Samdays in Melbourne

My friend Sam from Vanuatu arrived last Thursday before heading out to her 5 week UK holiday and onwards to  her new job in Fiji.

Living in the Pacific has its perks, but one thing it deprives its lucky inhabitants of? SHOPPING. So when an islander lands in civilisation spending money and buying pretty new clothes is priority. so I took her shopping – Bourke Street, DFO, Smith Street Outlets (for her travel gear).

Port Vila, where Sam and I previously lived, is a teeny tiny town with less than a handful of places you can go out to drink. So we took her out to get wasted too.

Madame Brussels -63 Bourke Street, Melbourne

Meyers Place – 20 Meyers Place, Melbourne

An islander might also be in awe of the cityscape. Port Vila, afterall, cannot exactly be described as a metropolis. In the whole country there are only 2 lifts – at the Reserve Bank of Vanuatu and the Sebel Hotel. Skyscrapers are none existent, so we took her around the CBD.

Our $30 Day

Conscious of the Global Financial Crisis (but really because we had a massive Saturday night that blew our long weekend budget) my man friend (let’s call him Jack) and I decided to give ourselves a challenge: have an awesome, fun filled day with only $30 to spend.

So with our prepaid tram tickets and a pouch of $30 we set out to the city.
The tram dropped us off at Swanston & La Trobe Streets, right in front of the State Library of Victoria. There were signs for a free exhibition out front and we thought, why not?! i We had a quick whirl in the Type Book Writing Exhibition where we learnt about prominent writers from Victoria.

We didn’t stay too long though as we were starving and decided to eat at Maccas on Swanston corner Lonsdale. For $5.10 for a large cheeseburger meal and an additional $1.90 for an extra cheeseburger our lunch was sorted!

We set out to check out the City Gallery in the Melbourne Town Hall, but it was a Public Holiday so it was closed..

the family in melbourne

Parental units and my two Australia-based siblings (one from Canberra, the other from Adelaide) were  here for about a week to check up on me, experience the awesomeness that is Melbourne and to celebrate mum’s birthday and mum and dad’s 30th anniversary. It was a whirlwind week of activities, laughter, taking the piss, eating (heaps), shopping, a LOT of walking, tramming, seeing, playing Wii and enjoyment!!

Make a Smilebox postcard

Unfortunately.. Anj, my eldest sister couldn’t make it so this is the only complete family photo we could take:

Oh well.. one day hopefully soon this wacky and wonderful family unit will be all together long enough to have a family photo taken. And not just on the Wii screen.