Culture Shock in Oz

After a few weeks in Malaysia and Indonesia arriving in Australia was a massive culture shock. For such a relatively short flight we were in a different world again.

Melbourne

No more frangipani everywhere, now its beer and barbies.Melbourne, on the Yarra river is a big city in the state of Victoria.Its been voted the best city to live in several times and its easy to see why.

In the centre of town  the laneways off Flinders Street station are great to walk round. There are cheap Ugg boots and really good coffee, and lots of special offers in the crowded pubs. Australians are naturally obsessed with prisons so we did a great prison tour. The Old Melbourne Goal has a Watch House Experience. We were arrested and put in a dark cell men and women separated for only a few minutes but it felt longer. Then we toured the prison seeing death masks and information about its former inhabitants.

Then there the Victoria Night Market with a huge range of food and lots of stalls selling what to us were weird things. A seed pod hat anyone? The music was great so we ate and sat listening for a while.

The Great Atlantic Way

We wanted to travel the famous Great Atlantic way to see the dramatic coast of SW Victoria. With no car we had to compromise and take a coach trip to the twelve apostles. Not a great hardship as it also included a helicopter trip to view the Apostles from the air. On the way the coach stopped for a break and the driver gave us samples of typical Australian food. So we had Vegemite – very similar to Marmite, love it or hate it. Then Tim Tams, a not very nice imitation of Wagon Wheels. Last we had Lammingtons, sponge cake covered in chocolate sauce and rolled in desiccated coconut, these were quite nice.