We got to an adorable cafe and ordered 2 burgers - one lamb and one kangaroo to split. They were both delicious, but pretty sure the kangaroo won out!
This was a joke picture - they were actually quite tasty!
Lots of people eat kangaroo here - it's actually overpopulate, so people are allowed to hunt them (kind of like deer in the US). Our kangaroo burger tasted quite a bit like beef, although it was leaner than beef. We were pleasantly surprised :).
We decided that, while there were many things we wanted to see and do in Melbourne, we really just wanted to enjoy the city. We wandered around for the afternoon, figured out the tram system - an AMAZING public transit system which runs throughout the whole city (with a huge free transit area in the central business district) and overall just relaxed. And it. was. awesome.
We loved discovering some of the wonderful joys that Melbourne has to offer. Like yarn covered trees:
There's a yarn shop in the city that, with the help of volunteers, creates these "sweaters" for trees to dress them up (and advertise) - adorable!
Then we wandered down to Flinders Street Station and Federation Square. Fed Square is a large, modernly designed square in the middle of the city. It was recently redesigned and people are quite split on their feelings of it - some think it's a great public space while others think it's too modern for its surroundings (since it's next to the quite traditional looking Flinders Street Station and St. Paul's Cathedral.)
Us in front of Flinders Street Station
A view of Federation Square
To escape the cold we kind of accidentally wandered into the ACMI (Australian Center for the Moving Image). We kept reading what an awesome museum it was, but didn't really have much interest in it...until we wandered in to find out it was free (huzzah for free museums!) The museum is broken into three parts - the history of the moving image (starting in the 1890's-ish), the history of Australians' involvement in the moving image, and an interactive movie lab. It was interesting to see the history of moving images from optical illusions to short clips to full movies to movie houses to televisions and then to the internet and smart phones. Pretty cool.
The lab was also awesome, with lots of interactive exhibits that allowed you to jump in on the action - from figuring out how to color a movie properly with red, green, and blue reels, to adding sound effects to films, to watching lights and shapes change hues and forms before your eyes, it was pretty cool.
The museum had an exhibit where you could walk in front of a light and it would bring your shadow to life with crazy effects!
Overall the museum was SOOOOOOO much cooler than we thought it would be and we're quite happy we stumbled upon it!
After leaving the museum we decided to venture over to the Yarra River. We wandered up and down it, stopping at Birrarung Marr (a large outdoor green space) for a while, before getting a drink while sitting overlooking the water. Our next stop was a Greek restaurant (Australia has the highest concentration of Greeks outside of Athens!) BUTTTTTTTT the food at Venus in Northport is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much better and we were actually really disappointed in the food! Not to mention it was the second time we'd eaten lamb today. Seriously - who does that? We normally eat lamb once every like, 3 months, anddd today we had it twice in one day. Which was 2 times too many...
After dinner we decided to go alllllll the way back to our AirBnb in order to pick up more layers as it was getting cooler as the sun set (not to mention I wanted to pick up my tripod so I could take better pictures at White Night!) We got back to our studio around 8 and left again around 9, wearing LOTS of layers, packing my tripod, and ready for action for............WHITE NIGHT!
Every February for the past 4 years, Melbourne has hosted White Night. It's basically a night where colors and shapes come to life from 7 pm to 7 am. During that time tons of shops and restaurants throughout the city are open, and public spaces display art projects and streaming colors. And it. is. AWESOME.
We started our travels in the north of the city at the Melbourne Museum, which lit up with stories of Aboriginal people in Australia.
We stayed here for a while and I took TONS of pictures of the beautiful building lit up in vibrant colors. From there we headed to the "circus tent" where we watched trapeze artists do their thing!
From there we made our way south, back to the Yarra River, stopping at:
the beautifully decorated library with a dance party outside of it:
several churches with...interesting (not really) displays:
While this appears 3-D, it was actually just a light shining on a floor...yea...
to Federation Square:
We are a little tired at this point...
and passed a pirate parade that was definitely not sanctioned by White Night, but was rather just a bunch of people having a grand old time dressed as pirates :).
Our last stop was Birrarung Marr where we listened to live music and watched a huge hot air balloon go up!
<3!
By this point it was about 1 am and we were TIRED! It had been an incredible day, but by 2 am we were in bed and ready to sleep LATE.
Jess' highlight of the day: exploring the city and the hot air balloon at White Night
Jon's highlight of the day: exploring Melbourne
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