The next day we woke up early (well, for me!) and, rejoicing in the good weather, headed down the Mornington Peninsular. The road itself isn't that fascinating, but in a bid to liven up the drivers journey (you can only presume?) there are various 'interesting' sculptures along the way. And by interesting I mean deeply dodgy. There is a vast sheep skull made of heavily rusted metal. There is something that looks like a huge bird/bee drinking from a flower/random yellow object. And there is a block of flats with 'hotel' emblazoned across the front. Which, to the innocent bystander, looks exactly like a hotel. But its not, its art. Apparently....
We wandered down the beach at Sorrento. It was perfect weather, breezy, with a slight nip in the air, but absolutely gorgeous. The beach was littered with oyster shells and brightly coloured boats. I just couldn't believe that this was the last weekend before 'winter'! We then headed down to Portsea for fish & chips in the sun overlooking the bay. Poifect.
After lunch, feeling quite sluggish and sleepy, we walked from the lighthouse at Cape Schanck down to the beach below. The pounding waves and beautiful cliffs reminded me of Devon. Huge pangs of nostalgia. Which I quickly dismissed in favour of laughing at the looks on some of the tourists faces when they realised they had to walk back up the hill...!
So what best to do next on a Saturday afternoon. Wine tasting. Clearly. Headed over to the Red Hill vineyard for a pleasant hour of downing glasses of wine and giving opinions like 'hmmm musky with a hint of butterscotch'. Which went down rather better than when I tasted the desert wine and announced 'wow, that tastes just like um bongo!'
Back to the city for a lightning nap - very necessary - before dinner at a Greek restaurant on Brunswick St, a lovely bustling road in Fitzroy with a million tiny, quirky cocktails bars, which reminded me of life in Cape Town. Blimey, that was a long time ago now. After souvlaki and a few cocktails one of the girls persuaded us that we were in need of a dance. Cheryl charmed the bouncer (apparently completely unintentionally...!) into letting us skip the queue, and we were in. The mistake became apparent within minutes. We've all had those evenings when you realise you are about 4 hours of drinking behind everyone else in the place. After 5 minutes of cringing at the dance moves being employed we left.
The next day was all about culture. And food. French toast steeped in maple syrup made for a gorgeous brunch. Then checked out the Monet exhibition at the MCG before heading back to Federation Square to the Museum of Moving Image. A friend had recently visited the permanent exhibition there and had raved about the interactive possibilities which included a 360 degree camera booth in which you tried your best impression of the matrix moves. Despite not really knowing much about the matrix moves, me and Suze gamely slow motioned an epic fight scene, watched in amusement by several Asian tourists. To our intense disappointment, when we went to check our playback and email it to ourselves for future laughs, the mechanism was broken. We had no record of our fantastic stunt skills. What a loss to humanity! Of course it later occurred to us that the tourists had it all on camera. We await its appearance on youtube with a mixture of excitement and dread.
Feeling in need of a walk, we tackled the maze of alleyways that crisscross central Melbourne, starting with the infamous Hosier Lane and its impressive street art. What followed was an amazing array of graffiti, tiny shops, bustling cafes, street performers, polished arcades and self titled 'perfectly preserved, authentic barrel pulleys'. I had a field day with my camera.
After several pit stops in various tiny pop up bars for restorative glasses of red (we had been walking for hours!!) we dragged our exhausted bodies home and Suze taught me how to make Pho. Which I am hoping to try out on my unsuspecting housemates next week...
We wandered down the beach at Sorrento. It was perfect weather, breezy, with a slight nip in the air, but absolutely gorgeous. The beach was littered with oyster shells and brightly coloured boats. I just couldn't believe that this was the last weekend before 'winter'! We then headed down to Portsea for fish & chips in the sun overlooking the bay. Poifect.
So what best to do next on a Saturday afternoon. Wine tasting. Clearly. Headed over to the Red Hill vineyard for a pleasant hour of downing glasses of wine and giving opinions like 'hmmm musky with a hint of butterscotch'. Which went down rather better than when I tasted the desert wine and announced 'wow, that tastes just like um bongo!'
Back to the city for a lightning nap - very necessary - before dinner at a Greek restaurant on Brunswick St, a lovely bustling road in Fitzroy with a million tiny, quirky cocktails bars, which reminded me of life in Cape Town. Blimey, that was a long time ago now. After souvlaki and a few cocktails one of the girls persuaded us that we were in need of a dance. Cheryl charmed the bouncer (apparently completely unintentionally...!) into letting us skip the queue, and we were in. The mistake became apparent within minutes. We've all had those evenings when you realise you are about 4 hours of drinking behind everyone else in the place. After 5 minutes of cringing at the dance moves being employed we left.
The next day was all about culture. And food. French toast steeped in maple syrup made for a gorgeous brunch. Then checked out the Monet exhibition at the MCG before heading back to Federation Square to the Museum of Moving Image. A friend had recently visited the permanent exhibition there and had raved about the interactive possibilities which included a 360 degree camera booth in which you tried your best impression of the matrix moves. Despite not really knowing much about the matrix moves, me and Suze gamely slow motioned an epic fight scene, watched in amusement by several Asian tourists. To our intense disappointment, when we went to check our playback and email it to ourselves for future laughs, the mechanism was broken. We had no record of our fantastic stunt skills. What a loss to humanity! Of course it later occurred to us that the tourists had it all on camera. We await its appearance on youtube with a mixture of excitement and dread.
Feeling in need of a walk, we tackled the maze of alleyways that crisscross central Melbourne, starting with the infamous Hosier Lane and its impressive street art. What followed was an amazing array of graffiti, tiny shops, bustling cafes, street performers, polished arcades and self titled 'perfectly preserved, authentic barrel pulleys'. I had a field day with my camera.
After several pit stops in various tiny pop up bars for restorative glasses of red (we had been walking for hours!!) we dragged our exhausted bodies home and Suze taught me how to make Pho. Which I am hoping to try out on my unsuspecting housemates next week...
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