Winter 2013 in Melbourne

Who cares what other people say, as long as you happy, just do it, because in life the only person can make you happy is yourself, dude!

Could you imagine, how happy I was when I got my visa approved from Australian Embassy. Exactly one week before my departure date, it's because I had another trip in end of June so I handed it late. As I'm not type of backpacker traveler, so this time I joined a travel agent from my hometown because of my mom's request so I paid extra money for flying back my hometown. Fyi, I spent my annual bonus and first year salary saving for this trip. But, who cares, as long as I could travel and also with the best person in my life. I got flight back to my hometown a day before.

Rendezvous Hotel

Bathroom

Room

Flinders Railway Station

3rd August, 2013, my Aussie trip started, transit through Singapore to meet my lovely one there for several hours and introduced him to my mom also. Then, I reached Melbourne tomorrow morning. I saw sunrise from the airplane's window, couldn't be more excited than this. Unfortunately, it's a bad habit when I was traveling with air was catching a cold. When I reached Melbourne on 4th August, it's chilled morning, but I felt well after washing my face. Melbourne was a calm city with lots of gardens there, it's green everywhere. 

St. Patrick's Cathedral

First visit was parliament house and a beautiful church named St. Patrick's Cathedral. 

Shrine of Remembrance

Botanical Garden

James Cook's Ancient House

Then, moved to Botanical Garden and James Cook's ancient home, then Shrine of Remembrance, finally had lunch at Alice Thai restaurant. this Thai cuisine was delicious, especially tom yum soup, the perfect lunch in winter. After the lunch, we spent shopping time in Queen Victoria Market, lots of cheap souvenirs there, made in China for sure, there's nothing cheap in Aussie LoLs. 

Tom yum soup @ Alice Thai

I bought few souvenirs there, should left my money for next days. 

Then, we were brought to a souvenir shop owned by Indonesian. I bought nothing there, I was not type of shopping traveler. Next shopping destination was DFO, I bought coat there because I thought my coat couldn't handle the weather in Mt Buller tomorrow. I got black coat from Giordano for only AUD40 which around IDR 400.000, it's quite cheap right? Then, we had dinner in an Indonesian restaurant named Bali Bagus, quite delicious, but the lunch was better. Then, the bus sent us back to hotel, we stayed Rendezvous Hotel for two nights, it's near Flinders Railway Station, the first station, the old building was beautiful. 

Nightr View in Melbourne

For the free time, I walked about 10 minutes to Crowne Plaza Hotel, there was a casino, shopping mall, cafes and resto, which high cost for sure. If you were with your spouse, it's wonderful time having romantic dinner, especially had special night in Eureka Tower, sightseeing night cityview of Melbourne. Because I was with my mom, and we thought we gonna got to see Goldcoast view then, so we didn't visit Eureka Tower. The casino was so so, Macau is the best for casinos :)

On the way to Mt. Buller

Second day visited Mount Buller, after about 5 hours riding, reached the only snowy place in 

Melbourne, first snow experience, extremely excited. The weather was about 0 celcius and snowy rain there during my visit. I felt like blood in my body was frozen. 

Uncle's Pat Resto

Had lunch with my mom in a pizza resto called Uncle Pat, the price was reasonable, 6 pieces pizza cost around AUD 25 and a hot cafe latte cost AUD 4. 

Mount Buller

I didn't play ski, or anything, because of short time and I though I better enjoyed the snow experience then felt painful when my fat body hit the snowy ground. :) Last night in Melbourne, we had Chinese dinner cuisine at Shark Fin Inn Restaurant, ate till you drop. 

That's all for winter in Melbourne, actually Melb was a nice city, silent, calm, and peaceful, but I thought if I stayed here for months, kinda boring. :)

Overall, winter in Melbourne was a great experience. Thank you Mrs. Melb :)