As the big and wonderful major things I planned for my Australia trip was done, all that’s left was one last full day for personal leisure in Melbourne. I was tempted last May to insert one more big item to this day, but it left me with no means to buy souvenirs. So, this became the chillest day. Just a zoo and souvenir hunting, no biggie. Maybe a trip at an ALDI store later.
Day 7 – Melbourne
I did buy some souvenirs at Sydney days ago, but I split my souvenir money evenly. I didn’t want to splurge all into Sydney because 1) Sydney’s souvenirs were all tourist-y things, and I didn’t want to miss souvenirs from Melbourne. I did buy some Buller souvenirs, so that left some decent money on the Melbourne budget.
Also, another thing that moved me to make this a relaxing day was that in May during planning, I was wary that the snow activity might leave me drained to do anything on that day. I learned this the hard way in Thailand years ago – I booked two tour activities in two consecutive days, and by the end of the second day, I was like fuck the third day plans, and I just spent it in a less stressful and less strenuous activity (Chatuchak Market shopping) because my upper body and legs were drained. So with that in mind, I left Melbourne Full Day 2 as kind of a recovery day as I suspected the snow day might (by chance) drain me too.
And I was partially right.
I woke up at 5.30am, and as I looked in my app, just about nearly 7 hours of sleep. But my upper body was kind of stiff and a bit sore. Legs were OK, I could still do a 10K on these legs. So I did a warm shower and did some stretching to loosen up while watching another Netflix nature documentary. Eventually I felt alright enough to give the zoo a go. I was right to chill for the day, if I had to force myself to do some long tour trip that day, it would’ve sucked to be in terrible physical shape while all the splendor of nature was in front of me. Not to mention – most trips I’ve found for Melbourne at Klook were at least in the hundred-dollar range. I saved good trip money on a relax day, and I’ll end up spending it somewhere else.
I ate the light breakfast I bought yesterday evening – some sandwiches, one ham-and-cheese and one tuna. But I kept the Americano in the fridge to drink a hot cup of instant coffee. I looked out the window and I saw it was a decently sunny day, I was happy at least the weather was good. After that and a quick dress-up, I was ready to go. I wore the same getup I wore for Sydney’s going to Manly’s – padded jacket and a top layer with shirt and jeans – but I wore a thicker base top layer (Men’s Winter Thermal Base Layer Top 500) and a bottom layer too. Decently warmer.
I got out of the hotel at around 7am and walked towards the nearest tram station that was headed towards my first and only touring spot of the day – Melbourne Zoo. And man, the chill was there.
Getup was warm but I really wished I bought a scarf in Sydney. And for information, the tram was #58.
Briathrail // Albert 2MNG 
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