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Melbourne Trip

Posted on April 29, 2018

Got it in two.

So I went to Melbourne for a few days with R, J & T to see the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra perform with Joe Hasiashi, the music of Studio Ghibli films. Here’s what happened.

Thursday

Started the trip with a delayed flight, causing our arrival in Melbourne to be around 8:30pm. We caught a bus into the city and walked the rest of the way to our apartment, where we met up with T who had already checked in.

A quick rest to settle in, before heading downstairs to grab some pizzas for dinner at Roza’s (tandoori chicken was legit).

Friday

Friday night was the concert, so we had the day to explore and have fun. We had a good sleep, and took our time in the morning. We had decided to see a movie that day, so booked the tickets online at the cinema in the Crown, and left around midday.

We saw the new Avenger’s Infinity War movie, and opted to see it in a Vmax theatre. Spacious, comfortable seating, huge screen, Dolby Atmos sound system – definitely should be the standard for cinema experiences. The movie itself was good, albeit a bit confusing because I’ve missed a lot of the previous Marvel movies. I don’t even want to know what the budget for that movie was…

After the movie, we walked around through the city, seeing the different shops and restaurants around, before deciding to stop to eat at Betty’s Burgers. They make a pretty delicious burger. And they have some crazy cool desserts too.

A bit more of a wander, before heading back to the apartment to get ready for the concert. Once we were suitably fancied-up, we walked to the venue and eagerly took our seats. Then this happened for two hours.

It was a very special night. Joe Hasiashi seems like such a sweet old man. Hearing the music of the films played live with a big orchestra (not as big as shown in the video mind you) was such a treat. Made me want to watch all those films again.

But the night was not over yet! From the venue, we walked to the Crown and went into the casino. I got to watch R&J lose some money, despite my best button-pressing efforts. T had to head back early, so I opted to go too while R&J stayed a bit longer to meet up with J (okay this started as laziness, but now it’s just confusing… too late to go back now).

If you haven’t noticed by this point, while I did bring my camera to Melbourne with me, I hadn’t taken it out yet as I don’t have my camera bag and would have to carry it everywhere with me. But luckily, we had our whole Saturday with no plans, so I decided to make up for lost photos then. Speaking of which…

Saturday

Another late start this morning, as we had had a late night, and were in no rush to get anywhere. We had some breakfast at the apartment (the classic Nutella on toast), before heading out with some loose ideas of what we wanted to see. Camera in hand, we ventured across the river and started by ducking into a church for a quick look.

Then we crossed the street to go into one of the free galleries they had running, which was all about technology, past and present. They had exhibits related to film, animation, sound, the internet, video games, television and the like, a lot of it interactive. The games area was pretty dope.

After exploring the exhibition, and watching a bit of the experimental film they had running next-door, we headed off down Swanston Street, in search of the Overwatch mural. It was several blocks down before we found it, but we got there in the end. It was pretty cool.

From there, we walked in search of a few of the famous street art lanes, specifically Hosier and Union. Union wasn’t far, so we walked there and had a look, while stopping for J&T to get some lunch. R&J also bought Mario Kart for the Switch so we could have a tournament later. I decided not to eat lunch, so I could save room for what was coming later on…

We made it to Union lane and walked through. It’s cool, but quite a dank, dirty lane.

At this point, R&J decided to head back to the apartment to rest before our dinner venture. I walked with T to the next lane, Hosier, which I expected to be similar to Union. I was wrong.

Hosier was much bigger, more popular and just generally more interesting. There was a LOT more art to try to take in, with so many layers upon layers from different artists painting on top of each other. We spent a while there just looking around and taking photos, spotting new things when looking from different angles. I took a lot of photos…

It was definitely a highlight of the trip. After we left there, we came across the NGV (National Gallery of Victoria), which we had been looking for earlier, and so we stopped in to check out the free exhibits. They had three floors of Australian art, old and new. Paintings, sculptures, and everything in between. I didn’t take many photos inside, but boy was there some cool stuff.

And a couple more from upstairs:

Once finished there, we walked back to the apartment, feet sore, stomach empty. A bit of a rest (some photo-processing time for me), and it was out to dinner. We had booked to eat at Gami Chicken and Beer, on A’s fervent recommendation. He had been hyping this chicken for months (Korean fried), so we were eager to try it.

We found the sneaky restaurant and ordered bulk chicken, with the four different sauces, so we could try them all. Now, I will say, it wasn’t life changing as A had made it out to be. I’m not a different person now having tasted this chicken. But, it was pretty damn good chicken. We struggled to eat it all, ending up with some leftovers to take home, though we put in a solid effort. I ate waaay too much, but no regrets.

Somehow we managed to walk back home, and prepare ourselves for the Mario Kart tournament. J came over too so we could catch up and have some not-so-friendly, competitive games. Not that you asked, but yes I did win most rounds.

After many games, laughs and screams, we concluded our final night in Melbourne, took one last polaroid photo, and called it a night (except me, I’m writing this).

Tomorrow we have to wake early, get ready, pack up and clean the room before checking out by 10am. Then we’ll have a couple hours to roam around and get some lunch, before heading to the airport to catch our flight at 2:30pm.

Though we were only here a few days, we managed to do a lot which I’m happy about. Melbourne is a really interesting city and a lot of fun to explore. I’m looking forward to returning some day, hopefully sometime soon!

Signing off now. I need sleep.

Day 23 – Prague

Posted on July 19, 2017

It’s just like a bit of weird art.

We started the day by going to the Gerhard Richter exhibition at one of the National Galleries near our apartment. Apparently our tickets also get us into a bunch of other exhibitions around town. He had some really impressive photo-realistic paintings which were the highlight for me.

After walking around the gallery, we walked to the square and immediately needed to stop for a drink and morning tea, as it was insanely hot, and I was hungry. We shared a couple pizzas and had a cold drink, before beginning the long walk to where the other galleries we could visit were located. They were across the river, over near the Prague Castle.

We braved the heat and the many steps, finally arriving at one of the places, a palace, after an hour or so of walking. We entered, only to be told our ticket wasn’t actually valid for this place, or the other few in the area. It looked like it only gets into one other gallery, five minutes from the first. Feels bad man.

Since we had already trekked all that way, we thought we might as well go into Prague Castle again, and have a rest in a shady spot in the Royal Gardens, where it was nice and peaceful.

We sat on a bench under some trees and rested for about an hour, before going back to get some dinner. There was an Italian restaurant I found, near the river, which is apparently great, so we tried it out. It did not disappoint.

One of the best meals we’ve had on this trip so far! Fancy, but hearty and affordable. Some homemade lemonade. Rib-eye steak, mashed potatoes and mushroom sauce. Chocolate cake with lemon, banana, coconut and ice cream. Man I love food.

When we had finished our meal, we walked leisurely back to the apartment, following the river, watching the sunset. We came across this John Lennon Wall on the way back too which was cool.

Tomorrow is our last day in Prague. We have to check-out by 6pm, but our flight isn’t until late (11pm or so), so we’ll be hanging out at the airport! Yay! Not sure what we’ll do during the day, but probably won’t be many photos. Just relaxing, exploring a little more and having a nice lunch before getting organised to leave.

Mccree

Day 17 – Nice

Posted on July 13, 2017

Food, glorious food.

We spent the day in Nice, hanging around locally for the most part. The women wanted to have a shopping day, so I took the opportunity to sleep in and relax, before meeting them nearby for lunch.

The restaurant we decided on was one street over and was highly recommended, plus I hadn’t eaten since dinner last night, so I was primed and ready.

They offered a three course meal option (appetiser, main, dessert) for a very reasonable price, so I happily made my selections and awaited the food. I indulged in the Gnocchi with Truffle Cream for starters, moving on to my main meal of sliced beef with roasted potatoes, before finishing with Profiteroles with Ice Cream.

If you know me, you know I love food, and eating, and eating a lot. Yet I was very nearly defeated by the sheer quantity of food I was served. Each dish had a very generous portion, and was extremely tasty. In the end, I barely made it through, but was full to the brim.

In case you hadn’t realised yet, I didn’t do anything too interesting today, so I’m just talking about the food in greater detail than you probably care for. Anyway, it was good.

After that, the women continued their shopping, and Dad and I walked to the Chagall museum. I didn’t know who Chagall was, but there was some interesting paintings and sculptures to admire – plus it was air conditioned, which was a lifesaver in this heat.

After our time there, we walked back to the main street, stopping into the Notre-Dame church for a bit, before returning to our hotel. Oh and on the way back, I picked up the McCree POP! you saw above, as I thought it’d be nice to buy something at least from here, as a sort of souvenir.

A nice calm day, but always good to have a few of those to break up the intense chaos of other days. Also tomorrow is Bastille Day, so it’s going to be a big one. Depending on what time we get back tomorrow night, I might not be able to get the blog up that night, as there’ll surely be a lot of photos to process and upload, so it may be delayed a bit.

Until then.

Trinity College installation.

Day 1 – Dublin

Posted on June 27, 2017

And that auld triangle, went jingle-jangle, all along the banks of the Royal Canal.

I was going to do a short Prologue post last night, but had too long of a travel day and couldn’t be bothered. After our 24 hours of travel, we finally got to our hotel in the afternoon and everyone crashed immediately. I was however too hungry for such nonsense, so opted to go pick up some pizza from Il Capo, a great little Italian place in the city. We ate that in the hotel room, and then we all went to sleep (I stayed up a bit longer, as it was only about 6pm).

After we all caught up on sleep and awoke, it was around 6:30am. We had plenty of time to wake up, get ready and head out in our own pace. I did some research on things nearby to see in the city and found a few restaurants and some interesting places which came highly recommended.

So at around 9am, we headed out to find the Kilkenny Cafe (actually a cafe within a retail shop) to get some breakfast. A short walk later, and we’re standing before a large buffet of pastries, cakes, sweets on one side, and eggs, sausages, bread, juices on the other.

We loaded up our trays, paid for our (very reasonably priced) selections and ate vigorously. After consumption had concluded, we paid a visit to Trinity College which was right across from the cafe. The campus is nice to walk around and had some interesting installations.

The main tourist attraction for the college however is the Book of Kells exhibition and Old Library. No photography was allowed in the exhibition, but there were various super old books (including the Book of Kells of course), with information about the history of them etc. Amazing how well preserved they are, and the detail which went into them.

After seeing those books, we went through to the library. It was huge.

So many old books everywhere, as well as busts of some old geezers.

After that, we had a quick trip around Merrion Square Park. There was an Oscar Wilde monument which was cool.

It was at this point that the day took a turn for the worse… The family wanted to go shopping… Wasn’t too bad actually as I just wandered around the busy streets, took some photos/video and listened to the buskers.

Oh and we did have a short detour to stop into the National Gallery of Ireland. There was a Vermeer exhibition I wanted to see, but the next session wasn’t for a little while, so we just looked around for a bit before moving on.

When the shopping was done, we started walking over to Dublin Castle, but stopped to get some lunch at another highly recommended place, Umi Falafel.

A delicious meal later, and we stopped into the Olympia Theatre to book tickets for the musical Once, for Friday night. Will be great to see it in Dublin for that authentic experience. But that’ll come later on. For now, we were heading to Dublin Castle.

There were some interesting things to see inside, with some quite ornate furniture and room displays.

By the end of all that, everyone was tired and sore, so we limped back to the hotel. Upon return, everyone else basically fell asleep, although it was only about 5pm (sunset is 10pm). We might head out later for dinner if they wake up, but it seems unlikely at this point.

Tomorrow we might take the car and drive out somewhere out of the city. Not sure where exactly yet, time will tell. Find out next time, on Dragon Ball Z!

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