Melbourne Day 3

Early morning, because why not?

(More like, we weren't keen on wasting a perfectly fine morning, and thus we came up with an excuse to rise early and do something.)

On the way, wearing the most clothes we'd probably ever wear in an Australian summer.

So we went to the Fitzroy Gardens to relax and 'have a picnic'.

Because we couldn't figure out trams (I know, geniuses), we threw our hands up in the air and proclaimed that we walk the entire distance to the park. In hindsight, it was much further than we thought.

But we made it through, and arrived to find sprinklers spraying all over the park, and a light drizzle had also decided to happen. The grass was somewhat damp.

Wandering aimlessly, with everyone thinking "Oh, I was following you.", we somehow found ourselves next to a pond with some benches, and cute little ducks.

Except we soon found out the ground and benches were all entirely blanketed in duck droppings (surprise, surprise!), and so we stood around trying to troubleshoot. Yes, all NINE of us stood there, our brains slowly cranking into gear at 9am in the morning, struggling to find a place to sit and eat.

The life of the simple-minded. Ahh.

I'm only kidding. Some of my friends are the most brilliant and lateral-thinking people I've met.

And woe betide, the saviour JH rushes in and berates us for being silly, and soon we decide to sit on "those benches over there that don't have duck remains all over them".

So, we sit. And we feast.

On what, you ask?

On crackers and hummus. Between ten people.

After devouring it for a good eight minutes, we quickly grow bored and decide to head off home, this time making the wiser choice and taking the tram (also because we now had JH to guide us...)

So we arrive back home. An entire two hours wasted, and all we achieved was a stomach filled with crackers and dip. Now how's that for a daily achievement? And it was only 11am in the morning.

Afterwards, JH and myself do a quick book run to the Book Grocer nearby, which I'd been eyeing down ever since Day 1. Their big sign 'ALL BOOKS $10' is surely difficult to miss, and being a book-a-holic like myself, I felt it was obligatory that I check it out at least once.

Well, JH and I walked out of there with six books between the two of us. (Though I was responsible for five of the six.) It was 'Buy 6 for $50!', so what else do you expect?

They were also all science books. 

One thing that's brilliant about seeing JH again is that biology jokes can be the norm again. Within Day 1, he had already mentioned a joke regarding ring species, and we'd cracked up a few times about other biology references already like survival of the fittest. Not to mention one night when another friend asked me a difficult IBO question, and JH and I both jumped into 'IBO-mode' and spent a good ten minutes working on this difficult recombinant genetics question, getting stumped, and then having an epiphany, followed immediately by celebration and relief.

Anyway, back on track.

JH thought I'd also really appreciate this massive (I mean it) camera store.

Let me tell you, I did. I really did.

The store included a mini museum for photography, (so many) vintage cameras, basically every lens out there, every model, film photography, equipment, and so on... THERE WAS SO MUCH. AHHH.

I felt like a child in a candy-store. Everything was amazing. My eyes couldn't see enough of this entire shop.

Got a little emotional at the Leicas
"ONE DAY YOU'LL BE MIIIIIIINE"

After a while it became a little depressing because I started to realise the fact that I would never own half of these glorious cameras, and so I sadly dipped my head and we left to meet with MM back at the hotel, while the others went to the aquarium.

With MM in tow, we went off to Melbourne Central to meet with a friend and to also kill a bit more time until MM's friend arrived.

Shopping soon became boring, so we went off to the State Library, because that's what nerds do when we have time. Also I've heard the State Library is beautiful and has art galleries inside, which I was super keen for. There was a Nikon Photography competition/gallery too, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It reminded me how much a single image can convey.

All in all, I was amazed by the library. If only Sydney's State library was this beautiful (and if only it was located closer to my house). Melbourne's was lined with books upon books, with spectacular wooden tables and chairs and a silence that was beyond anything I'd had expected.

I felt like my camera shutter noise was disrupting the atmosphere.

Following that, it was time to say goodbye to MM, and for JH and myself to meet with my friend JJ. It's been over an entire year since I've seen him, and we were good friends back in January summer camp for the Australian Bio Olympiad, this time last year.

It was good to see him again. It hardly seems like a year, really, and after a slightly awkward reunion, we all loosened up a bit and it felt just like old times again. I started to miss the Summer Camp again.

Anyway, we met up with my other fellow IBO team-mate, LW, at Richmond.

Richmond reminded me incredibly of the Sydney suburbs. It really felt just like home (not like Sydney's CBD, but at least, the outer suburbs). It had that same feel, and lacked a lot of the colour and vibe that was bursting from Melbourne's CBD.

Also met up with JH's friend, JH (yes, same initials), and with everyone together, we went off to pho.

Apparently it's a biology-reunion tradition to go to pho, though everyone's-favourite-KLL wasn't here, sadly. I really do miss seeing him and his (absolutely hilarious) personality. Maybe next time, then.

Devoured the entire bowl.

To be honest, it wasn't the best pho I'd ever had; Sydney's pho isn't too bad either (you can't really go wrong with pho), but it was still good none-the-less.

With full stomachs, we trammed it back to the city and really just ran out of things to do. Next thing we knew, we found ourselves going to the National Art Gallery of Victoria to get our Sophistication on. (Yes, Sophistication with a capital S)

The art was brilliant; such a change from the usual art I see.

A lot of it was interactive and contemporary, where-as in Sydney's Art Gallery of Australia, a lot of it tends to be traditional work.

I'm not going to lie, I liked the modern art a lot more.

It's like a water reflection. It was also so big,  it took up the entire room space.

We wandered into a 'Romance Was Born... For Kids' exhibition. I'd had a glimpse of this exhibition before, during Biennale in Sydney, but this one was a lot more interactive.

It involved drawing and making our own art.

'For Kids'? Yeah, right.

More interactive exhibits, which made the audience become the artist as well.

Free boards, paper, and drawing supplies to construct our own sketch-of-art, based upon a statue placed in the centre of the room.

After being pushed out of the museum at 5PM when it closed, we finally went off to the long-anticipated Queen Victoria Night Markets.

The food and atmosphere was amazing, and since we arrived just when it opened, there weren't a lot of people. There was, however, food everywhere. Like, everywhere. We wondered if all the smoke from the grills and BBQs would give us lung-cancer.

Something about the Night Markets is the wide variety of weird trinkets that were scattered all over the place. Stores selling the most random things; I found vintage cameras (!!! Only for $45! But they didn't work and were really just film cameras), jewelry made of bikes, weird creams, hats, headbands, bracelets... The list goes on.

Let's not go into the weird food and drinks that were there.

Kangaroo, tick.
Crocodile, tick.
I aim to try them all, one day.
One Australian National Animal at a time...

We also saw (practically) everyone holding this one maroon-purple drink, and we kept wondering where it was from, and came to the conclusion "surely it must taste fantastic, considering it's so popular."

In our search for this mysterious drink, we were misled and thought the Homemade Ice Tea was the purple drink that everyone had, so we bought one of each flavour each (It was also 'Buy 3 get 1 Free'). Although it wasn't the purple drink we were searching for, it still tasted so good. Would definitely get another, if given the opportunity to.

And indeed, after much searching, just as we were tiring out and starting to contemplate leaving, woe behold we stumble across the store. "WE FOUND IT" we shouted, and then wondered what the drink actually was. 

We bought one between four to share.

All four of us -- all being non-avid drinkers -- weren't sure what it was. It did say 'Alcoholic' on the store-front, but besides that, we didn't really know.

Though, it did say in big letters across the top banner 'SANGRIA', but to our avail, none of us happened to know what Sangria was (I only know now, in hindsight, after my other friends informed me. And after trying the drink myself.)

It wasn't the best drink I'd ever had. It looked a lot nicer than I thought it would taste. I'm not a big fan of the taste of alcohol, but since it was more fruity, it was easier to swallow down than just red wine.

After a tiring walk around the entire place, struggling to finish these twelve spicy chicken-wings that JH had bought, we headed on home after a brief meet-up with my other friends who had just arrived.

We headed back to the hotel, where we met up with MM once again, and I went out with her for some take-away dinner whilst the guys purchased some Maccas.

We went to Da Rin, a Korean restaurant, and ordered some fried chicken and rice meal to share between the both of us.

It was a decent meal, and the chicken was mmm mighty fine!

Eventually, the others came home also, and delivered MM her Luxbite Rilakkuma cake that she'd been yearning for a while now.

It was so cute. We all felt a little twinge of sadness to see the spoon dig into its face.

Soon, we all retired into our beds. It had been a long day, and I said a sad goodbye to JJ and LW, unsure of when we'd meet again.

That seems to be a consistent theme when you have friends that live all over the place -- whether that be in another city, another country, or just the other side of the city -- you never know when you'll meet again.

But the bright side? We all know that we will meet again. It's just a matter of counting down the days.