Melba Gully State Park - Connecting With Amazing Nature

Being surrounded by nature is not something I get to experience often, thanks to the city life. However a simple walk down a series of unmatched vegetation, including the 300 years old fern trees was something that will always awe me.

Phillip Island - From Sunset To Penguins Parade

There are only few places on earth where you can get to watch penguins in the wild. Phillip Islands famous Penguin Walk is one of them. I had an amazing evening watching the little penguins swim out of the ocean and trot up the beach. And the beautiful sunset at the beach was memorable too.

Maru Koala And Animal Park - Australian Wildlife Up And Close

If it weren't for the Great Ocean Road Tour from Autopia Tours I would have never had the experience of feeding kangaroos and watching Native Australian Animals at probably the closest range possible at Maru Koala and Animal Park. The visit to the zoo was peanuts in front of this.

Loch Ard Gorge - A Place Of Beauty And Tragedy

The beauty of Loch Ard Gorge is best experienced by being there. I have never seen a beach so beautiful and so calm. Loch Ard Gorge is certainly one of the best places to visit and is usually coupled with a visit to the Twelve Apostles.

Great Ocean Road - One Of The World's Great Scenic Roads

The Great Ocean Road is probably one of the most beautiful Roads in the world. The entire 243KM runs beside the Ocean and has a great view and great towns to stop at for those much needed breaks. It was indeed one of the best trips I have taken till date.

Ferry Ride To Phillip Island

A Ferry ride in Melbourne is certainly something no one should miss. I had the chance as part of the Great Ocean Road trip from Autopia Tours. It was a short yet wonderful trip across the Ocean to The Phillip Islands.

Twelve Apostles - Limestone At Its Best

The Twelve Apostles are probably one of the most interesting formations of limestone stacks in the world. These are stacks formed from erosion of cliffs. These are formations that can be found along a stretch of the Great Ocean Road.

Footy With The AFL Grand Final Parade

Australia is a football crazy nation. I was just going around the city as usual on a Friday afternoon and I noticed that the roads all around federation square are filled with people and traffic has been diverted. I had never seen so many people in Melbourne till this day.

Federation Square Closed!!!

Turns out the AFL or the footy final that was to happen that weekend always precedes with a parade of the players and mascots etc. There was hardly any place to stand for me and I had to go pretty far to get a decent view of what's going on. This was pretty well planned though. I had seen notices all over the CBD , notifying that tram services will be affected by this. 

Stalls and Stalls Everywhere

The entire of federation square had different stalls for things ranging from face painting to a kids section for playing football. I would have got my face painted if I had any idea about Australian football. Should have done my research on that first. I also wanted to buy a football for myself but I guess that can wait till I learn a bit about the game. 

The large screen at Federation Square was showing the parade live too. It would have fun if I could come on that screen too... oh wait I have :)

This is a structure that was quite mind blowing. I had seen this under construction a couple of days earlier and it made no sense at that time. I could just see a couple of Australian footballs hanging. Now it all made sense. Making a structure like this just for the parade was something hard to grasp for me. But then Australians do take their sports seriously.

Paparazzi 

The media coverage this has got was pretty impressive . There were helicopters covering this too. Of course there were the regular News Channels and their fancy News reporters going live.

The Parade

The Parade Included mascots, bands and players . The crowd was a spectacle to watch. Since I didn't really know any of the players the mascots and bands were more interesting to me. But obviously the crowd was there for the players .

Carlton Gardens - A UNESCO World Heritage Site

There are indeed a large number of gardens in Melbourne and the big blue sky and the green land makes a very relaxing atmosphere almost at every turn in the city. Carlton Gardens is one of the most beautiful gardens in Melbourne.

Princes Walk The Best View Of Melbourne

 

Right behind Federation Square there is Princes Walk. You can find joggers, and tourists here just enjoying the beauty of of the city by the Yarra river.

Its a kids world

There is a building under renovation that's supposed to be a children's attraction. I am not quite sure what it is but there well some kids playing outside anyway.

Art 

As everywhere in Melbourne this place too has some art. This is certainly some aboriginal art and some regular weird structures. They look beautiful but then don't make much sense. I guess that's the point of some art.

Best Quality of Life

It must be hell of a life to live around here and come for a jog by the river , watching ducklings learn to swim and beautiful trees and occasional kayaks on the river. Undoubtedly Melbourne has one of the best quality of life.

View from Princes Walk

There is an amazing of view of the city from Princes Walk and the walk in itself is very beautiful. The arrangement of trees and the river flowing beside it. It all adds up to create an amazing and yet simple place.

Southbank Melbourne

Southbank is the neighboring area of the CBD in Melbourne. The Yarra river provides a quite beautiful addition to the beauty of this city. And quite complimentary to that , Melbourne is the largest settlement that the Yarra River flows through. There are several Bridges on the Yarra River. A very popular one being the Southbank Footbridge.

 South bank Footbridge

Its quite interestingly designed , in spite of the fact that it is only used by pedestrians . The bridge has a pub under it is quite an experience to have a drink in the middle of the Yarra river.

Love Locks

Melbourne is one of the places where you can find Love Locks on the bridges . The messages are a bit hard to read but sometimes well worth it.

Art and Artists

There are artists playing music or performing all around Southbank. There is the famous Ophelia by Deborah Halpern right beside the Southbank Footbridge too.

Flinders Street Station The Central Railway Station Of Melbourne

Flinders Street Station is the Central Railway Station of Melbourne located right beside Federation Square.

This is the place where you can see a crowd of people on the streets. Unlike the usually empty streets of Melbourne. This is one of the Few places in Melbourne where the signal leads to a pedestrian scramble. 

If someone tells you in Melbourne "I'll meet you under the clocks" then it simply means under the clocks in the station displaying the time for the next trains bound for different places. "I'll meet you on the steps" means the fleet of stairs leading to the station. You can usually find a quite interesting and diverse crowd there. Its probably the best place to experience the diversity of Melbourne.

The Station is located right opposite Federation Square and has a line of shops for a quick bite. You can get everything ranging from fries to sushi. There are of course restaurants all around the Station and in Fed Square.