My 1st USA trip - Denver March 2011

The ride from Adelaide - Sydney - Los Angeles - Denver was my longest flight so far. Although the crews of United Airline were friendly and nice, the limited space in front of the seat is making it hard to breath and zzzz. 

Didn't have much sleep from Sydney to LA. To make it worse, I was sitting in the middle of the 3 seats, it's hard to get to the toilet and the one sitting on the right is a bigger size person.

Oh well...I still make it to LA, but not with other unexpected problems!!! (I'll leave that part out)

Because of the UNEXPECTED problem, I only reached my sort of backpacker hostel in Denver at 10-11PM instead of 5PM (USA is not good at backpacker hostel, they have more motels and hotels somehow). 

2010_01_01-02 Melbourne and Melbourne Day 11 & 12

The Last 2 days were spent just visiting Melbourne.

There's quite a lot to see for a first-timer 

And as I mentioned before, Melbourne is the city of Arts and Festival some even say Literature

Whatever it is, 

I like their NGV which stands for National Gallery of Victoria

There's two of them 

one the International which houses collections from the world, while the other is the National one

both buildings are located at different locations but within the city CBD.

The NGV national was good and houses many interesting arts 

below are some arts I fancied

Somehow I thought we are not allowed to take photos of them, but apparently we can, but without flash!!!

One of the "Impressionist" masterpiece that capture my eyes

"The Pioneer "

is a 1904 painting by the Australian artist Frederick McCubbin. The painting is a triptych; the three panels tell a story of a free selector and his family making a life in the Australian bush. It is widely considered "one of the masterpieces of Australian art (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_pioneer_(painting)).

2010_12_31 Melbourne and NYE 2011 day 10

Well, finally I reached the last day of 2010!!!! Not 2011, haha. 

I know this blog is already outdated , well, can't you see that I'm trying to catch up???

Well, the last day of 2010 in Melbourne was TERRIBLY HOT like sauna!!! 

My friend just wanted to keep going into the shade and shops with a/c.

Oh well, it's summer!!!

Queen Victoria market was on my friend's to visit list,

well, to help friend get stuff??!!! 

and get macademias??!! They said it's cheaper here??!!

oh well, having frequent Adelaide central market, 

this Queen victoria market does not really appeal to me

all I can said is that it's bigger, more stuff for sell ranging from cheap souvenirs to groceries to clothing to art

Melbourne City bath 

open to public

Lunch/snack?? at Brunetti, 

One of the famous Italian restaurant!!!

http://www.brunetti.com.au/OurHistory.aspx

It's located at the famous Lygon st,

where a crime scene happened 2-3 months before we went, haha.

Their food was so tempting!!!

2010_12_30 Melbourne Gaol and University of Melbourne Day 9

Back to the City

Although I have been to Melbourne twice or thrice 

Still there's quite a lot that I have not explore due to all my previous trips was short ones

The melbourne Gaol is one of the most famous tourist spot of Melbourne wining many awards...

so we thought we pay a visit

Second on the list is

The University of Melbourne

This University has earned its reputation on my list to visit due to its fast climb in the University rankings

In addition, there's a lot of good work/research done here that become probably the best university to study in Australia other than ANU

So the day was jam packed with walking, Walking and WAlking....

One of the attraction of Melbourne Central, that house a shopping mall and train station 

Wished I can bring that Clock back!!!

It look so elegant!!!

Our brunch

at a tibetan food restaurant

not bad, pretty nice

2010_12_29 Mt.Buller day 8

From sea to mountain

It's definitely good to have a change of views

Mt.Buller is the closest and the biggest skiing resort to Melbourne

and takes ~3hr to get up here.

During Winter season, it's a busy place due to its close proximity to the city

but it's a very quiet place outside winter

Most people came here for a quiet escape with family/mountain biking and hiking

The best of all, the accommodation prices is a far cry from the expensive prices during winter season which makes it a very affordable place to stay with such great view around you.

Of course most accommodation here cater for winter only as running them with so little visitors outside of winter is high. So only a few lodges are operating making the choices limited, luckily they don't charge rocket high prices.

Oh and it's a perfect place to escape the summer heat, it's so cool here, other than the UV, haha.

Some of the bigger lodges (no, we didn't stay here) with awesome view

Ski run stations and chairlifts