Melbourne - day two

What a difference a day makes. Blue sky is covered by dark cloud and the temperature is don almost 10C.

We planned to go to the Queen Victoria Market that is in the north of the city. We caught the train, arrived in the city and set off on foot. As we walked through the shopping area it started raining so we slipped into doorway until eased and carried on. About 400m before we reached the market, the heavens opened. We sought refuge along with many others. As we discussed which road to take, we were asked if we needed help only to find the guy who asked us was wearing a Queen Victoria Market shirt. He took us to where we could see the entrance to the market.

The market consisted of a many sheds, each maybe 150m long and 50m wide with rows of stall in each. There were large areas that were empty but there were still too many stalls for us to contemplate going around. After an hour or so we felt hungry so went across the road to where the fresh produce market was and, behind that, a small food hall.

We went on to find an information centre who gave us details of how to use the free trams and also a “street art” tour that I downloaded onto my phone.

We set off for china town, (stopping to buy plastic raincoats - just in case) but were very disappointed by how empty the streets were and the absence of Chinese bakeries selling sesame balls, snowballs and char sui baos, 😡. We’ve been told that many Australians are boycotting Chinese areas, which is pretty sad. However, I still didn’t understand where everyone was given the huge Chinese population we have seen .... maybe they are boycotting the area too?

We set of on the street art walk which was really a guide around some of the better graffiti in the area. Towards 6pm, as we were approaching the end of the walk, there was a huge storm that flooded the roads and left us seeking refuge again despite the plastic coats. The storm lasted maybe 15 minutes and then evening became quite pleasant as we wandered back to the train and “home” again.Leggi altro