Australia Day 5

 Day 5 of #raustraliatravelog. It's time to explore Melbourne.

One thing that I did notice when arriving here, that it's noticeably colder than Sydney. Perhaps because geographically it's more southern (or more south? whatever).

First place that we went to was the Federation Square. Why? since it's located on the city center. Federation Square is a venue for arts, culture and public events on the edge of the Melbourne central business district. It covers an area of 3.2 ha (7.9 acres) at the intersection of Flinders and Swanston Streets.

At that time, in October 2018, many parts of the Federation Square was under renovation, so the view wasn't at its best. However, there were many landmarks nearby, such as the town hall, St. Paul Cathedral, and so on. And no, we didn't enter any of them.

In my personal opinion, the Fed Square was quite mumbo jumbo at that time. Well, I thought because of the ongoing construction. But after having a look at the wiki, it seems I'm not alone. Quite many people disliked(s) it, lol. Altho I'm pretty sure it's a grower if you get used to it. .

Nope, we didn't enter this large exhibition building. Since, well, it seemed too quiet (altho not sure whether we came from the correct entrance or not xD)

Well, apparently it's the first building in Australia to be awarded UNESCO World Heritage status, being one of the last remaining major 19th-century exhibition buildings in the world.

It is the world's most complete surviving site from the International Exhibition movement 1851–1914.

Well, I should say that the exterior of this museum perhaps not photogenic. It could have been taken from a better angle but..

Located adjacent to the Royal Exhibition Building, it is the largest museum in the Southern Hemisphere.

The world's largest IMAX Theatre screen, which is also part of the museum complex, shows movies and documentary films in large-screen 3-D format.

With $15 entrance fee, actually it's not that expensive come to think of it.

Then we went to Melbourne Uni. Well, my friends who studied here had already graduated, so no "tour guide".

The campus is so pretty, and the weather was nice too. .

Hmm, after posting this, I just realized that the cropping on below right is soo :/.

It's apparently the largest open air market in the Southern Hemisphere. With the high ceiling and large space, and of course good hygiene, strolling inside the market was enjoyable.

However, if you want to find souvenirs, Haymarket @ Sydney still has better price I think.

The market is also known for the hot doughnut van which has operated for over half a century and become part of local tradition, being known for its jam donuts (dan saya baru tau sekarang).

Next destination was the State Library Victoria. It's Australia's oldest public library and one of the first free libraries in the world.

It is also Australia's busiest library and, as of 2018, the fourth most-visited library in the world.

Unfortunately, the famous The Dome and its La Trobe Reading Room was under construction, so we could only see the less picturesque parts of the library (ini niatnya mo ngapain sih?).

Well, apparently visiting library could be fun! I mean, if you're in the mood of reading. Well, I prefer to read with greens around me actually. Hmm, it depends.

So, in the afternoon, we went to the outskirt of Melbourne by train. Arriving at the station, it looked pretty cool! I mean, different than modern type, it had old-town-ish vibe.

Well, from the station, we ought to walk to reach our destination. and we didn't see any public transport around.

After quite a long walk, finally we arrived at the spot that we were aiming to. Not.

Well, the place we wanted to reach actually was already in sight. You may see the little dots on the right side on the far away coast. .
This spot is nearby the parking lot. and not crowded at all.

Intersection. Actually we had no idea which way that we should take. Alhamdulillah the weather was good, so that's fine. Just keep walking.

Arrived! Finally those famous colorful mini houses are in sight!

Fishing by the beach

Feeling the breeze of the sea, watching the birds flying above the water and occasionally swooping down catching the fishes. A lovely afternoon.

(3/3)The bathing boxes may only be purchased by residents paying local council rates, and as of 2008 were selling for prices in the range of A$200,000 (wow!) with annual council rates of around A$500, despite their lack of amenities.

(2/3)Do you know what bathing box is? A bathing box, or beach hut (also known as a beach cabin) is a small, usually wooden and often brightly coloured, box above the high tide mark on popular bathing beaches. They are generally used as a shelter from the sun or wind, changing into and out of swimming costumes and for the safe storing of some personal belongings.

The famous bathing boxes in Brighton are known to have existed as far back as 1862. The boxes share a uniformity of size and build, and a regular arrangement along the beach, and are the only surviving such structures close to the Melbourne CBD.

(1/3) Brighton is named after Brighton in England. Brighton is also well known for its Dendy Street Beach with its 82 colourful beach boxes.

So, sans the first photo, they are the pics of the place where we stayed at. It's a 1886 Victorian Guesthouse, so yes, please expect no elevator. So we ought to bring our luggages to our third floor by ourselves.

Overall, it's a nice place providing nice reading room and simple breakfast. I think I kinda miss various of oats and cereals that it served, that unfortunately difficult to find here. Well, apparently light breakfast affect how's your body feels throughout the day. It feels light too!

Australia Day 4

Day 4 in Sydney. After checking out from the accommodation, we still have few hours prior our flight schedule. So we decided to go to The Grounds of Alexandria based on some recommendation.

From the train station, it's actually not that near. We ought to walk for quite a while. It's suburb area so the buildings and structures were different than in the city center. In here, mostly were industrials buildings, altho not huge factories per se.

Located in a former industrial precinct from the 1920s, The Grounds of Alexandria is a landmark cafe, restaurant & bar, garden, bakery & patisserie, coffee roastery, animal farm, florist, markets and more.

I should say that the place is pretty. The subtropical flowers decorating the place were beautiful. I could imagine that a similar place (a copycat) could be built in Lembang. But the atmosphere might be different.

We only bought coffee, and @bayuadipersada bought some coffee beans in the cafe. There's a giving fountain in the area. I think this is so nice, since it's designed and dedicated for charity. I dont know, perhaps in first world countries, people are itching to throw some coins whenever they see fountains (trevi fountain anyone?)

That day was the day when we went to Melbourne from Sydney, but why I don't remember on how to reach the airport. Since what I took was only pictures of Central Station, so it must've been by train. .
However, I don't remember at all on how the airport looked like. Bahkan saya ga inget apakah itu airport yg sama ketika saya baru tiba 🤣

Avalon Airport only had one runway, and it's located around 50km from Melbourne CBD. Come to think of it, the airport was so small that this photo reminds me of small airports in remote area in Indonesia.

From the airport, we took a coach (with a pretty slow wifi) that brought us to the city center. Man, the airport was really in the middle of nowhere.

Okay, the other photos are only fillers 🤣

Australia Day 3

Day 3 of the travelog. The night before, we went straight to the restaurant, which is the same restaurant where we had dinner on the previous day 🤣.

btw, @bayusuryadi palanya ganggu ni.

We spent the third day, mostly for campus tour. Why? My bro @bayuadipersada is basically such an avid edu-enthusiast, that he always spares his time to visit best local university anywhere anytime when he travels around the world.

This time, we went to Uni of Sydney. Founded in 1850, it is Australia's first university and is regarded as one of the world's leading universities. The university is known as one of Australia's 6 sandstone universities. Apparently, its campus is ranked in the top 10 of the world's most beautiful universities. Yes it showed!

TIL the word quadrangle. It seems it's similar with rectangular, or square. The Quadrangle design is based on those of Oxford and Cambridge.

We also visit The Nicholson Museum, located at the one side of the quadrangle. The museum is an archaeological museum that is home to the largest collection of antiquities in both Australia and the Southern Hemisphere. Founded in 1860, the collection spans the ancient world with primary collection areas including ancient Egypt, Greece, Italy, Cyprus, and the Near East.

Another interesting things was many students with hijab were doing study tour (it seems) to the uni. I just didn't expect that.

One thing that I like about this victorian gothic architecute is its unique shape. Okay, I don't want to comment further since I have bad knowledge on how to differentiate architectural types. You can zoom closer to see there are some interesting details on the facade of the building.

On the n-th photo, you can see the statue of Queen Victoria. Ada cerita menarik dibalik patung ini. Jadi waktu itu Australia lagi pengen punya patung sang ratu, tapi maunya yang memang sudah eksisting. Kemudian dicarilah ke seluruh penjuru dunia, mulai dari India sampai ke seantero Eropa. Tapi negara-negara itu posesif dengan patung ratunya masing-masing. Akhirnya dapatlah dari Irlandia, karena patung ini katanya sudah "tidak terpakai". Tapi, dari Irlandia juga ga serta merta kasih patung ini ke Australia. Katanya dipinjamkan sampai diminta untuk balikin. Ada ada saja.

From the university, we went to Paddy's Market. It's more like a traditional flea market, specialising in cheap imported clothes, giftware and also has a small section for fresh fruit, vegetables and seafood. The prices were very affordable! It's suprising for me, since Sydney is actually an expensive city. But I think this is cheaper compared to prices in Europe, even the east-ish ones.

We then go to Chinatown, which located nearby. We also tried to ride a tram. First time for me, like, ever!

Having photos taken from a wrong angle could be frustating, that it's so difficult to fix especially when the proportion looks peculiar.

Okay, so we then went to State Library of NSW, the oldest library in Australia. It has huge pillars in its front with orange-ish color that perhaps the trademark of Australia

In front of the library (previous pic), there's a botanic garden. The weather itself was cloudy, so the pics are not excellent. As a Jakartan, walking in the garden like this was pretty fun (well, I like seeing greens!). Altho compared to gardens in other developed countries, this is okay I guess.

Opened in 1816, the garden is the oldest scientific institution in Australia and one of the most important historic botanical institutions in the world.

From the Botanic Garden, we went to the famous Bondi Beach by taking bus. could say that it's not that near from the city center.

It was going to dusk so the sun was not apparent. and to make it even gloomier, it's cloudy that time.

It's also frikkin windy and cold! that I couldn't take many pics. We were just around 5 mins on the beach since we couldnt stand it.

We then tried to find dinner at a fish n chips joint. the taste was pretty plain! .

Actually this is a filler post containing random photos: from a view near Mrs. Macquarie's seat, our "breakfast" at the apartment, a masjid nearby the conf's venue, and Bondi Beach's vid view.

Australia Day 2

Day-2 in Sydney, we attended the conference which location thankfully we could go there by walking (eh, ini saya lupa sih jalan atau apa. lol).

The conference, called Leading The Product, exceeded my expectation. It was awesome, with excellent speakers conveying meaningful insights. and the level of material was varied, from how to manage a product, to manage the product management.

My friend @bayuadipersada has written about the takeaways from the conference on his blog @ medium. Check it out!

The conference was held nearby the Darling Harbor. So after the event was finished, we could just and then we walk ans walk to get into the ferry.

Thankfully the sky was clear and the weather was so nice, and we could enjoy the sightseeing pleasantly. .

TIL that Sydney Opera House is one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Well, this is the view of the house when we're in the ferry ride. Yes, our next destination would be that opera house.

The opera house's architecure from the outside is very exotic indeed, no wonder that it becomes one of the most famous landmark in the world.

We decided to spend the dawn at the opera house's surrounding. No, we didn't enter the opera house, didn't buy any food, and didn't spend anything. lol. Oya, we bought some souvenirs actually. We mostly just wandered around, looking at the sea, birds, observing things.

Actually, we waited for the lighting performance (I forget what it's called), but apparently it took us quite a long time. It's always dilemma between whether we should leave right away, or stay a little longer. We decided to stay.

Thankfully the golden ray of light was astounding.

It's said that the performance was best seen from the Monumental Steps. In my mind, I thought it was a kind of tall structure that we needed to climb up. Perhaps in my brain, the term monument/monumental was already sticked with The National Monument in Jakarta aka Monas.

Apparently, Monumental Steps are the steps aka undakan2 leading to The Opera House. O wa lah.

FINALLY, after waiting for quite long, and trying to ignore our hunger, the show commenced. It's called Badu Gili (I have to look at the internet for this).

Badu Gili — meaning ‘water light’ in the language of the traditional owners of Bennelong Point, the Gadigal people — is a free daily experience that explores ancient First Nations stories in a spectacular seven-minute projection. They illuminate the Opera House’s eastern Bennelong sail year-round at sunset, 8:30pm, 9pm and 9:30pm*.

I should say that it's quite a show, happy to see that.

It's no way that we went back to our accommodation by our feet. I was so tired, and super hungry. So we took the train to bring us.

Norak me was so excited to see double decker trains. It's my first time! Wait, I though I saw few in Japan. But it was my first time trying one.

Australia Day 1

Welcome to Australia travelog😉 

Welcome to the next chapter of my travelog (finally!). Guess where!

If only it's a wide lens, so I could take the pic of the bird in its entirety.

Well, actually sometimes I kinda reluctant in posting photos with face(s), esp strangers, since I feel like, do I have to ask for their permission, first?

Back to topic, so yes, I was on Sydney, with @bayusuryadi, @bayuadipersada, and @ilhamfatoni to attend a conference. Unfortunately @wulanmantik couldnt go with us due to a bit issue with the visa.

We arrived a day prior the conference, so we could take a stroll in the city. We followed a #walkingtour guide from the internet, where duo Bayu tirelessly arguing with each other about the direction that we should go for, while me and Ilham just lived in the moment. lol.

The first destination was Custom House, nearby the Circular Quay area. So yes, it's close to the shore.

The feeling when you see a very famous landmark for the first time. Well, it's still quite far, but you know.

Well, we visited the Sydney Museum, only at the lobby, since it had an entrance fee :p .
Oh yea, we also see a cruise ship at the quay. You know, we dont see cruise ship often in Jakarta, do we?

The next destination was The Rocks Discovery Museum? This time, we went inside. Why? Because it's free.

I myself a bit forgot what's inside. It's quite a small museum, with a group of elementary school student inside with their teachers.

Rocks, umm, perhaps related with the rocks formation in Sydney? well, gonna check wiki, but I think you can skip this venue :p.

Do what we did was ... sitting below a tree, enjoying clear bright blue sky. .

To go to this spot, we relied on Google Maps. And we walked! Well, actually it wasn't that far but quite tiring. Plus, there's an area where it seemed that no one else was walking. So I was a bit wondering whether we took the right way.

The bridge is nicknamed "The Coathanger" because of its arch-based design, carrying rail, vehicular, bicycle, and pedestrian traffic.

It is the sixth longest spanning-arch bridge in the world and the tallest steel arch bridge, measuring 134 m from top to water level.

Less than an hour in this area, my comment was: "sepi amat ya?". haha. Perhaps, because it's in midday?

If you wanna read the yada yada about the Sydney Observatory, please go to its offical site or its wiki *males nulis*.

Well, so we went here, walking from Coathanger Bridge. Actually, not that far, but the sun was sizzling at that time.

The reason we went here is, I dont know actually! Perhaps because it's free? .
The interesting thing about the site is its past role to provide time through the time-ball tower. Every day at exactly 1.00 pm, the time-ball on top of the tower would drop to signal the correct time to the city and harbour below. At the same time a cannon on Dawes Point was fired.

The first time-ball was dropped at noon on 5 June 1858. Soon after the drop was rescheduled to one o'clock. The time-ball is still dropped daily at 1pm using the original mechanism, but with the aid of an electric motor, not as in the early days when the ball was raised manually.

From the Sydney Observatory, we took an Uber ride, going to our hotel (well, it's serviced apartment, to be exact). Apparently, the driver was a moslem, and he preached few things along the way. haha. Pretty interesting.

At night, we strolled around the city. Ohya, we went to an Indonesian Restaurant nearby, and the taste of the food was delish! The price tag was Sydney standard (which is expensive), but the portion was huge.

We then got around a bit by walk. But hey, it seemed the city slept early. Stores were closed at around 7-8pm including restos. Well, so basically not many that we could do at night.

One of the landmarks that we passed by was St Andrew's Cathedral, since it's nearby our hotel.

The cathedral is described as a perfect example of the colonial desire to reproduce England in Australia in the mid nineteenth century.

Shopping center that we passed by. Kalo ga ada foto ini, I dont think I'd know the name of the place. lol. Actually the architecure is quite interesting, it's not modern like we have in Indonesia, but it's not crazy old as well.

When the arcade opened in 1892, it was said to be the very latest in shopping centre designs and was described as, "The finest public thoroughfare in the Australian colonies". .