Australian Adventure (Tuesday, July 09, 2013)

40 Days Down Under (Day 26)

Tuesday, July 09, 2013
We cleaned up our JUCY Lucy (which Kris has been calling Nancy Cartwright in his never-ending attempt to annoy me with Simpsons quotes this trip) to ready her for return. Then poor Kris had to drive downtown to the Radisson Flagstaff Gardens in Melbourne so we could drop off our luggage.

After dropping off our luggage, the GPS tells us it's time to do a right turn. Ack!

You see, Melbourne is a crazy city that has created its own system of right turns that differ from anywhere else in the world (or that I know of anyway). It's called a hook turn, and poor Kris had to complete one. It requires that you get in the left lane, sit in the middle of the intersection through the entire green light, wait until the light turns red, then, when the approaching traffic has a green light, you turn right.

Naturally, Kris had one Simpsons quote or another applicable to the situation. I swear that less than 1% of what he's said this trip has been an original thought.

And, for those curious like Bart Simpson, the toilet down here in Australia doesn't have the water flow in the opposite direction than home in the USA. It all kind of just sluices down the middle. The commodes are quite different than those back home. They do seem to waste less water.

Before returning our car, I made Kris take me to Brighton Beach to see the iconic Brighton Beach boxes. They are even cooler in person. So colorful!

This doggie loved the beach.

We grabbed lunch at Lentil As Anything in St. Kilda. It's a vegetarian restaurant with a pay what you can philosophy. I found the food a bit spicy, but it was good. I got a potato burger. Kris got some Moroccan Hot Pot spicy curry dish.

We bid adieu to our JUCY and grabbed a taxi to the Melbourne Aquarium. (It's actually less expensive and far more expedient to take a cab during the middle of the day than to attempt to take the public transport which requires you purchase a Myki card from a 7-11 and "load" it with the required tram fare.)

The Melbourne Aquarium has some neat penguins and seahorses. We also saw some spectacular leafy sea dragons.

I love the fluffy one!

Black tie dinner

We enjoyed the fish and other aquatic creatures, but it was far too crowded when we went.

The fish and ray feeding was quite cool to witness. They have some big sharks, turtles, and rays in their tanks. It's even more awesome to hear how they've trained various creatures to eat from certain areas in particular ways.

We made sure to check in all the nooks and crannies before heading out.

They have a Kris in the aquarium!

After leaving the aquarium, we spent some time walking around Melbourne. The aquarium has a fantastic view of the city.

Melbourne seems to be very artistic.

I really enjoyed seeing the Federation Square Street Art.

Melbourne has actually designated several streets as being legal for street art. Street art includes murals and paste-ups - genuine art. It does not include graffiti. Graffiti tagging is ugly and illegal everywhere in the city.

Post-It Wall

Loved the 3D effect they added to TIME.  You see it best when standing below and looking up.

Someone knew he was coming.

The interior city center area of Melbourne has some fantastic free public transportation. We took the free city circle tram closer to our hotel and had dinner in a local mall food court. The mall was built around an old factory and the smokestack. The building portion is now a store. Really spectacular to look up as you ride the escalator up.

Finally found a man-hole cover for Carol.

We called it an early night and retired to our room at the Radisson Flagstaff Gardens to repack our bags so that we could fly to Perth in the morning.