Next day I wandered into Melbourne and took in a few museums, starting with the Immigration museum (good and a bit different). The art gallery I planned to go to next was shut but next door was an exhibition of classic computer games, which I went to instead, again a bit different, and it was fun to play all these old classic arcade games. I also went to the International art gallery of Victoria, which had some very good collections, and tonnes of stuff too. During the day I also booked my daytrips for the next 2 days. Because I booked two trips I got a free ticket to Neighbours night(!). I was persuaded to go along despite my antipathy towards Neighbours by the promise of a good night and some free drinks included! That was this very night, and after first taking advantage of the free welcome drink and free (hearty) barbecue in the hostel I got on the free bus to the Neighbours night. I actually was having a great night: firstly some of the 'stars' came out and answered questions before going round the tables for photos. Then there was a pub quiz and some silly games where people could win free trips. Our table of people from our hostel won almost everything, including first prize of $250 in the quiz (which was mostly down to me, even if I say so myself!). Then "Dr Karl"'s band played a set of covers, which wasn't bad. Unfortunately my bag got misplaced around this point when tables were cleared from the centre of the room, and I was unable to get it back that night. Next day was my trip to see the Penguins and it still hadn't turned up by that evening so I reported it stolen and canceled my credit card that was in the bag along with some other valuables. The next day I was pretty down about it, but when I got back from my Great Ocean Road trip that day they had finally found it behind the bar in the pub, much to my great relief!!
Anyway: Penguin trip. This set off at about 11am, and after about a brief lunch stop the first stop proper was a wine tasting. This got everyone warmed up and I really enjoyed this trip as it was a good group of people. Turned out the bus was full of physicists and biologists in town for a brain imaging conference! (After meeting a particle physicist, here for a different physics conference two days before, it seemed Melbourne was crawling with physicists.) Next stop was a wildlife park with a placid wombat, some Koalas, and many a Wallaby and Kangaroo amongst other things. There were a couple of scenic stops on Philip Island, before we got to the main event: the parade of little penguins. At dusk they come out of the sea and waddle up the beach to there homes. There's a big stand build where you could watch them come out of the sea, but much better was after where round the back you could see them up close wandering to their nests. Little penguins are blue and only 1 foot tall. Unfortunately you were not allowed to take photos, but this was a great thing to see. The last stop was for a pizza dinner on the way home. This trip featured an Israeli couple who had the most amazing and blatant disregard for timekeeping, which totally pissed off everyone on the bus and had the driver fit to throttle them. Other than that it was a very good group, some very nice people, good tour, good guide, and I was able to forget my missing bag most of the time!
To be Continued...
Photos:
Inside the MCG
Me and my good mate Dr Karl
Sleepy Koala
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