365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 281 (Friday 8 October 2010) : Melbourne Day 1 - That Sinking Feeling

What a glorious day!

After a luxurious lie-in with my guy in our hotel room, we ventured out on the streets of Melbourne (amazed, on the way, that Equitable Place, the laneway where our hotel is located, was jam-packed with cafes and people, when it is normally deserted.... so Brigadoon like it was unnerving!) for brunch in Degraves Street at The Quarter. If anything the laneways were busier than at the weekend, but we found a table at a place called The Quarter, staffed by lovely friendly people, with provided great service and yummy food.

After sopaking up the simultaneously busy but relaxed vibe - well we were relaxed anyway! - we went wandering through the Block and Royal Arcades for some shopping, stopping to buy some hard rock candy @ suga (the process of making and rolling out the candy was fascinating), and Smurfs (same shop as the last trip), before we caught the free City Circle tram from near Flinders Street station to the Melbourne Museum to see the Titanic exhibition (we had tickets for the 1.30pm session).

The Museum is as funky and modern as they come and is located in the Carlton Gardens behind the original Exhibition Hall, which was built in 1889 for the big Melbourne Exposition. A truly beautiful building and accented nicely by its far younger modern sister, and the wide slate-lined plaza that separates the two.

What an amazing exhibition! I thought I knew everything there was to know about Titanic since it is one of the most reported on events of the 20th Century but the beautifully put together exhibition, which included some of the more than 6000 items brought up from the Titanic wreck such as crockery, big slabs of the Titanic's hull, tools and poignant personal belongings. We were each given a card with the details of a passnger on board, and at the end of the winding exhibit, which took us 2 1/2 hours to go through so detailed was the information presented in it, we could check if that person lived or died. It was heart breaking to realise that 400 people of the 1500 + who died could have been saved if only the life boats had all been fully filled! It was a wholly immersive experience, both knowledge-wise and emotionally and when we finally emerged at 4.20pm (after the obligatory souvenir buying stop), we were exhausted but still managed to spend some time in the dinosaur and animals exhibits before the Museum closed at 5pm.

                                  The First Class corridor on Titanic

At that point I could have quite happily curled up and slept! But who wants to rest when you have such a lovely, fascinating city as melbourne to soak up and enjoy? So after an aborted attempt to ride the tram - it was ridiculously crowded and we lasted two stops before giving up and going back to walking - we walked back via the Melbourne Central shopping mall and the newly renovated MYER department store, which is funky indeed, stopping briefly to check out RMIT where my guy did his degree, found Dame Edna Place (which is really a grotty little laneway with some stars stuck to the bitumen, before finally stopping for tapas at Degraves Espresso where the tapas was delicious, the atmosphere bustling and fun but the wine portions a total and utter rip-off. It was the only slightly sour note in an otherwise delightful day.

                                    My beautiful guy outside RMIT

We did a short cuddle and shut-your-eyes nap before heading out for dinner about 9pm over at Southgate on the other side of the river at the Blue Train cafe (via a very funky footbridge). The cafe is funky, and while dessert was yummo-scrummo-in-my-tummo (Toblerone cheesecake is da bomb!), my main was ordinary and near tasteless. Still it was wonderful having more time to chill and chat with my guy, and the lovely night out we had capped off a wonderful day of just the two of us being together.

Wonderful indeed.