Melbourne with Slavka part two

So there is a Saturday morning, after rich breakfast we take a map and off we go. Just about 10 minutes walking we have a train station. Transportation here is really excellent, they have a very well planned lines of buses, trams also trains. And most importantly, that surprised us a bit, it's also a pretty cheap compared to Perth. For all-day ticket for two zones (which is actually all Melbourne) we pay only $ 3.30. It's almost for free :) So, let's get into the city.

Already somehow traditionally we start our trip in the park at the Royal Botanic Gardens. Overall parks and gardens everywhere here are very beautiful and very well maintained. They really take care about it and it is then pleasure to go here for a walk. And since it is already autumn, also here are all the beautiful colors. We have many thing on our itinerary, so we're just passing through the park.

Next stop - Shrine of Remembrance, a kind of shrine of remembrance of fallen soldiers in the war. You can also go up to the terrace and enjoying the first view of the city. Weather so far is good, is a beautiful sunny day and we just hope that this will last until the evening. The views of the city are just superb. Melbourne finally looks like a city. It's a big difference compared to our Perth. Here everything is alive, pulsing, people, cars, everything is in motion. There are many shops at every step. This we have truly forgotten in Perth a long time ago.

CBD

Overlooking the city pleases us so much so  we've decided to go to the highest platform in the building of the southern hemisphere - Eureka Sky-deck 88. I do not know how has this idea, since I don't really like those heights. From a height of 300 meters we have 360 degree view of the city, so who would not want to experience this? We get to the 88th floor by the fastest elevators in the southern hemisphere - more than 9m/s and in 40 seconds we are there. I don't really know how long we were there, but it I'd say not very long. Looking down 300 meters did not do me very well, although I believe that the engineers also designed the building to be safe. But I just prefer solid ground under my feet, those things we should just let for the birds ... or planes;) But Slavka  liked it there very much so I had to do something and suffered a few more photos.

Hooray, hooray, we're back on the ground. If I had something probably I'd  also had one shot. For the rest of the day no more bridges or other thing. Nice and lovely walks through the streets of downtown. Next stop is not entirely clear, we're going to just walk and see where our feet lead us. And truly, they brought us to amazing place where they are doing same delicacies, cookies, chocolate and other sweets. Also we would have tasted, but apparently so many people had the same idea and people even had to stand outside in line and wait until some space becomes available. So we went somewhere else because we want to see as much as possible and do not have time to queue in the line for an hour. Maybe next time.

vlakova stanica

An important point in the city is the railway station. Daily carrying vast mass of people, all the trains come here. A station is just opposite Federation Square, a modern square, where is almost always something going on. When we got there, there were a group dancing to get some money for somebody, I guess a doctor who was in the jail. At least have some distraction, where the money will end up no one really knows;)

In Melbourne, just about in every major city in Australia is a free public transportation in the city . Or at least partially. Here they have an old tram which goes around the whole CBD. On the other hand when we have a daily ticket, it doesn't really matter for us because all the transport is free, but it's nice to see how you can start tourism and attract people to the city. Sometimes it seems that even the seemingly trivial things you do can make an attraction. Back at home nobody thinks this way. Here for almost any building in the city  there are hundreds of lines in different guide books. Well, they know how to do it, we still have much to learn.

duck:)

In the evening we're passing through Chinatown, but it was just an attempt. As I say, they try to make the money out of everything. There is nothing extra here in comparison with London for example, but well, at least they are trying. Also, we wanted to find some Italian and Greek streets, but unfortunately we couldn't Probably they were very well hidden from us. So I'm quickly googling for something else and I found Czech and Slovak Pub. We do not hesitate a long time and already planning a trip and we are looking forward to eat some local dish. In such a faraway country, I truly did not expect it. Slavka ordered the pork, dumplings, sauerkraut with Kofola and I stay faithful gnocchi with goat (halusky). Very good, I must say. And as you might assume, Slavka could not handle all her food not even in theory, so I can have even the taste of Czech cuisine, perfect :) But we didn't smile that much when it came to pay. This little fun cost us more than $50. But then once in a while you should treat yourself as something better.

Federation Square

After dinner we just take the tram and then a train for just over an hour and a half and there we are at our hotel. Tired after a day like today we fell asleep immediately  Tomorrow will be easier day. First, the weather changed and it is going to rain and also there is not very much left to watch in the city . And in the short time for us it is not worth to go outside of the city. So, good night.

On Sunday morning we have plenty of time, no rush, relaxed breakfast. Therefore, we're starting from the hotel just after the eleven and the train is scheduled to arrive to the city at  around noon. I take with me an  umbrella but hopefully we won't need it. Rain in this country is in fact a little different than at home. The sunshine is just  beautiful, but then in the distance you can see a big, black clouds. Then in a few minutes it reaches us and it starts to rain. Better say storm. But after half an hour the rain is over and the sun shows up again. It is truly not as bad as I thought.

It's Sunday and that means almost everything in the city is closed. We had planned to go to see the Parliament, but it is close. So we changed our plan, The Old Treasury Building. They have here just a new exhibition - 150th anniversary of the building, that's nice. It's a brief history of the city, as people came here in the gold rush and tried to get rich. Some have succeed, others have not. In the underground we found  a copy of some golden bricks and the largest gold nugget in the world, pity that they are not real and we can't take some of it with us :)
So one storm we overcame in the Treasury Building and we hid ourselves from the other in the St Patrick's Cathedral. Just a classic cathedral, but I have kind of like churches. And then when the rain stopped and the sun started to shine, everything suddenly started to play togheter because of the orange color through the windows. It look all really very nice.

For the church our  steps lead straight to the casino. Admission is free, so shy shouldn't we go to have a look. Huge complex with hundreds of machines, roulettes and tables for card games. And many people. Everywhere million people walking up and down as if there would be something for free. For a moment I liked it but then crowds of people overcame the temptation and ran out of there with the speed of light. Crowds are not truly for me.

And so for the end of the day, pleasure for the eye to see we're going to see the Old Hotel - Winsdor. Here it is really like in the past. Starched man opens up the door to let us inside. Although the receptionist know that we didn't come here for overnight, he is still extremely friendly and calls me Sir. Hehe, one can get used to this pretty quickly. Although we are not going to spend a cent here, they let us to go to  small saloon to see how it looks there. It's just dinner time, all tables are taken. People are dining and a pianist plays in the corner. Just like in the movie, amazing. I will certainly return here. The room costs around $200 and that's the limit our company is willing to pay for one night without any questions. So bye for now Windsor, I hope we see each other soon;)

And with this experience we end our trip in Melbourne. I think in two days that we've seen just enough. Certainly we will come here for longer time, to look around, but for a weekend in was just enough. So bye, Melbourne ....

You can find all the pics at:

https://picasaweb.google.com/101430570008874668546/20120513_Melbourne

Melbourne with Slavka part one

This is how it looks like

The project, which I started doing in January just as I arrived here is slowly but surely coming to an end and the time has come to test it with customers. Since there was no company that would built the panel for us (electrical cabinets where we put our system) we had to choose Melbourne. So there will be also testing. For the internal tests we plan one week and then three days to test with customer, so I will be here from Monday to next Wednesday. That means I have free weekend to see part of the city center and also the possibility for Slavka to come over here to see me (or the city??) .

a bit of cables

I therefore starts on 5.7 at six in morning from Perth to Melbourne, Slavka will come on Thursday night and will stay until Tuesday morning. And on Wednesday evening I will fly home. So that is our  plan. I arrived to Melbourne at noon, I took a rental car and now I can go to the rodeo. After the last great experiences with taxis I'm truly quite careful on the road and it takes me a while before I decide to get off  the trucks lane and try at least the middle lane on the freeway. I do not even think about the fastest lane, as I don't want to die here. But the attribute fastest lane does not fit completely on the highway where you can go at maximum of 100 km/h. So more or less all lanes go just as fast with a few daredevils who apparently have money to pay the fines.

In order to get into the MGP, the company which built our panel, I have overcome just 50km. Piece of cake. Yeah, but not in the second largest city in Australia. It took me 1.5 hours .... and I went almost all the way along using motorway. As I say, here the fast lane a bit different meaning than at home .... or no meaning at all to be honest. At work, everything looks ok at first sight. Since I've arrived at 1PM to work, Mike took it easy and let the first day on me. Thus I began with the simple stuff alone - tables, chairs :) and a little bit of wiring.

... for clever people ...

After the work I'm off to the hotel in the evening, which is about 20km from MGP. So I'm thinking within the 15 minutes I am going to be at the hotel. I was on the edge of the city, so what kind of traffic can possibly be here. Well, after 45 minutes, you will find that quite heavy. Cars are everywhere, fast roads are pretty good, wide as at home, but the roads in the city are quite narrow, barely for a car, and since I'm still not used to the size of the rental car, I feels like a truck driver - I'm checking the mirrors whether I'm still in my lane. Finally I arrived at the hotel. The hotel is quite good, nice, small and cozy. I have included also breakfast, there is a garage, internet, so what more you could possibly ask for. So, good night.

The work all progress according to plan, we are preparing the system for testing with customer next week. So far no problems, so it seems that it will be all just fine. The only drawback is that we are sitting down right in the assembly hall with our system, but that means that there is the same temperature as outside. And that is not really the best place, it is pretty cold here, Melbourne is not as warm as Perth. So I hope that I won't get some cold. They also have a big gas bottle for heating, so they turn one on and it was warmer straight away. But the next day there was no more gas and they somehow forgot to order more bottles for the winter, so the rest of the testing we have to sit in jackets and sweaters;)

...  and for the rest of us ;) ...

But let's move on, days go by and before you know it there's Thursday and Slavka is about to come. In the hotel we can stay for the same price, so that's great, I don't even bother to ask at the reception. Overall the people in the hotel doesn't care that much, no one has even asked me for the room number at the breakfast. So theoretically anyone even from outside could come and have a breakfast here, they simply don't care. Slavka came up at nine in the evening and her first impressions of Melbourne are above expectations. Finally a city, she says ... bah, but we'll see what the situation will be when she'll be leaving. I'm not as much impressed as she is, tot that I don't like it here, but I like Perth, there is peace, tranquility, quiet, no traffic, stress and noise ;)
On Friday morning I'm still going to work for a while, but planning to return in the afternoon, so we can still go somewhere with Slavka in the  evening. During the time I do the last things on our system, Slavka went out to Dandenong  - that's district in which we have a hotel. And as a woman her first steps were leading to the shops and the market ... so what else should I say, luckily I couldn't go there because I had to  go to work :)))
The early evening we are going to have a look to the local park, but it's nothing much, grass, a few trees, but it is not extremely maintained. And moreover, at the beginning of the walk local black man spoiled it(Not that I have something against them ...) In fact I was taking pictures of white parrot and he sat on the bench in the direction of shooting, so the guy thought I'm taking pictures of him. Well, why would I want him to be in the picture? Enough on the fact, so he came to me yelling why am I taking pictures of him so I told him I took pictures of the parrots, then he went away. Tomorrow we're finally going to the city center of Melbourne, this night I'm still going to do some quick planning what we want to see. So good night, Melbourne.

You can find all the pics at:

https://picasaweb.google.com/101430570008874668546/20120513_Melbourne