Was it a Good Friday or not?

Burger King?

Southern Cross train station

Downtown Melbourne from the harbor



2nd Tallest building in Australia

 Nothing was open today. All of Melbourne was basically shut down. I have tried to be clever in my writing but know of no other way than to say that today was a great big bust.

We woke up from a great sleep ready to hit the Outback running. We soon realized that Good Friday is one of only two days in Australia where EVERYTHING is shut down.  Most restaurants, all museums, most public transport, & most retail stores are closed today. We passed by one Chinese store that was open and selling their wares. Nothing else was even remotely or partially opened!

We did finally find a Free Tourist Bus (like a hop on hop off) that took us on a tour of the 13 major sights of Melbourne but at each stop the bus’s recording stated that the museum or site was closed for Christmas and Good Friday.

We found some restaurants at the River Quay open but their prices were so shocking that both Jim and I are fasting out of rebellion. It just is not in our nature to spend $36.00 for a plate of spaghetti or $29 for a plate of fish and chips. Our $28 meal for 2 at Nando’s last night seems like a steal right now.

We were planning to ride that “hop on-hop off” go get a general overview of Melbourne, but we were told at the hotel’s front desk that it was not running today.  There is also a free city circle tram that always runs.  Well once we got out we soon discovered that they had it backwards—the city circle line was shut down for the holiday, but the “hop on-hop off” bus was running. So, we did make it around town a little bit.  It seems like a very modern city yet there are areas that could easily be in Paris.

I would say that our main problem today was eating.   Every time it was time to eat, we couldn’t find a place that we could rationalize was worth the price.  (I’m sorry but our daughter Kimber would starve to death here!)  So while most breakfasts were $23 we went to Hungry Jacks at the train station, where we got TWO egg and bacon muffins and two diet cokes for $13 (no refills).  I’m thinking that Hungry Jacks is the Australian name for Burger King.  They use the same font for their name and have the same bun logo and they serve a whopper burger.  But I digress.  We were down at the city harbor at lunch time and got a little bowl of gelato and ate some of our trail mix that we saved from the drug-sniffing dog at the airport.  OK, by dinner time we are starting to understand the picture—most places are closed and the ones that are open are very pricey!  It’s funny but when we first walked into the hotel yesterday, we thought the hotel restaurant was too pricey, but after everything else we saw, we decided it was a better deal than many other places, so we ate there for dinner.

Tomorrow we have a full day on the Great Ocean Road tour. Oh yes, the price includes a free lunch too! Print this post