A Flat White with Breakfast? Yes please!

Melbourne Day 2: St. Kilda's Beach and the Old Melbourne Gaol

We woke up our second morning in Melbourne to pouring rain and a quick look at the future forecast for the next 15 days showed chances of rain everywhere we’re going for the next two weeks. So, we resolved to make the best of it, threw on our jackets and headed out to explore the city rain or shine. The first order of business was breakfast and coffee and we decided to head to St. Kilda, the beach town of Melbourne. We caught the tram and headed toward the beach. By the time we arrived, it had slowed to a drizzle and we found a street cafe with a good breakfast deal to settle our growling stomaches. It was here that Erin and I were introduced to the concept of a “flat white.” Apparently, if you want coffee with milk in Australia, you order a “flat white.” Basically it’s a coffee with steamed milk minus the foam of a cappuccino. Erin and I had found our new drink of choice for the trip!

After breakfast, we headed out to explore the beach area. Our first stop was St. Kilda’s pier. At the end of the pier, we were able to get a superb view of the city of Melbourne.

I was pleasantly surprised to find at the end of the pier a rocky area that was also inhabited by penguins and here, we were allowed to take their pictures as long as we turned the flash of our camera off. It was a little like playing “Where’s Waldo” among the rocks and it was hard to get a great shot of them, but take our word for it...they were there!

(can you see it???)

(Me looking for penguins)

We also took the opportunity while we were here to wave toward Antarctica...the closest we ever plan on getting!

After a brief respite and a stop at the toilets, we headed back down the pier and toward the beach. This beach is on the Bass Strait which becomes the Tasmanian Sea further away from land, so we absolutely had to take this time to put our feet in the water. Surprisingly enough, it wasn’t that cold! Erin thought it was a lot like the Pacific in San Diego during the summer and I thought that it was certainly warmer than the Atlantic at York Beach!

The next stop of the day was Old Melbourne Gaol, one of the original prisons in Melbourne built back when Australia was mostly a prison colony for the British. Here, we learned about Ned Kelly, the most famous bushranger (think Wild West outlaw like Jesse James) in Australia. He stole horses and robbed banks and trains wearing a homemade suit of armor. Since they had replicas of the suit, we were quick to try the helmets on!

We then explored the prison a little more and learned about different prisoners and hangings that took place there. We also had the chance to go through different cells and Erin and I got ourselves trapped in...

(Some of us were more concerned than others...)

Once we’d finished at the museum, it was about 3:30p and we were ready for a drink and a snack since we’d missed lunch. Sarah took us on a “brief” walk through the city to her favorite pub and we had drinks (Tasmanian cider for some of us) and some food and put our feet up.

After a rest, we headed back to our hostel to shower and get ready for dinner. We headed out to Lygon St, an area of Melbourne that had a large concentration of Italian immigrants which leads to a large number of Italian restaurants. All the restaurants have promoters standing out front trying to offer you the best deal and get you to come eat at their place. We ended up choosing a restaurant that offered us two free rounds of drinks each, free garlic bread and free bruschetta. We all ordered different pasta meals so we could share and Andrew proceeded to give Erin and I a lesson on Australian slang/wordage. We learned that peppers (as in red and green) are called capsicum and that red-necks or country folk are called bogans. We also learned that instead of saying “You’re welcome” when someone says thank you, they say “No worries!” And that “Cheers” can mean anything from thank you to good-bye or good-night.

With full bellies, we decided that since we were getting up and hitting the road early in the morning that we’d call it a night and headed back to the hostel. Off to get some sleep for tomorrow’s Great Adventure...

Cheers!

Jess and Erin