The hostel has been advertising a free walking tour of the city and we thought we might as well go along even though we've walked around a lot and if it was no good we would have just left, but it was great!! There was a group of 9 of us and the tour guide and she took us round town showing us all the main sights but also the little alleys and lanes, the hidden bars and shops, the graffiti and quirky artwork, and the free views of the city. There are so many hidden gems in the city, you just have to know where to look! If you are ever going to Melbourne, I would say that you HAVE to do a walking tour, it's got to be the only way to see the real city.
Our tour started in the dirty looking alleyway directly opposite our hostel which we've waked past several times and we were shown a piece of graffiti here by the famous graffiti artist,
Banksy. It is one of the only pieces he's done in Australia and it was so close to us! (If you don't know who Banksy is then look him up, he's very interesting and a bit of a legend!!) The council are so proud of it and want to keep it so much that they have now added the building it is on into the National Trust, they have also added the alleyway to the National Trust! We were then taken down some more graffitied lanes that we would have usually walked past without a second thought. These are lanes that people are actually encouraged to graffiti on and there is some amazing art there! When there are special events in Melbourne the council goes to these lanes and whitewashes over all the graffiti then specially commissions graffiti artists to do some really good stuff as they know it is a tourist attraction and they want it to look good! I think this is a good idea, definitely better than trying to ban it altogether.After this we saw some more great stuff including the smallest café in Melbourne and the smallest gallery in Melbourne. We also saw some fantastic old buildings displaying mosaic floors and ceilings painted with gold. We saw the largest and second largest mosaic floors in all of Australia, the first shopping mall in Melbourne and the most hidden bar in Melbourne. The last thing we were shown on the tour before we had to leave was the view from the 35th floor toilets in the Sofitel Hotel. The loo's have floor to ceiling glass walls and you can see all the sports stadiums and in the distance the 'Great Dividing Range'. The main room with a view is a members only area but the toilets are public, a great tip for a free view for backpackers!!
After our tour it was time for my special treat to Megan. Whilst in Tasmania I booked and paid for a special dinner on the 'Colonial Tramcar Restaurant'. This is a really fancy, nice meal on a modified tramcar, whilst travelling around the city. It was great food, all inclusive wine and
drinks and all in all a very odd, but great experience! This left at 5.45pm and got back at about 7.15pm. We were dropped off right by the Crown Casino in South Melbourne and as Megan hadn't been in a casino before we thought we'd take a look. It was absolutely massive inside with 3 floors of casino, loads of bars and restaurants and hundreds of 'pokies' (slot machines). It was great to have a look round and what was even better was that we found and acoustic duo playing in one of the bars. They were great and were playing lots of songs that people requested so we decided to shout out a few ourselves. If one of them knew it they would play and the other one would just pick it up and strum along. After their second set they came over to us and thanked us for our good requesting, they seemed to enjoy playing what we kept shouting out, we were apparently their 'creative consultants' for the evening! We got chatting them for quite a while and they were really nice guys and great musicians. We had got there at about 8pm and didn't leave until about 11.15pm, if they were playing longer then we probably would have stayed! It was a really great end to one of the best days.
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