Day 78 – Darwin, Flix in the wet.

I discovered late yesterday that on a weekend this place basically shuts down. Most shops shut at 1 or 2 on a Saturday afternoon and don’t open at all on a Sunday. Bars and stuff yes but anything else no, so I was at a bit of a loose end. Before I came to Darwin I googled about an outside cinema, as they’re everywhere in Australia, especially in the summer, because of the good weather. I found that although it’s rainy season they were putting on films every Sunday called ‘Flix in the wet’. I watched the trailer for ‘Short term 12’ and thought it looked quite interesting and a ticket to go was only $10 so I thought, why not! I made my way to the Deckchair Cinema which is near the harbour but as I got there I realised I was in the wrong place… obviously it’s rainy season so why would they show the films outside? Silly me! So I made my way back up the long flight of stairs to where my hostel was and about 1 block down was the cinema. Finally in the right place! The film was alright but it had a bit of an abrupt ending, the best bit about the experience was being in an air-conditioned cinema escaping the humidity of outside.

I left the cinema and walked down to the lagoon for a chill in the sun, quick swim and to read my book. When I finished here I made my way back to my hostel because I still had a few hours of internet leftover from the night before so I booked my Singapore and Kuala Lumpur stay and researched about some other things. The most annoying thing about this place is to use the internet you have to sit in the lobby because although you can connect to the wifi in your room the signal doesn’t actually work.

Day 21 – Queen Victoria Market.

7:30am - This has to be the earliest I’ve woken up since leaving Perth but it was all for a good reason and that reason was breakfast (and to see Valerie)! Valerie’s flight back to Sydney was at midday so we arranged to meet at 8:30. Eventually I found the right Crown hotel entrance (why make a hotel so big?!) and we were on our way.  We only walked around the corner to one of the restaurants on the southbank, it was a pretty chilly start to the day but it soon brightened up. After a lovely catch up it was time to say goodbye but I shall be staying with Valerie when I’m in Sydney in March so it’s only bye for now.

I walked back to Flinders Street where I jumped on the free tram to Queens Street to make my way to the Queen Victoria Market. This market runs 4 days a week and sells pretty much everything; fruit, vegetables, clothes, souvenirs etc. Shruthi had said about going to this market so she came and met me. When the market started to close, this is when it really came alive! People snatching up every last bargain they could and fruit being sold by the boxes for just a dollar or two. Absolute mayhem!

We still had quite a bit of the day left and we weren’t quite sure how to spend it. We had mentioned about going to the cinema before so we looked at what was on around us. The Wolf of Wall Street is the film of the moment so we decided to go and check that out at the Holgs cinema in Melbourne central. Although it was quite a long film (3 hours to be exact!) I’m not quite sure what to make of it, the whole thing was pretty crazy really.