Melbourne

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Originally uploaded by theslaad.

Melbourne's chilly. Well 26degrees of so seems pretty chilly after Alice Springs. We like it.
We checked into our Hostel which is OK, except that the room hasn't got any windows, but then it's pretty cheap.

First morning in Melbourne we headed straight to Federation Square (about 150yds from the hostel) and had a look around the ACMI (Australian Centre of the Moving Image), which had lots of fun illusions and zoetropes and that sort of thing. They also had an exhibition of 1980's Australian computer games so we got to play "Horace goes skiing" and "Way of the exploding fist" for a bit.
We decided to sit on the steps of Federation Square and watch a street entertainer whilst having our packed lunch. Seemed like a good idea for a bit. He was pretty funny, did a bit of diabalo, bit of juggling etc. Unfortunately he then started picking on people in the audience and making them join in. That still might have been quite funny if he hadn't picked on me (Chris). I always get picked on. It's not fair. Bastards! Anyway, he made me and a couple of other people disco dance. Nuff said.
In the afternoon we strolled up to the melbourne museum. The building is only a couple of years old so it was extremely well laid out and very entertaining. More than your average amount of nudity for a museum though. Chinese food for dinner in Chinatown.

Yesterday we went for a stroll in the botannical gardens. Nice enough place. Then we went to the casino because Bill Bryson and Kim (from Mui Ne) said that we had to. The Casino is enormous. Housed within a shopping mall/hotel/nightclub complex there are several football pitch sized rooms full of every game you might want to play. We avoided the $50 minimum bet tables and headed to the 2c a go pokies. We stuck a dollar in each. Jen won 15c back and I won 10c. Not bad going really. We didn't have a clue what we were doing. It's not like the fruit machines at home. We headed back to our hostel for their free barbeque night. Couple of sausages and a fish finger each.
After the barbeque (and a couple of peices of toast) we went looking for a bar. Not as easy as you might think. The first three we tried were all closed, possibly permanently, possibly until they reopen as karaoke clubs. We found somewhere nice in the end and consequently are a little hung over today.

Just watched Borat and laughed a lot. Might have to get a burger in a moment.