Saturday 25 November –
Frankston – Footscray - Collingwood
It rained for a bit during the night and then a dancing magpie thought it would be a good idea to try chortling through our air vent and waking us. We did however stay in bed until 8am, happy to be lazy.
Paul went for a shower and I organised breakfast, before we sat down to eat and then I went for a shower. Once I was all organised, we were in the car and making our way to Moorabbin train station, 35km away. We were familiar with this one, as it was the one we used while staying in Dandenong.
We found a place to park within the limited park and ride bays and then walked to the platform. We had 10 mins to wait, so we walked up and down the platform until it arrived and we jumped on ready for the 30min train ride.
The crowd increased along with the noise the closer we got to Melbourne. It was quite clear, by the number of young twenty somethings, that they were all off to a festival of some description. When we arrived at Flinders, thousands of them swarmed the platform and we had trouble making our way to the platform we required to take us to the Seddon station in Footscray.
We had another short wait for the train and then jumped on for the 10min journey. We were entertained by 2 teen girls behind us trying to work out how many trains they take a year for school. I was highly amused by there problem solving and thinking skills and their severe lack of maths understanding, they were going around in circles, putting all sorts of calculations into the calculator of their phone. In the end Paul turned around to tell them they were doing his head in and to explain the answer. It was just so amusing yet so sad that they couldn’t do basic maths calculations. It was like a comedy skit from Fast Forward.
We left them to ponder the answer they were given and made our way through the streets of Footscray, following google maps to Hop Nation Brewery. Once we were sorted, we did a walk around the docks that were full of sea containers.
We checked out the graffiti walls, some of it quite artistic, others a waste of paint. We walked along the river path where we could see the city buildings standing tall beyond the dock lands precinct. Then retraced our steps, returning to the brewery.
We met Aled, who welcomed us and talked us through the brewery while Paul drank the beers on offer. I wandered around the tasting room and up to the mezzanine area to get a birds eye view of the brewery floor.
We stayed chatting for over an hour, as the beers continued, I even found a couple of beers that I was happy to drink. In the end we left with a pie and a sausage roll and began the trek back through the suburbs to the train station.
Once back at Flinders, we swapped to the Collingwood line and caught the train out to the Stomping Ground stop. Unfortunately, I thought I knew where we were going, but soon realised it was wrong and had to consult google to set us straight. We finally made it to the Dr Morse Bar and the Co-conspirators Beer can launch of their Pale Ale “The Bookie”.
Paul was given a free can when he walked in the door and sat to drink it. We ventured out the back where more of the party was happening. We found Dion, who we had met at Kaiju and the Jackie, who I had been messaging, stopped to chat. We had an enjoyable time just hanging out. Unfortunately for Paul, they didn’t have the rest of their range to try, but they gave us both a tshirt, so you can’t be too picky.
We left the event at 430, catching the train straight back to Flinders and then on to Moorrabin. I used the time to work on the blog while pUl dozed. Not long after, I heard the station name, woke Paul and we made our way from the train.
We couldn’t get into the car until we had visited the Grape & Grain bottle-o to browse the extensive range and pick up some other beers. We then made our way to Frankston. The view around us was quite spectacular with heavy rain falling to the right, lightning directly in front and a rainbow to our left. The day was very muggy and the skies had become heavy with storm clouds, obviously some area were receiving a drenching.
We stopped in Frankston, which was extremely crowded. As it turned out, the Christmas light festivities and concert were happening and it was just a bit manic. We were very lucky to jag a parking spot and then made our way down the Main Street, stopping at Grill’d for a burger.
We ate in the noisey restaurant, glad for food, but just as happy to be heading home when we were all done.
We got in at 7pm, noticing that the downpour had gone through the campground and everything was soaking. We unloaded our things into the van and the proceeded to collapse. Paul went to bed to read, while I added another review to the website before finishing the blog for the day.
No comments:
Post a Comment