Melbourne 1st Fri/Sat - Around the City

Melbourne Trip Index

First Friday & Saturday - Arrival, Around the City
First Sunday - Royal Exhibition Building & Aquarium
First week at work
Second Saturday - Philip Island
Second Sunday - Great Ocean Road
Second week at work - Night view of City

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This is the first in a series of posts about my trip to Melbourne for some research collaboration awhile ago.

04 Jan 08 -- 05 Jan 08

Boarded the plane at around noon for a day flight to Melbourne. Sadly this time SIA's inflight entertainment did not live up to its expectations. I could not get video on demand and had to wait for them to "broadcast" movies, really bad when you need to go to the loo and be unable to pause. Thank goodness the food and the wine were still reasonable.

Chicken with rice and french beans


Being a short 7 hour flight I only get 1 meal and 1 refreshment


Made it to my accommodation, the Graduate House, by about 11pm. Many thanks to the nice person that gave me a lift.


My own attached bathroom. It's like a hotel minus bar fridge and TV.


The coding table...

After a good night's rest, I woke up in the morning and started to snoop around the place. It is kind of like a hall with common areas and a bistro that sells wine, beer, etc. Most of the lights operated on motion sensors or timer button to save on energy consumption. Unfortunately, Melbourne is having a heat wave now, 40 degree celsius with relative humidity of 9%!

Conference room with reading room at the end


The reading room. Looks more comfortable than RH library for sure.

Aiks, they still play records...


Time to take a walk outside, it's hot!


The University Square of U Melbourne


The square is sort of half concrete and half grass


I wonder what is a "Total Abstinence Society". It sure seems like a big thing.

After walking about a block away, something at the corner of this round-a-bout caught my eye. It was a familiar looking black and brown circle.

See the black and brown circles


I can't believe my luck


On Tap!


Yeah the Corkman rules


Smokers, outside!

Impressed that there is a Irish pub just 3 minutes away from where I live, I went back to meet someone for lunch and some work-related talk. Before long, it was late afternoon. Being summer, the sun sets at about 9:30pm, so I decided to make my way around the central business district area of Melbourne and stopped by the state library first.

View Larger Map
Route taken today in blue, starting from the State Library.


Nice pillars


St. George slaying the dragon


Joan of Arc


Inside the main reading area


Underside of the dome


How do they get there?


There are about 4 levels here


Most of the free internet terminals are hogged. They say 15 mins but nobody is considerate enough.


There is a room specially to play chess and to keep books on chess.


Left the library, Melbourne still retains an extensive tram network. One wonders why they did not switch to trolleys (buses that draw power like trams) instead.


There are lots of Asians here and lots of different cuisine.


This should be the Parliament of the State of Victoria for which Melbourne is the capital city.



Looks like most parliament buildings have greek-inspired art.


The city museum.



Melbourne is peppered with buildings with some nice architecture. Probably here since colonial times.



Flinders Street Station, a massive railway station and a very nice building.


I decided to cross beneath the station to the Southbank of the Yarra river


The Yarra river


Part of the Melbourne skyline


Crown entertainment complex, where the casino is. Unfortunately, I was carrying some food in my bag and could not enter without disposing it.



Some more old buildings

Dinner at Macdonald's. This is a Big Mac meal and the cheapest food I can find here for AU 5.45. For most of the time, expect to pay from AU 7.50 onwards. The alarming thing is the default meal here is smaller than what I get back home. Whatever happened to all American food? After dinner I started to make my way back.

RMIT buildings are all over the place, then again, so are U Mel.



Now I did not know they had a history of public baths...


Almost no clouds in the sky. It was already past 8pm.


Ahh, back for some leg-rest.



Couldn't resist going opposite to take some picture of this old building in U Mel.


Somehow I have this suspicious feeling about this.

After a few night pictures and a bit of roaming around I finally settled in for a good night's rest. Spending a day in 40 deg weather is like being in the desert. I was exhausted. Hopefully it will be much cooler on Sunday tomorrow.

View the next related post here.