Trip To Victoria – Day Two

I did a bit of quick reconnaissance at the train station in the morning to find info about getting us to Essendon to visit Windy Hill.

We had a bit of confusion regarding tram times and couldn’t get an adult 2 hour ticket from 7-Eleven. Miky started moaning about waiting so we caught another tram – the same one that she caught, incidentally. Together we walked through Flagstaff Gardens on the way to the Queen Victoria Markets. Bought some bananas for the first time pretty much all year and they were $8/kg. And boy did they taste nice. There was a little café nearby and we bought pizza, focaccia and calzone before Miky went shopping in the city and Yu-Jin and I went to the Old Melbourne Jail, where Ned Kelly was hanged, followed by the Melbourne Museum. I rang a former work colleague, Dave, after the museum to organise meeting up and going out for tea.

Some 135 people were hanged at the Old Melbourne Jail in the time that it was open. Only the main cells, three storeys high, remain. The rest of the building has been demolished. On display were several castings of the heads of the hanged men and from these they conducted some phrenology. We ate our lunch in the yard at the jail and I purchased some thumbcuffs for Yu-Jin to play with.

Junior Ned Kelly.

A prisoner mask which was designed so that the prisoners were unable to talk to one another. I didn't see any of them available in the gift shop to take home.

The external walls don't seem too pleasant but it was worse inside.

The beautiful Melbourne Exhibition Building - World Heritage listed I believe.

This is a piece of art out the front of Melbourne's Exhibition Building.

The Melbourne Museum had a marine display that caught Yu-Jin’s attention, along with a few dinosaurs on show but his favourite part was about the human body and what happens to your food in your stomach once you eat it. There was a button to press which made a sound for what occurs at the end of the line, if you know what I mean.

Some big bones on display.

Now here's a funny face you don't see every day.

Yu-Jin and I caught a train to go to Windy Hill – the home of the Essendon Bombers. The only part that was open was the Hall of Fame and the Bomber Shop. I purchased an Essendon guernsey to make him shut up about the bloody West Coast Eagles who had won the premiership this year. He is a classic case of a bandwagon-jumpereronerer. It soon stopped all that bullshit. Bought a polo shirt for myself.

The Hall of Fame was very nicely laid out but they wouldn’t allow you to take photos. The premiership trophies were on display and there was a separate James Hird display.

Essendon Football Club's home ground - Windy Hill.

Essendon Football Club's home ground - Windy Hill.

Lovely terrace houses in Essendon.

Melbourne trains are clean, convenient and on time. Not too many dreadied, music-blowing, loose-shoed, feet-on-seat yobbos. Thankfully.

Caught up with Dave and his colleague Mike for tea and we went to the Korea Palace in Chinatown. Our meal was a very nice BBQ of beef and chicken but I didn't feel too well and hardly ate anything. The most disappointing aspect of that was that Dave's company was paying for the meal. Mike was quite keen on the young waitress there but she didn't speak much English and she didn't understand my Korean at all so there probably wasn't a lot of hope for him. Dave was quite an entertaining bloke and he's been to Korea before with some interesting stories to tell.

Korean BBQ at Korea Palace.


After the meal we went our separate ways and we had a bit of an emergency - Yu-Jin needed to go to the toilet. I found a shopping centre on the Bourke Street Mall but no toilets. When I asked the security guard about the toilets he said that the toilets were closed but he asked if it was for Yu-Jin and he needed to do bigs or littles. Seeing as it was for the boy and, although he could get into trouble, he unlocked the door leading up to the toilets for us.

Downtown Melbourne with St Paul's Cathedral in the foreground.

My stomach ache was quite bad by this stage so I went back to the hotel room first whilst Miky purchased some doughnuts from Krispy Kreme. I bought some Eno and Panadol but the only decision to be made was to throw up. And after a meal had been purchased for me too.