Our First Full Day in Melbourne

G'day from Melbourne, Australia! After waking from a good night of sleep, we had a simple breakfast provided by our thoughtful host. We then decided to check out the grocery store, Coles, which is literally a block from the house. So awesomely convenient! We're going to be so spoiled for the next month. We toured the whole grocery store to evaluate prices and array of products before buying enough for a few meals and carrying it home. 

After our grocery excursion, we walked a block south to the ocean. Yes, our place is located just one street away from the ocean! Well, really it's Port Phillip Bay which then empties into the Bass Straight which then turns into the Tasman Sea to the East and the Great Australian Bight to the West (see our map for picture evidence). But, it's still salty, pungent ocean water. There is a paved path all along the bay where we live, which makes for a nice walk for us or a run for me. 

Altona Beach on Port Phillip Bay 

View of the shoreline from the Altona Pier

We then wandered Altona for awhile, discovering a second grocery store, civic center, several restaurants, kite and surfing shop, thrift store, and more. After returning home to fix some lunch, we decided to take the train into the city center to further explore Melbourne. We got off at the Melbourne Central Station, looking for a board game store and a rock climbing gym. Our board game quest was foiled by Melbourne having both a Lonsdale and Little Lonsdale Street (and me not writing down the exact address). Despite picking the wrong street, we found a different board game place. What are the odds? But, they didn't have Hanabi, the game we were looking for, and referred us to their sister store. We ended up not being able to find any other board game stores as we didn't have proper maps, but as we wandered we discovered having a street name and then a "little" street of the same name was quite common. 

We did successfully find the climbing gym we were looking for. It was very busy inside, and we were told this was because we are in the midst of a two week Australian school holiday. There was no bouldering, but apparently their sister gym in a far suburb has bouldering as well as more space. Also interesting was the route ratings. There is a separate Australian rating scale called the Ewbank System which is different from the Yosemite Decimal System we are used to. 

We left the gym and wandered around the city more walking thru Chinatown and past a University and State Library. We then stumbled upon James Squire Brewhouse and seeing fermentation tanks on the premises we decided it was promising to enter. We sat at the bar and the barkeep let us sample a few things before deciding on a Chocolate Cherry Stout. It was happy hour, so our beer was "only" $8 AUD per pint (about $5.62 USD). For us in the US, that's a normal price, not a happy hour price...I guess we'll only be drinking during happy hour here in Australia! Chatting with the barkeep, we discovered he'd been to Founders in Grand Rapids (small world)! We talked craft brew and then discovered he was a fountain of advice about restaurants around Melbourne. We wrote down quite a few recommendations and heard about a beer festival happening this Sunday in an old prison before business picked up and we had to let him go. Such a cool experience! You never know who you're going to meet! 

We navigated the train system, found our way home, made dinner, and called it a night. Quite a successful first day in Melbourne!