We slept pretty well and woke up Monday looking forward to going into Melbourne. Adam had to go to work that day, so Sofia was our tour guide for the day. Our first stop wasn't exactly scenic, but we stopped at the bank in Clayton to exchange the US dollars we brought. While we normally charge as much as we can, most credit cards have a foreign transaction fee of 3% that makes it cheaper to use cash. After that, we went to the train station and took the train to downtown Melbourne (Australians don't use the word downtown, they call it the CBD for central business district). The train ride into the city was around 30 minutes and we got off at historic Flinders Street Station in the most exciting part of the CBD.

Flinders Street Station at Federation Square on Vimeo.

It was a little overwhelming to get off of the relatively quiet train ride and walk into the middle of a busy city. There was so much to look at - the historic buildings, the stores and cafes, all the people crossing the street - and I had to pay attention to where I was going, and watch out for traffic flowing differently than I'm used to, oh, and stay on the left side of the sidewalk instead of the right so I wouldn't run into people.

We walked into an alley, which was full of outdoor cafes, and stopped at one of Australia's many cupcakeries. This one was called Little Cupcakes and it had several different kinds of freshly-made cupcakes for sale in regular and mini sizes. We got several different kinds of mini cupcakes and ate them all. They were all really good, we both really liked the red velvet and Lesley really liked the white chocolate raspberry and the carrot cake. They cost a bit more than home-made cupcakes ($2/each for mini cupcakes) but they tasted a lot better.

Shops and Cafes in Melbourne on Vimeo.

After the cupcakes, we stopped by St. Paul's Cathedral, which is a beautiful cathedral in the heart of the city. We went inside and walked around, appreciating the ornate architecture. There was also a big organ, which would have been nice to hear.

Next, we went to Hosier Lane, which is an alley that is covered with graffiti art. Graffiti is popular in Melbourne, which we noticed traveling into the city as the fences along the entire train ride into the city were covered with graffiti. The graffiti on Hosier Lane was especially impressive, though, as it's much more artistic than average street graffiti, and the whole alley is covered with it.

Then we went to Federation Square, across from Flinders Street station. Fed Square, which is tagged as "The Centre of Melbourne", opened in 2002 and was somewhat controversial at first because of the cost and the striking architecture. But, I thought it was great. It was a full block of open space where you could admire the historic architecture of Flinders Street Station and St. Paul's Cathedral. The square has a giant TV screen, which wasn't showing anything when we were there, but shows sports matches for the public to watch. The square wasn't especially busy when we were there the first time, but it became more active at times when people were off work. And, I really liked the architecture of the square itself. It's unique without being ostentatious, open while being interesting, active while being relaxing, and in the middle of it all while feeling like a retreat from the city.

Fed Square was next to the Yarra River, so we walked along the river a ways. In the summer, I can imagine the path next to the river would be busy and beautiful.

We returned to the CBD and walked around some more. While Melbourne isn't especially touristy, the area near Flinders Street Station and Federation Square had a few souvenir stores and currency exchange stands. The CBD is full of 7-11 convenience stores as well as McDonald's, Hungry Jack's (Burger King), and Krispy Kreme. But, while all of that stuff is ubiquitous, there is much much more to Melbourne's CBD. The regular city blocks in Melbourne are large, but in between the major streets are little streets and alleys, some of which are closed to cars and are full of outdoor cafes. There are also lots of shopping arcades downtown (basically block-long shopping malls). Melbournians are rather fashion-conscious, so there are a lot of shopping options. There were a lot of people out walking around whenever we were downtown, mostly suit-wearing office workers during the day, and very rarely any homeless people.

After checking out a few of the shopping arcades, we met Adam at his office building to have lunch. We walked to the popular Australian chain Nando's. They serve Portugese-style chicken, which is basically chicken with a spicy kind of sauce called Peri-Peri sauce. They also put some spicy seasoning on their fries. It's one of Adam's favorite places to eat and Lesley loved it as well.

After lunch, Adam went back to work and Sofia, Lesley, and I went to a historic cathedral on the other side of the CBD, St. Patrick's Cathedral. We weren't able to go inside this one, but it was impressive from the outside. We then walked through a small park and went to the Parliament building. We had missed the tour of the building but took a few pictures in front of it.

We then went to Little Collins Street, which had a lot of shopping. It was a really cool area, but we didn't spend a lot of time there before taking a tram to the Docklands, west of the CBD. There was a relatively new outlet shopping center built there along the water. Lesley and I stopped at one of the stores, Cotton On, to buy some clothes. We also found some suitcases that we liked, but didn't buy them then because we didn't want to carry them around the rest of the day.

By this time, Adam was about to get off of work, so Sofia decided we'd meet him on Flinders Street. The Starbucks in Australia have a English Breakfast Tea Latte, so we went there so Lesley could try it out. I got some Earl Grey tea and we chatted while waiting for Adam. We stayed a little longer after he showed up and then went to Rialto Tower to get a view of the city from the observation deck. Adam and Sofia pointed out landmarks to us from up there and we stayed up there until it got dark.

View from Rialto Tower on Vimeo.

We couldn't figure out where to eat after that, but Sofia remembered a place she'd been to in Chinatown, so we went there. Lesley and I had never had Peking Duck before, so since none of us were particularly hungry, we were just going to share one. The waiter, however, claimed that there was a minimum purchase amount of $20 per customer and insisted that we get one and a half ducks (which still wasn't quite $20 per person, but was apparently okay somehow). We were all skeptical of this minimum charge and almost left, but decided to stay and get one and a half. I thought the food was great, and we all had a great time. We all get along really well and this was the most fun I'd had hanging out with people in quite a while. It was a great way to end our first full day in Melbourne.