St Kilda

We spent our second day in Melbourne in St Kilda. Public transport in Melbourne is excellent! The tram stops right outside our friend Jenn's house (where we were staying) and goes all the way to St Kilda. And it is SO regular compared to Perth. There is usually a tram every few minutes.

On our way to St Kilda, we stopped off at Brunswick St in Fitzroy which is one of Melbourne's more historic and grungier suburbs. Most of the buildings are old and adorned with graffiti and old posters advertising gigs which have been and long gone. I loved the interesting array of shops with their funky and alternative clothing. We found it strange though that so many of them were closed and it was mid-morning! A lot of them don't open until 10:30 or 11 but stay open until 6. Duncan wondered if it was because they were owned by young nightclubbing enthusiasts who would sleep in and stay up late and so run their businesses accordingly. Once we'd seen Brunswick St, we hopped back on the tram again.

It was my second visit to St Kilda having first visited in July 2006. Acland St (the cake street) is a must-see. We packed our own lunch to save money and ate it in St Kilda's Botanic Gardens. There we were joined by two very keen magpies. I refused to share my lunch, knowing that as soon as I did, they were bound to bring the rest of the family. However, when I noticed part of my banana was bad, I chucked it to the birds. Duncan sighed. He'd been warning me not to feed them and now he pointed at a crow who was coming to see what the commotion was and said, "Now here comes a jolly crow!"

Not for long. The two magpies soon chased him away.

We noticed a guy hanging around in the gardens, pacing around, reading the same bit of paper over and over. It was then we realised that he was an actor learning his lines and sure enough there was a filming session going on nearby with two female actors and one cameraman. We couldn't tell what show it was but as we were leaving the gardens, we noticed a van parked outside a house with stacks of filming equipment.

St Kilda Beach is not nearly as nice as Perth's beaches. It's more of a harbour really. While we were walking along, we noticed the same actors had come down to the beach and were filming another scene of the show.

I think St Kilda is nice to visit but I don't think I could live there. After a while I started to feel sick so we caught the tram back to the city. Duncan suggested it could be low blood sugar because I hadn't eaten much all day and I felt really faint. I felt better when I ate the biscuit I brought in Acland St but I really wanted to go somewhere quiet to sit down (we'd been walking and walking and walking). Duncan suggested the cinema and I convinced him to see My Sister's Keeper with me :)

Me in Brunswick St.

At St Kilda's Botanic Gardens.

St Kilda Conservatory.

It was quite warm in there.

Luna Park. It was closed.

Palace Theatre.

St Kilda Beach.

French people hanging out (well, it sounded like they were speaking French).

The jetty. Duncan kept pretending he was going to push me off. Horrible man ;)