Culture Capital walking tour, Melbourne Sights walking tour, Fitzroy Gardens, Shrine of Remembrance, Royal Botanic Gardens
After my adventure in Asia came to an end I wanted to go over to Oceania. And so, I have packed my bags once more and made my way to Melbourne, to start off my journey in Australia, which seemed like it was going to be quite complicated even before I got there, mainly due to the seemingly poor state of public transportation in that country. Despite that concern, I was curious to see what I could find.
To have an easy start, I opted to go on a couple of walking tours. The first one was the Culture Capital tour, which took about an hour and half, during which the group I was a part of went around different streets in the CBD area, looking at quite a lot of street art. Not too long into the tour I realized that graffiti is not really my thing, and I pretty much only half listened for the tour guide from that point. There were a few other things that weren’t about graffiti, but even those were not particularly interesting for me. While the tour wasn’t exactly for me, I thought the tour guide was quite adequate and didn’t go too slow (or too fast) at any point.
The second tour I joined was the Melbourne Sights tour, which I was hoping will give me a better understanding of the city and its history. Our group started in the old jail, where some guy called Ned Kelly was executed. Turned out the guy was a famous criminal back in his day, and some people have called him a hero, seeing him as some kind of Robin Hood.
From there we walked around different parts of the city, stopping at various points along the way to talk about the different historic and cultural significance of them, from the Aboriginal history, to the British settlements, and the massive gold rush that attracted so many people to Australia, and to Melbourne in particular. We also passed through Chinatown and Little Italy, where on top of the immigration history there were some recommendations for food and drinks in the area.
And then we took a break. When the break was over, so was the historical part of the tour. Instead, the tour shifted to focus on the more modern side of Melbourne and its culture, which as far as I was concerned really just meant looking at more graffiti and some bars. Part of it I already saw in the previous one, and the other part was not really interesting either.
Overall, those tours were not bad at all, but I was expecting something a bit different. The tour guides did a good job explaining things and telling the story of Melbourne, although I found the jokes were getting in the way.
After taking a look at the urban scenery, I made my way over to Fitzroy Gardens. The place was not exactly small, and as I didn’t feel any rush to get it over with, I walked along the path without knowing where it would take me, enjoying the trees and the grass all around me.
A short while later, I found myself in front of the conservatory. The building was filled with different kinds of flowers and plants of various shapes, sizes, and colors. It was a small building and it didn’t take more than a few minutes to go through it, but despite it, the inside was worth taking a look at.
From there I kept walking around, following a sign to a house that apparently belonged to Captain Cook, although I only saw it from the outside as I didn’t feel like paying the entrance fee. Moving on from that house, I followed the path and the signs, and eventually ended up at the model tudor village, which was gifted to the city by England as a token of appreciation for helping out during World War 2 and providing food during those difficult times.
At this point I started to feel like there wasn’t much else for me to see in those gardens, and even though it was a nice place to just sit and relax for a while, there were other places I wanted to see.
Leaving Fitzroy Gardens behind, I made my way toward the Royal Botanic Gardens, but I somehow managed to get a bit lost and took a detour. The result of that was that I got to the Shrine of Remembrance before getting to the gardens.
When I got inside the building, I found out that here too, there are tours, although the price was a bit too much for me. Instead, I just walked around the place on my own, exploring the grounds.
In the two main floors of the building there were medals, flags, and other items, along with signs explaining their meaning. There was a fairly large amount of things to look at, not only from both World Wars, but from other, more recent wars as well. Although I didn’t stop to read every single sign, they were quite informative, and overall provided a different look into the history of Australia.
The third floor was the balcony, from which it was possible to get a nice view of the surrounding area all the way around the building. After going around the balcony and seeing the different views, I went back inside, and after walking around in the galleries for a bit longer, I returned the map I was given and left the building.
Then, at last, I made it to the Royal Botanic Gardens. It immediately seemed both large and colorful, with different trees and plants all around. Not really sure where to go, I started following a sign toward a lake, looking around and enjoying the scenery as I walked in the gardens. The variety of plants was quite enjoyable, and despite the cloudy weather I was happy to walk around. A little while later I made it to the lake, which was bigger than I expected and had some ducks swimming around. I stayed there for some time, sitting on a little bench and looking at the view, feeling quite relaxed.
Eventually I got back up on my feet and started walking again, without having a clear direction. Being able to walk around and find new things to look at was quite fun, and I kept going from one place to the next, wondering what I will find next. When I felt like I explored enough of the gardens, I finally made my way toward the exit, which was a bit more tricky than I thought it would be. Nevertheless, the visit to the Royal Botanic Gardens was a great experience, and a good way to take a break from the urban part of Melbourne.