I had an opportunity to visit this stunning, vibrant city over Easter vacation in April of 2017. For students at Latrobe University only, a city tour was organised by the university for the incredibly low price of $25 per participant. Can you believe that? The name of this program was Amazing City Race!
After more than a year of rigorous efforts, dedication, and stress to get the admission to a foreign university, this vacation was a treat from me to myself. So how am I going to miss it? To start fresh and get motivated for future assignments, it was somewhat of a much-needed break. We had over 50 student participants in one batch, and each batch included roughly 12 to 15 students from all over the world, so it wasn’t just me who was thrilled about the City Race. Two of the fifteen students in my group were from India; the other students were from the US, Germany, China, and Sri Lanka.
As a precursor to the city tour, we rode the metro from University to the station on Flinders Street. As soon as we exit from Flinders Station there is St.Paul’s Cathedral, a church in front of Station.
When I had heard about this city I was told that I would probably get a similar look and feel of Pune City, as Melbourne is a blend of culture and diversity and being located in Victoria state, a state renowned for its Education hub. It, to some extent, was true because as soon as we entered the city we found a large number of students from various universities in urban and sub-urban areas.
Every laneway was colourful and gave a flavour of art, culture and historic vibes through its architecture design. One of the most magnificent architecture is located at St. Kilda street, the NGV (National Gallery of Victoria)
From contemporary to abstract, there is a collection of more than 75,000 works of art from Australia’s architectural and historical evolution that speaks to thousands of people’s minds, hearts, and souls. This is amongst the most famous and frequently visited tourist spots in the city of Melbourne.
Moving ahead to, the most popular CBD (Center of Business District), built on the foundation of a Victorian-era building standing alongside the glass skyscrapers. This Business district has multiple organisations, banks, offices and is a commercial and financial hub of the city. We students were inspired by seeing this hub and were crossing-fingers, that one day we’ll be seated in one of the offices of this building. As we were heading towards the absolutely stunning Eureka-Deck, a city view from the 88th floor! OMG! What a magnificent deck!
Eureka Skydeck is the highest deck, 300 meters above the ground, is another iconic tourist attraction, and gives the most vibrant panoramic city view from the 88th floor. Beautiful view of Yarra River, Port Phillip Bay and sometimes even Dandenong Ranges.(Mountain ranges)
Here we took a short break, explored the city view and moved ahead to Queens Victoria Market. The land where this market is located was originally Melbourne’s first official cemetery of the old city. However this land was unused and was in poor condition, so the Victorian government decided to use the land for market. This was the controversial decision then by the government but when the city started to flourish after its opening, it became an iconic marketplace and listed out in tourist attractions. This marketplace offers various fresh products including fruits, vegetables to house hold stuff.
Queens Victoria Market[/caption]
We got back to Flinders street, after Queens Victoria Market, we first walked to the Federation square, another unique architecture, and absolutely spectacular tourist spot, which was diagonally opposite to the right of Flinders station. This is another hub for public events, art and culture. We took another coffee break, and relaxed for a while. On this Federation Square, later I joined an event celebrated by the Indian community, the Independence Day on 15-August. In fact this is one my most visited destinations for various public events held by city communities.
Well, that was the end of Day-1 of the program. We started heading back home, tired, yet excited for Day-2!
Federation Square[/caption]
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