Immigration

Right, the plan for today is less walking, more relaxing especially since it was going to be very hot and humid. First stop was breakfast at another of our bookmarked places, Caffee E Torta. Tram time! I am going to miss these so much next week. Despite the heat and considering they are often quite full any time of day our fellow passengers always seem to be reasonably free of BO which is a blessing. The same cannot be said of other city's public transport users. An eye watering aroma on the Staten Island ferry springs to mind.

We went through a few Arcades and Laneways today and I'll try to remember their names. Or make them up, probably won't make any difference. Our first one was the Royal Arcade which ended in Gog and Magog, who rang their bells at the strike of three minutes past 10. Typical Australians, late.

Our genuine Italian cafe decorated with French posters, a huge map of North America in Chinese and a host who was completely Australian. Food was good, coffee was great and the setting very continental. Meaning we sat outside because it was small, cramped and hot inside.

A bit of local colour to terrify the tourists. I did finally get to show Louie who this Dame Edna Everage was, and that she was famous. He's now at least aware of her and Kath & Kim. Just Russell Coight and The Comedy Company to go (he's fully up to play on The Castle).

The Block Arcade was very Victorian with a heavy Christmas theme, and a famous high tea / cake shop near the entrance, called "The Historic Tea Rooms" I think. Going by the battalion of prams outside it was popular with the housewife set of CBD Melbourne and definitely not for us.

The last was a laneway / arcade called Centreway which was filled with street front food displays and delis, with everything you could want on offer. I've realised that we usually find these places just after we've had food and then forget to go back.

We got onto a tram at Flinders Station to head to St Kilda's Beach. It was a 20 minute ride so there was plenty of opportunity to examine the cars next to the tracks and there was a motley assortment of idiots on display. Some were right dogs.

On arriving at the beach (actually as soon as we got off the tram) we were beset with flies smacking into our faces and buzzing in our ears. It was pretty much constant, and I wondered if maybe we weren't as fresh as our fellow passengers but Louie reassured me that there were plenty of others furiously batting away flies as well. Oh for an Aussie cork hat!

As for the beach: two stars out of five. The waves were calm, the sand was nice and easy to get to and that's about it. Absolutely no interesting features other than a bloody long pier. It was a bit stinky as well.

Interesting to see these two make an appearance, so far I've seen them in Devonport, Melbourne and New York,

The St Kilda Pier. It was a nice walk out, looked at some rocks covered in penguin shit, inhaled the fragrance of sulphur and walked back again.

We were planning on walking past Luna Park to a internet famous cake shop but we were so sick of the flies we fucked off back to the city sharpish. Stand in a bathroom that has had the hot water running for four hours and the door closed, then introduce a few hundred annoying little flies and you'll get the picture.

Back in the civilisation of the CBD, we found a corporate type cafe called Oscars or Wanktons or something. I'm happy to report they call these things sandwiches here. The idotic habit of calling things "Sandos" hasn't taken off here like it has in NZ. I don't know why it annoys me, but by christ it does get on my tits.

After a quick phase of going into the Aquarium, gasping "fucking how much?" at the $53 per person entry fee and then leaving, we went a block up and went through the Immigration Museum. Firstly it was very air conditioned. Five stars. I didn't care if it just had a ticket stub in a glass case that said "some people moved here" - I'd give it five starts for the air conditioning. There were quite a few interesting rooms, and detailed histories of how the history of Australia is extremely shameful but didn't come across as negative somehow. More constructive and educating. Not much mention of New Zealand immigration, nor how those who move over raise the IQ of both countries. 

This massive great room was being set up for a Ted Talk. Didn't know they were still a thing, but there you go.

The top floor of the museum is dedicated to an exhibition about Joy. So this means psychedelic Tardis rooms, terrifyingly large stuffed rabbits, a 1990's style video store (no horror section and where the plastic curtain to the Adult movies should have been was the exit. So much for joy.

One of our favourite aspects of Melbourne.

We checked out Hosier Lane next, which was definitely a mix of street art and bullshit scribbling. All I know is if someone decided to decorate my wall like this I'd have a bucket of hot piss ready to pour down mid-spray.

The MCG in evening glory. I only have a passing interest in cricket and Louie has less than zero so this is about as close as we will get.

Dinner and desert were two repeats tonight, Il Mercato in time for the Pizza and Pasta stores to be open. It was fine. I think Melbourne does lunch food so much better than it does dinner.

The second repeat visit was to the place we visited on our first night here, Brunetti's for desert. Lychee and Raspberry & Mint choc  Gelati, Raspberry cake fudge ball thing, some Nutella cake erection and an espresso each to finish. Yes, we were able to get a hot drink after 4pm!

I spotted these on our way out, red velvet Swiss Rolls. Probaly look far better than they taste, but they looked so good!

So a day that was planned for relaxing turned out to be busier than yesterday. Our step count has been around 18,000 each day so all the food has maybe been balanced with the exercise.

Our last full day tomorrow, should be a little cooler so we might do more markets and some parks / gardens.