Australia - Day 12 - Melbourne

Was in no shape to post this last night after dinner and drinks, but here's the final post:

Melbourne is so great!!!  We spent our last day criss-crossing the city by tram and foot.  We started out at the Queen Victoria Market with a bratwurst for breakfast :).  

After strolling through the market a bit, we caught a tram to Flinder's Lane, which is a cool little street with lots of little boutiques and cafes.  On the walk we found Hoosier Lane, which is a quite famous ally full of more street art:

We also stopped by an art museum to quickly shuffle through the indigenous art section, which was really cool.  From there, we did a little more walking and shopping and found ourselves at Chin Chin for lunch.  We had been looking forward to this meal the entire trip - asian cuisine with tons of playful dishes and a fun atmosphere.  

Glass exhibit near the museum

menu

Tuna carpaccio

Pepper plate

After lunch, we hopped on a tram to South Yarra, which is another fun area to walk around and shop.  Sylvie and I had fun peeking in and out of a bunch of little boutiques.  After a bit, we sat down for a coffee and snack at Borsch, Vodka & Tears, which is a funky little cafe on Chapel Street:

To prepare for our last dinner, we headed back to the hotel to put our feet up over a glass of wine.   I looked through some of the art books in the room and Andrew did a little work.  Around 7 p.m., we caught a cab to Cumulus, a well-recommended restaurant by everyone we met.  They didn't take reservations, so we grabbed a few drinks before our table was ready.

Menu at Cumulus

Cumulus wine glass

The meal was delicious, but we were so tired that we had to head back to the hotel.  

We are off to the airport tomorrow morning, which is the worst news ever.  We are (at least I am) so sad to bring this adventure to an end.  I know Sylvie and Henry are ready to go back, but it's tough to leave a place we found that's so exciting, livable, artsy and creative.

We're getting up relatively early tomorrow morning and can't wait to talk to and see all of you!!!  

Australia - Day 11 - Melbourne (Finally)

So I haven't posted anything in the last 48 hours because the last 36 were full of travel hell.   We were delayed SIX hours out of Uluru because of some dumb thing, then were told we'd be rerouted to Alice Springs and that we'd have to stay the night there.  Thankfully, Andrew figured out that we could jump on a flight from Uluru to Cairns that afternoon, which would get us to a larger airport with more options for flights to Melbourne.  The flight was scheduled to be non-stop, however, when we got on the plane, we were told we'd be stopping through Alice Springs to drop off all the people on our original flight.  Unfortunately, that meant we missed the last connection to Melbourne that night from Cairns, so Qantas put us up in a hotel in Cairns.  We landed in Cairns around 9 p.m. and then tried to figure out what flight we could get on as early as possible the next day to Melbourne, but were told the only Qantas direct flight left at 12:30 p.m. and didn't get in until almost 4 p.m.  Because we had such a short time in Melbourne, we looked into our options while we waited another 20 minutes for our shuttle to our hotel.  Andrew, again, found a way to get to Melbourne earlier than the 12:30 flight Qantas rerouted us on - through Jetstar, which is a sister airline to Qantas - so we booked it, hoping we could convince Qantas to reimburse us later!

That night, upon arriving at our prebooked hotel, we found the Sizzler-esq hotel restaurant to have dinner (which was covered by Qantas).  The meal was actually surprisingly good, based on the looks of the place.  The morning brought the next hurdle: Check into the Jetstar flight and simultaneously convince Qantas to refund us for it, and cancel the 12:30 p.m. flight they originally put us on.  Of course, we got basically nowhere.  We were given customer service business cards and were told to write them a letter explaining the situation so we could hopefully be reimbursed.  We'll see.

Anyhow, as soon as we got to the gate to board our earlier Jetstar flight, we were notified it was delayed!!!  With heavy hearts, we waited.  We had already missed an afternoon and night in Melbourne and we didn't want to miss anymore.  Thankfully, we boarded only about 10 minutes late, however, upon our arrival in Melbourne, we were told our baggage would be delayed coming out on the carousel.  SERIOUSLY?  We all felt like this city didn't want us here!  I felt like the minutes were ticking by so quickly and was so sad we were missing these precious moments in the city we were most interested in seeing!  Finally, after about 30 minutes, the baggage came out and we caught a cab and were on our way to the hotel…until the cab driver took a wrong turn and got lost, costing us more precious time.  We were all at the end of our rope, but we finally arrived at the hotel a little before 3:30 p.m.  No joke, we spent 36 hours trying to get to Melbourne.

So, here we are and it's an AMAZING city.  So sad that we missed the time here, but we've got a little over a day and a half and we're going to spend it pounding the pavement.  We grabbed a quick snack in CBD (city business district) and then shopped around a bit and headed to an early dinner at Dainty Sichuan; so yummy.  

Quick snack in a cool ally-way

On the walk around the city, we found several ally-ways covered in spray paint, which is something the city is known for:

Dinner, mmmmm:

Sichuan fish at Dainty Sichuan

Crazy spicy chicken 

Sunset view from our hotel balcony

Once back at the hotel, we all had a couple drinks and are headed to bed so we can get up early to enjoy our last day in Melbourne tomorrow.  We can't wait to see what else this great city has in store for us.  Cheers.

We love you already, Melbourne!

Australia - Day 10 - Uluru

Today was our sunrise circuit walk around Uluru.  We met our tour at 4:45 a.m.!  It was just a short ride to the start of the walk and off we went into the twilight:

Sunrise

First light on the rock

The walk is 13km, so we got to see the rock in many different colors and in interesting shadows, and the sky was also amazing:

See Andrew in the bottom right?

Art shot

Straight up

There were several caves in the rock that the Aborigines say look like smiling faces.  Most of them were sacred sites, so photos weren't allowed, but this is one that wasn't sacred.  We thought it looked a bit like a squid monster with a human mouth…

On the walk, we were also taken to a couple of spots where original cave drawings still exist.  Nearby, there was also the most significant source of water for the entire rock:

Cave drawings

Water source

It was a great morning.  We got back to the hotel a little after 10 and had a nap and then lunch.  During the heat of the day, there isn't much to do, so we sat by the pool and hung around for a lazy afternoon.

Before dinner, we took a quick walk to a lookout point near our resort, and looked for thorny lizards on the trail.  Andrew wanted so badly to find one, but it wasn't in the stars.  The lookout showed us what was in store for the evening:

Five storms on the horizon

Apparently it's fairly rare to see it rain at Uluru and tonight's storm didn't afford us the opportunity, but we watched a crazy lightning storm all throughout dinner.  

Exhausted from the day's adventures, we're off to bed and looking forward to expiring Melbourne!  We leave early tomorrow, but have a layover in Alice Springs.  Wish us luck that the weather clears by tomorrow morning so the flight isn't delayed!

Australia - Day 9 - Uluru

Happy Thanksgiving!!!  It's Friday here, but we're with you celebrating in spirit!  Today was our super early flight to Uluru.  We were up before the sun, but enjoyed some beautiful morning views of Uluru and Kata Tjuka before landing:

The land looked so red from the plane

Uluru from the plane

Kata Tjuka from the plane

As soon as we arrived, we rented a car, grabbed some picnic items and drove out to Kata Tjuka for an afternoon hike.  It's advised not to hike after 11:30 a.m. because the weather here is so hot, but we loaded up with waters and did it anyway starting around 12:30 p.m. (yes, we started at almost the hottest point of the day).  We only have two days here, so we have to make the most of them.  This is Kata Tjuka, which is a larger rock formation that Uluru and is several kilometers away.  Uluru gets all the press, but Kata Tjuka is really impressive.  I actually think they look fake in this photo, but this is (just some of) them:

Kata Tjuka at the picnic area

Our first hike was into Walpa Gorge, which takes about an hour, round trip.  The rock faces that we trekked between were so red and weathered; the photos don't do them justice:

Entrance to Walpa Gorge

The wifi here is being a bit tricky, so I couldn't add a few photos of inside Walpa Gorge, sorry.

Walking out of Walpa Gorge

Our second hike was just the first part of The Valley of the Winds.  They close the entire circuit when temps hit 36 degrees Celsius because it's way too hot for people to do the whole thing without something bad happening (sun stroke, dehydration, etc.).  Photos from the hike:

Entrance to Valley of the Winds

Vista at Valley of the Winds

Henry and Sylvie

Karu Lookout at Valley of the Winds

Andrew and me at Karu Lookout

The third and final hike was just a short walk up to a lookout point at which you could see both Kata Tjuta and Uluru, which are something like 30km apart.  The vistas around here are really unbelievable:

Panarama with Kata Tjuka and Uluru all in one shot

Tonight was The Sounds of Silence Dinner.  We were picked up by a tour bus and taken to the outskirts of town to watch the sun set behind Kata Tjuka and Uluru.  The view was really beautiful, however, the light on Uluru wasn't as bright as we expected.  The light behind Kata Tjuka was really great, though.

Uluru at sunset

Kata Tjuka at sunset

We weren't really allowed to take photos during the dinner, so there's a lack of evidence, but after the sunset viewing, we were seated in a flat vista area where tables were set up.  As we ate and the night crept up, we got to enjoy a super starry night and even a talk about our solar system and the visible stars in the southern hemisphere.  We met some fun people and enjoyed the evening.  

There were lots of these beetles at dinner

Tomorrow we have to get up at 4 in the morning to catch a tour to Uluru to watch the sun rise...we're going to be tired!