Part 4 - Melbourne - Victoria, and Adelaide - South Australia

 

When I got off the coach in Melbourne at about 5.30am, the first thing that struck me was the drop in temperature. It was dark and cold, and I was exhausted, so I found a hotel to rest and leave my stuff safely while I explored the city a bit. I had only programmed one day in Melbourne, followed by another overnight coach trip to Adelaide, daylight hours spent there, and then the train to Perth. The contrast with the city I had arrived in, Darwin, couldn't have been more pronounced. In the Northern Territories, even the policemen wore shorts while on duty; in Melbourne, it started snowing later on that morning!

After a rest, I decided to visit the Ned Kelly Museum, at that time housed in the prison where he was incarcerated. The story of Ned Kelly had fascinated me ever since watching the film starring Mick Jagger. Apart from memorabilia related to his life, the museum also had the original armour Ned had used in the shootout which led to his arrest and imprisonment. Unfortunately, my time in Melbourne was too short to be able to explore the city properly, and later that same day, I made my way to the bus station take another coach to the city of Adelaide.

Adelaide felt like a nice place to live and work in the short time I was there. I explored the city centre and started looking for somewhere for lunch. My limited time in the city didn't warrant booking a hotel room, so I'd left my luggage at the bus station. As I was walking around looking for a restaurant, I saw a sign which said "Lunch for just AU$??", the price was exceptionally good, the only thing was that the sign was outside a strip club! Well, I'd never been in strip joint before, so I thought, what the hell, let's add another experience to the list! :-) The lunch itself was very tasty, the problem was that eating surrounded by beautiful women without any clothes on played havoc with my digestion!