June 27th Tourists by day, Tourists by night!

Today was packed! We started at 10 am with a free walking tour. The family loved seeing the city and hearing about the history of it- the 65,000 year old indigenous history as well as modern life. A few facts from the tour (apologize for the choppy and unorganized facts I’m about to spew out!): In 1788 the British arrived to Melbourne. When the settlers arrived the indigenous people were consumed by disease and firepower- they were eventually relocated to certain areas to protect them but in reality it diluted their culture and traditions. In the 1850’s Melbourne was a sleepy little town, but then $20 million of gold was found (over $30 billion in today’s gold prices) and it was the largest gold rush in history (larger than the American and Canadian gold rush combined). The story of Ned Kelly (which was also turned into a Hollywood film) originated in Melbourne, where he stole from the rich and helped the poor- a modern day Robinhood and actually a VERY cool story. The 1900’s until the 1970’s saw a horrible movement called the “stolen generation” where mixed kids from Australia were taken by the government and placed into white families. There are 5 million people in Melbourne, and in 2030 it will overtake Sydney as the largest city in Australia. Okay, phew! Made it through those facts, kudos if you are still reading :)

Back to our day. We had the log sushi for lunch in federation square in the middle of all these pigeons and school children in uniforms. I taught everyone how to eat those sushi logs because Ke taught me how to do it early on. You hold it horizontally and then puncture the sushi with the soy sauce containers and squeeze it in. Genius. Afterwards we went to the ACMI-Australian Centre for the Moving Image. It is a museum of film, TV, video games, digital culture and art. They have a bunch of free exhibits and movies, but the one you had to pay for was the Alice in Wonderland exhibit. We watched a free movie called Terror Nullius, which was really messed up and kept incorporating old celebrities (Steve Irwin scenes in a modern movie) into a current plot about people and issues in modern Australia. None of us would recommend that movie to anyone!

Something I learned about while reading in the cinema section was the zoetrope. It essentially looks like a big lamp, but inside the pictures spin around and it turns into a big flip book. We take for granted all the videos we are surrounded by, and don’t have many opportunities to see cool old inventions like this.

Overall if you are in Melbourne and don’t have much time to see the city, it’d be fine to skip this museum. At night we went to the Queen Victoria night market to get food and check out the little stalls!

Dad and I got this amazing pasta dish that they mixed and melted in a huge parmesan wheel. This thing was nuts- you don’t even want me to describe how rich the cheese was.

Shayna and mom got food and ciders as well! We had a blast walking around (although it was a bit crowded for mom and dad!) and seeing the live musician who played a million instruments at once. Afterwards, we continued the night at Storyville. Storyville is a fairytale themed bar where they have cocktails and décor based off classic fairytales and stories. My friend from La Di Da named Ashlee is dating someone who works at Storyville, and she got us a beautiful reserved table and hooked us up at the bar! So wonderful the people you meet and things they are capable of setting you up with. That type of generosity makes me want to spread the love!! At Storyville we got the Polyjuice Potion cocktail and Charlie’s Winning Ticket.

We loved taking pictures on the swing inside of the big birdcage. Afterwards we found another one of the hidden bars called “Eau de vie”. It is more of a speakeasy, and is behind a blank wall in a back alley. Inside of this hidden bar there is another hidden section behind a bookshelf that you can reserve. Now this is somewhere I could enjoy a nice whiskey! We decided to have one last go at Arbory bar on the water, and had the arrancini balls, espresso martini and spiked chai.

Time for some shut eye and a quick break from all these amazing cocktails and dishes.