the Hard Rock Café where our waitress asked for our ID (first time this happened to us).
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| Darling Harbour |
Day 4
Who says Australia, says koalas and kangaroos all cute and cute all over 😍. My cousin and I wanted to go and meet these animals, not to mention the adorable quokkas, on a reserve. Unfortunately, the price was very high and we reluctantly fell back on one of Sydney's zoos. The entrance to the zoo was particularly high (42 AUD) to which it was necessary to add money to get close to the koalas and take pictures with them. I sincerely think that this attraction was a real scam because we spent barely 5 minutes with the koalas, if not less. In addition, most of the pictures taken by the healer were very poorly framed.
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| Tasmanian devils |
When we left the zoo, we headed for China! We visited the Chinese Garden of Friendship and then had lunch at the Chinatown Foodcourt. The Chinese Garden of Friendship was very beautiful but the surrounding buildings spoilt the beauty of the garden a little.
Once we were full, we headed to Central Park Sydney where giant board games were available for free.
A little art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales allowed us to escape a little and immerse ourselves in the beauty of the paintings.
As we left the gallery, we returned to the Royal Botanic Garden just across the street. We met other koala statues there.
We then drove to Mrs Macqueries Point from where we could observe the Sydney Opera until sunset.
We then returned to our hotel area to dine in a bar, The Bourbon, in which was given a concert by a handsome dark brown guy playing guitar.
Day 5
For this 5th day in Sydney, we headed to the Sydney Tower Eye to enjoy a magnificent view of the city.
When we left the Sydney Tower Eye, we went for a walk at the Barangoo Reserve, a very nice walk, especially at sunset.
We then went to Argyle to eat there. The bar was located in a really cool and very lively area. We even attend to a great concert.
Day 6
For this last full day in Sydney, we went to Paddy's Market to do some shopping. The prices there are really interesting compared to other shops selling souvenirs.
We then had a drink at the Cyren Bar Grill Seafood located near Darling Harbour.
We walked along the bay through Pyrmont Bay Ferry Wharf.
Further on, we landed at ArtPark Australia where there are some sculpted works of art.
To sustain our momentum, we headed to Newtown where we also took advantage of street art.
In the evening, we had dinner at Fratelli Paradiso's, an excellent Italian restaurant.
Day 7 (Sydney)
Last day in Sydney for us. Before heading to the airport for Melbourne, we walked to Anzac Memorial and Hyde Park.
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| Chouchou is going on a trip |
Day 7 (Melbourne)
The Sydney Melbourne flight was fast: 1 hour and 35 minutes.
Once we arrived in Melbourne, we took the SkyBus, a kind of Roissybus that dropped us off in downtown Melbourne. We then took a train to our first hotel, The Jazz Corner. What about this hotel? It was just great! We had a superbly decorated hotel apartment, very spacious and allowing us to enjoy a beautiful view of the city.
After a few moments in our hotel room, we went out to eat at the Meatball & Wine Bar, a restaurant offering meatballs (pork, lamb, beef, chicken), fish and homemade vegetarian meatballs.
Day 8
The next day, we had breakfast at the hotel before reluctantly leaving it to join our second hotel booked by the travel agency.
We left our things at the reception of our second hotel, City Tempo, until our room was ready. This hotel was located 5 minutes walk from the Jazz Corner.
While waiting to be able to settle in our room, we walked around the nearby Queen Victoria Market.
We then landed at the hotel, our room being ready, and then we went for a walk around Melbourne Central Shopping Mall.
We then had dinner at Lucky Coq's.
Day 9
Today, we head for the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, a pretty garden in which we stayed for sunbathing.
We reluctantly left the garden (we felt so good with the sun's rays hitting our skin) to head for Eureka Skydeck 88, an observation tower with a view of the city of Melbourne. There, we tested the flagship attraction, the Edge Experience. It is a unique glass cube located on the 88th floor of the tower and 300 metres above the void. We enter the cube with special slippers. The windows of the latter are hidden for more suspense (on all sides as well as the glass floor). Once locked inside, the cube moves slowly and after a few seconds, the windows finally reveal the skyscrapers and the void just below our feet, shivers guaranteed!
On leaving the Skydeck, we had a drink at BearBrass before heading to the State Library of Victoria.
When we left the library, we went to Chinatown but we were disappointed because it had nothing to do with Sydney's Chinatown, which was much nicer to visit.
We then had dinner at Cookie's, an excellent Thai restaurant where the wine and beer list is so extensive that we no longer know where to turn our heads! The quantity of dishes is more than enough for two people. For the anecdote, my cousin and I had ordered the same dish for each of us. When he came to drop off our dishes, the waiter told us that one dish was more than enough for two people, and he was right (he reimbursed us for our second order). Indeed, he brought us three dishes. A few minutes later, a waitress came to drop off a fourth dish. We thought she was wrong, but it was a dish that was part of our order. Excellent restaurant value for money!
Day 10
For lunch, we wanted to try a rather original restaurant, I named Easey's. Why is it original? Simply because the restaurant is located in subway cars themselves on the roof of a building. The day we went there, there was a group of people with mental disabilities. They sat behind us but we were not very comfortable because most of them were very loud, they were screaming. I know it wasn't their fault and it was due to their disability, but it kind of ruined the experience. In addition, one of the men in the group sitting just behind my cousin kept staring at the back of her head and it made her very uncomfortable. So we ate very quickly that day.
After leaving the restaurant, we took a walk in the Collingwood district near the restaurant for street art. We didn't feel very comfortable in this area, so we got out as fast as we could.
We went by bus to the St Kilda district to walk around the St Kilda Botanical Gardens.
As we left the park, we continued into St Kilda to get to the beach of the same name by taking the tram to Agland Street Village St Kilda.
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| Agland Street Village St Kilda |
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| Palais Theatre |
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| Luna Park Melbourne |
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| Gillie and Marc |
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| The Wonderful Two |
After spending some time on this beach, we headed to Brighton Beach, a beach known for its string of painted wooden huts.
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| Jellyfish |
Day 11
Day under the theme of Justice today because we visited the Victoria Police Museum and a prison.
On leaving the police museum, we visited Michael's World Famous Camera Museum, a store dedicated to photography.
After the photography museum, we went to prison. Be careful, it was only an attraction of course, we are good girls! We bought tickets for Old Melbourne Gaol Prison which offered the Watch House Experience attraction. What is it about? You are taken to a prison in Indian file, women on one side of the wall, men on the other. The agent in charge of you aligns you against the wall and asks you questions to find out your crime: drugs, drink-driving, armed robbery? Then you enter your shared cell (men are separated from women) and are plunged into darkness for a few minutes as if you had spent the night there. Then the lights come on again and you are taken to the prison yard where there are benches, tables and a single toilet. Very funny experience! At the end of the visit, you can pose in gangster mode in front of a poster to take your measurements. After visiting the prison, you return to the main building to visit the museum.
A short sweet break at Max Brenner's and then a beer break at P.J.O'Brien's.
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| Max Brenner |
In the evening, we ate in an excellent Korean restaurant, Seorae Galmaegi. We felt like we were back in South Korea.
Day 12
This day was dedicated to street art and the Melbourne Museum, a natural history museum.
After the natural history museum, we ate at Sushi Hub and then did street art.
Hosier Lane Street Art
AC/DC Lane
Strachan Lane
Union Lane
Blender Lane
Heape Ct
We finished the day at Fitzroy Gardens.
Day 13
For this last day in Melbourne, we started by visiting the Fire Services Museum of Victoria. I expected to be greeted by beautiful and young firefighters but I was disappointed, the person who greeted us was a retired firefighter who fell asleep in his chair when we left the museum.
We then entered St Patrick's Cathedral before going to the Old Treasury Building, a museum that helps us understand the construction of the city of Melbourne.
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| St Patrick's Cathedral |
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| Old Treasury Buidling |
As we were leaving the Old Treasury Building, we went for a drink at Icebar Melbourne, a bar where you put on a big coat before entering a room with a temperature not exceeding -10°C. Interesting experience but a little expensive for my taste for what it is.
We then had a snack at Sushi Hub before going for a walk on Princes Bridge and dinner at Brunetti's.
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| Princes Bridge |
Day 14
Day of departure for Paris.
Additional information and feelings
I found the Australian people very welcoming and above all very open-minded. Indeed, many gay and lesbian couples walked the streets of Sydney and Melbourne kissing without anyone staring or pointing at them. There were also a few transsexuals who were not staring either. I was very surprised because in Paris, they would probably have suffered a totally different fate.The Asian community has a strong presence in Sydney and Melbourne, and even outside Chinatown. There are many Korean and Japanese restaurants there.
Surprisingly, we found that the prices in the restaurants were very reasonable, less expensive than in Paris. This was also the case in bars and pubs for cocktails and beers.
On the other hand, transport costs were high. You must validate your ticket by entering and exiting metro stations or getting on and off buses and trams.
Australian people are very sporty, we saw many of them jogging (in Sydney) and cycling (in Melbourne).
Australian people also like dogs very much, there was not a day without us meeting Australian people with their dog. Some of them were walking them in strollers; we all have our own wild ideas.
My cousin and I are delighted to have had the courage to travel to Australia despite the length of the trip and our fear of spiders. Besides, we haven't met a single one, they are not present in the city but in the Australian bush that we haven't done.
See you in 2020 for our next adventures, folks! 🚀💜
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