Today’s post is a continuation of my Melbourne travel series. I have posted Part 1 already which is more of an overview and what I saw on the first day exploring this beautiful city. This post is about our second day there when I went to the Melbourne Museum, Eureka Sydeck and took the tram.

Because I explored the city the day before, I had a grasp of where I am and I got familiar with the main streets. On my second day, I wandered further than the main strips and just started walking aimlessly after lunch.

If I didn’t keep walking, I wouldn’t have stumbled upon the beautiful Royal Exhibition Building (pictured above) within Carlton Gardens.

The reason why I started walking aimlessly and away from the main street is because I was done shopping. I hit the shops in the morning and after lunch I knew I was finished looking and buying. Without any other plans, I decided to just wing it and walk as much as I could and explore more of what Melbourne has to offer.

I first stumbled upon the Queen Victoria Market building. I heard amazing things about the market here but unfortunately, I was too late as it was already closed. I would’ve loved to see the stalls. If you plan on going during the week, make sure you go before 2pm.

I kept walking and decided to go east. I didn’t see anything too interesting for a while but I was pleasantly surprised to see the Melbourne City Baths.

How is this city full of amazing old buildings? I love how well Melbourne has kept their heritage buildings and enhanced the architecture. It is beautiful. This excited me so I kept going.

And then, the town planner in me got super excited when I saw Drummond Street. I think these terrace houses were used as an example for one of my University lectures.

How cool are these houses? I loved how each terrace house was differentiated and the street was so pretty. I think this is how terraced housing could be done well because it enhances the character of the street. Anyway, enough planning talk on this blog.

My next destination was Carlton Gardens which had the Melbourne Museum. My goal was to go checkout the museum because I was getting hot and tired and it would be nice to relax inside the airconditioned building.

Carlton Gardens and the Royal Exhibition Building blew me away though.

This Royal Exhibition Building is in the middle of Carlton Gardens and it looks quite majestic.

It also had a fountain in the front. I didn’t think the building was open so I wandered around the back and found the Melbourne Museum.

The museum is a stark contrast to the Royal Exhibition Building because the architecture is really modern. It’s still beautiful though and the inside was nice with the high ceiling. I actually got there at the perfect time because it started to rain. I was able to drop my heavy shopping bags off while I explored inside. Tickets to the museum are $14 which isn’t too bad.

I took heaps of photos inside the museum but I could only show a little bit here. What surprised me the most inside was that the museum has a forest on the middle. This forest gallery had real trees, plants etc, has a water running through it and an open roof. It was raining so I didn’t get to enjoy it that much as I didn’t want to get wet. I then moved on to the indoor parts of the museum.

The museum has different galleries such as: Science and Life, Evolution, Mind and Body and the Aboriginal Culture. I thoroughly enjoyed walking around the different galleries.

There are some pretty good art inside too. I enjoy museums and the Melbourne Museum was definitely interesting. I wish I had time to visit the National Gallery of Victoria though because that would’ve been amazing and probably even better than the museum.

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Afterwards, I took the tram.

This City Circle tram is free and is mainly for tourists. You can easily spot it because it’s vintage-looking compared to the actual trams around the city.

This tram does a loop around the city so I got to see other parts which I didn’t have time to walk to. It went to the Docklands, Victoria Harbour, Melbourne Aquarium and to Flinders Street/Federation Square. I got off at Flinders because I walked to Southbank along the Yarra River.

Melbourne has a great mixture of old and new. The top right is a building in the Docklands. Upper right from memory is a hotel. Then it is the remarkable Flinders Street Station building and Federal Square on the left.

I went through Flinders Walk which was an easy way to get to Southbank. Southbank is quite different but really exciting. On the other side on the left, is the Southbank Promenade which was quite busy. It’s lined with restaurants and fancy stores. From my perspective, Southbank looked like the expensive part of town with fine dining restaurants, hotels and more corporate buildings.

This side also has the Eureka Tower which has the Eureka Skydeck at the top. Eureka Skydeck is the highest public observation deck in the Southern Hemisphere. It is 297m above ground and you get a 360 degree view of the city.

https://instagram.com/p/5vCmQzgBZL/?taken-by=astylecollector

After this, we took the train back to our hotel and called it a night. It was such a tiring day for both of us that we didn’t stay in town. I would’ve liked to see the city at night though but there’s always next time!

There were so many places I wanted to go to but I ran out of time. I could only go to and do as much within a few days and it was also because I didn’t have a proper plan/itinerary. I just went with the flow and explored where my feet could handle.

I’m extremely glad my first proper trip to Australia was in Melbourne. This city has so much to offer and has a great mixture of fashion, culture and style. I love this place and I can’t wait to go back!

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I hope you enjoyed this post and I’m sorry it is photo-heavy but I wanted to share as much photos I took from my trip. My next posts will be about the shopping and food in Melbourne. Both are great too so please stay tuned for that in a couple of weeks.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a great day!

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