At the Melbourne Visitor centre yesterday we came to know
about the visitor shuttle bus which move around the city and take the tourists
to landmark attractions. The $10 ticket for 2 days entitled one to get on any
of these shuttle at any of these designated 13 stops. One could visit the
attraction at leisure and then hop on to the next shuttle and continue the
journey. What’ more? It had free onboard Wifi. Yippee! So we bought a couple of
tickets for our self and take the shuttle at St. Paul’s Cathedral which was
stop #2 on the route. When we arrived there, the shuttle wasn’t yet arrived at
the stop so we decided you see the cathedral from inside.
The cathedral was humungous with the high ceiling
intimidating you and making you realize what a tiny speck you are. The fat pillars
on both side and the arcs curving in from each side and meeting at the center
were stone carved and flashed the gothic look. There were hardly any soul on
the prayer benches or otherwise except a couple of tourists near the towering
altar. Since this would interest Anannya, Anjali took her to a side aisle
wherein a special play area was demarcated with toys scattered around. I moved
on to watch the place with more details. As one entered the cathedral there was
this soothing sound of someone playing an organ. Though very calm it was loud
as well, perhaps it was the acoustics of the grand hall which was amplifying
the effects or perhaps the person was playing on a mic I told myself. I roamed
around a bit and then came across a array of giant pipes which kind of puzzled
me but I moved on. When I returned back to the play area, Anannya was busy
riding on some toy while Anjali was chatting with the David Shepherd’esque old
man. I realized later that he was the curator of the cathedral. After exchanging
pleasantries and hearing where we came from, how could we not grace past the
topic of cricket. So here was he, but as you might be expecting or at least as
I had expected instead of bragging how
the green baggies have been humiliating India time and again down under, he
chose to mention the series when India had white-washed the Aussies. And we say
that the Aussies are big-mouthed, or perhaps it was just him. I later queried
him about the sound the queried him as to who was playing it and it is then I
got enlightened about that array of pipes. The cathedral contained one of the
world’s largest while organ and it was wind acting as the conductor of the
orchestra. He also added that we were plain lucky to have witnessed it as it is
usually played only on the day of the mass.
From there we moved onto the halls of ACMI and the art galleries of NGV. The ACMI exhibited variety of sci-fi gadgets from the past and those used in different movies. But what was more interesting was what lay ahead, for they were also demonstrating the gadgets for the future like the Virtual reality goggles. The NGV too was spell bounding for any connoisseur of art for it had huge collection of paintings, sculptures and art. We raced through much of it as we didn’t have any plans to skip our shuttle any longer and headed back to the cathedral stop. Within minutes we could see the distinctive bright red coloured bus pull in. A few tourist got off and we jumped on and grabbed the seat. Needless to say first thing that both of us did was to connect to the free onboard WiFi and got on with instagramming/FBing .
The shuttle chugged along and the very lively driver
welcomed the new guests onboard and proceeded with his running commentary. The
next stop was the MCG which didn’t excited Anjali much but I still decided to
hop off to do the ‘Sporting Hajj’. The climate out there at the MCG stadium was
stupendous with cool breeze kissing your face. Anjali had once again got her
sartorial choice wrong of clothing relaying solely on the earlier day’s hot and
humid climate. Duh! The climate was very pleasing at MCG and the cool breezing
crazing against your body makes one feel energetic. Guess that is one of the
reason why MCG is the most favourite venue of most of the cricketing legend and
facing the red cherry dressed in the whites is kind of a holy grail for most of
the cricketers across the world. Very typical to the Hajj wherein the devotee
circumambulate the black stone, I went all around the MCG. I also took a detour
to the Hisense Arena, the National Tennis centre, AAMI Park and the venue for
the Australia Open. One could see hundreds of young kids practicing different
sports, no wonder Australia is such a strong sporting nation. We took the next
shuttle and then moved on.
We moved past the Treasury gardens, watched the Victoria parliament
building pass by, zipped past the famous food street of Lygon street and
Collins street and then to the University of Melbourne, the driver blabbering
all the way with history of many a landmarks sprinkled with nit bits of GK. The
bus paused at regular intervals to let the tourists hop on and off at the
stipulated stops. We then arrived at the Queen Victoria market stop which was
the place for Melbourne biggest market for all things under the sun. For fish
to clothes and eatables to vegetables, this was the go-to place if you wanted
to buy things cheap. But it being a Wednesday it was the weekly off and all the
stalls were sealed and wrapped. This disappointment didn’t last for too long as
the driver informed us that Wednesday though being the weekly off, it is all
the day for the night food bazaar wherein I can get to devour a wide and inexhaustive
range of cuisines supposedly from the length and breadth the world. Now that I
have titillated your taste buds and I am guessing you mouth is watering as
well, I will leave it at this. More of it later. So we made a mental note that
we need to arrive at the place dot at 1700 hrs, militarily speaking.
We then made our way to the docklands which is a
very recently developed region of Melbourne. We passed by a giant white statue
of an Eagle, which was considered sacred by the native aboriginal people of
Australia. We could see large tracts of wavy roof like structure which turned
out to be the Southern cross station, the hub of all inter- and intra- state
rail networks. Interesting to note here the name Southern Cross is derived from
a constellation, which is also seen on the Australian Flag. As Melbourne grew
and so does its population, it had to expand to accommodate its vast numbers of
immigrants and thus this area got into being as an outshoot. Unlike the mix of Victorian
and swanky buildings in the CBD, this area housed mostly residential hi-rises.
Our driver informed that the buildings having built in the docklands region were
so shaped to look like that of a ship; I am yet to figure out that similarity.
Ignoring his rant we got ourselves busy watching the marina and the white gleaming
yachts anchored there. Soon we reached the Melbourne Star, our next in to-do
list. Remember Anjali had added this to her wish list yesterday, and I didn’t want
to disappoint her. A few years back when we had been to Singapore, I had given
the Singapore Eye a miss for more ‘down to earth’ experiences, but she hadn’t still
let me go for that misadventure (missed adventure rather) and I was in no mood
to make it 2-0 in her favour. So here was the opportunity for me to break
even, even though if it meant I would be
set back $140. So we grabbed a quick bite at a McD and moved on to take a ride
in one of those glass cubicle which circled every half an hour. There was
hardly any crowd there and we got the entire cabin all for ourselves to play
around. No, don’t let you mind wander; the cabin is strictly under CCTV
surveillance and besides we had own set of little eyes proding throughout. The
cabin rises slowly and you get to see newer frontiers of Melbourne emerge at
the horizon. There is a running commentary helping you to identify significant
buildings I you move 360 degrees along the circumference of the Melbourne Star.
All and all I felt this experience a bit…….. ‘Meh!’ A more exciting thing was seeing
Anannya enjoying herself on the tiny slides, the rocking rides and the driving
car that she got to play with in the play area after we have alighted. It was a
tasks to get her off from it and onto the City Circle tram back to flinders
street. Got somewhere close to the George Street stop and walked
north to QVM.
When we arrived at the tin shade of what we know at QVM, the
stalls were just getting set up. Though there were a couple which were up and
running and already had a small crowd gathered around it. We had no clue what
this would snowball into as the evening unwound. So as we waited for more
options to get added, we had our first mango of the season well before the
season. My daughter being a huge Mango fan, meant Anjali and me got to taste
just a small bite of it as Anannya ‘cleaned’ it up within no time. Soon the
crowd begin building up and we decided to take a walk down the aisle and take
our pick. The entire lane was lined up with hundreds of stalls and each of
these stalls offering you thousands of things you relish. From Cheesesteaks,
Dumplings & Noodles to Nachos, Pastas and doughnuts. Well not to miss on
the different items in meat of lamb, chicken, pork etc. After the recee I decided
to settle for Koothu Roti from a familiar looking Sri-Lankan stall. This dish
was basically a chicken and Roti version of scrambled egg. Wifey settled for a
more saner looking Korean Potata twist and fried beans. Besides food, another
star attraction of the night food market is the live performances that happen
along side which all the people can enjoy while devouring their chosen food. We
got to experience this guy who was playing a fruit. No its not a typo and I didn’t
mean to say flute but F.R.U.I.T. He had this assemble of different carved of fruits viz: carrots, watermelon,
cabbage, lettuce et al and he was making rhythmic notes out of these. Quiet a
novelty it was. We also had another stage wherein the artist were playing the digeridoo
though I would have loved to hear the same played by an aboriginal native in
his traditional attire. With our mind and soul satisfied and more so our
tummies, we took the ride back to our home.
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