A very wet weekend in Melbourne - part II

Our second day in Melbourne was another miserable one - it rained on and off almost all day, which didn't make it much fun walking around discovering the city! Again we found a little cafe down a random alleyway for breakfast in the morning before getting the free tram to the Queen Victoria Market which is meant to be Melbourne's "premier open-air market". One word of advice, if you're ever in Melbourne, don't bother going there. The only good thing we found was a packet of licorice allsorts, and even they were a bit chewy and jaw breaking.

Cold and wet, we walked to the Old Melbourne Gaol where some of Australia's most infamous criminals including Ned Kelly and Squizzy Taylor (yep, I don't know who he is either) have been imprisoned. The tour started with The Watch House Experience where you are actually arrested and locked up in one of the cells by a Charge Sergeant. The photo on the right is us in jail. The rest of it is self-guided, and due to Dave being the slow reader that he is, we must have been there for almost 2 hours! You can imagine how bored I was (although grateful for being warm and inside) after 40 minutes...

After the Gaol experience we headed up to the "Italian" part of Melbourne to sample some good traditional Italian cuisine. Inevitably, I was disappointed; no-one can cook as well as my dad - in fact, my mum can cook better Italian food than what was on offer - and I have made a vow (probably shortlived) to myself that I won't go to anymore Italian restaurants whilst I'm in Australia. By the time lunch was over, our flight back to Sydney was looming so we headed back to the hostel to collect our bags and to the station to get the bus to the airport.

Boarding the plane, we discovered it had been a sweltering weekend in Sydney - up to 38 degrees - and on arriving home, we were hit by the remnants of the heat. Just our luck! Melbourne is lovely - I would have liked a little longer to explore it properly so we're planning on going back - but I think I prefer Sydney!