Ballarat, Victoria, Australia (April 2016)

22nd April 2016 (Friday)

The craziest day out of all the other days going to Ballarat! There's only limited train rides per day so I went to check for the train timing and woke up early to catch that particular train. First time taking their train so I was kind of lost. Had to top up the myki card to I went to the information counter to ask how much I needed to top up as it wasn't stated.

Southern Cross Station

Ballarat

Arrived at Ballarat! Forgot to take picture of the train station! It was like some kind of 19th century train station which was pretty cool. It was about 9.30-10 upon arriving and we wanted to go get some breakfast/lunch before heading to Sovereign Hill. The weather was colder in Ballarat than in the central of Melbourne. Wore so thin because we didn't expect that... I think it was about 10 degree or somewhere around there.

Bridge Mall Shopping Centre

Walked along the streets of Ballarat locating for Bakery Hill where there's like some old school Macdonalds and etc and then we finally found Bridge Mall Shopping Centre.

Had lunch at this particular cafe. The food was good! But there's no Asian at all at Ballarat the entire day. Felt so out of place.

Their wool's so cheap over there and the quality ain't bad so I bought some back hahaha.

We ended up spending a couple of hours in the central area of Ballarat and only went to find for the bus-stop at about close to noon. Couldn't find for the bus-stop with that particular bus to Sovereign Hill. By the time we found the bus-stop, we already walked the whole central there... Not sure why but the whole area is like a silent town. Not many cars, not many people. But it's such a unique place. Most people only go to Ballarat for Sovereign Hill which probably explains why there ain't many Asians or foreigners around the central area.

Central Square Ballarat

Finally located the bus-stop. The bus didn't come at the right timing so I didn't even know if I was waiting for the correct bus! After about a half an hour wait, the bus came. We were the only ones in the bus. The bus ride took about 20-30minutes and the lady bus driver even stopped in the middle of no where to pick up a call... Not sure what she was doing but some lady boarded the bus afterwards?? It was scary though imagine you don't know where the bus is going. Apparently their buses don't go the original route they were supposed to go? She apologised to us in the end for the long wait though. The people there are all really polite and nice. Glad we didn't meet any unfriendly people. We arrived at Sovereign Hill safely in the end.

Sovereign Hill

Exchanged our tickets (I already bought the ticket online earlier on) and I bought the night ticket to the Blood of The Southern Cross show (at 7pm?). I was so curious what was the show about and I decided to go watch the show. There isn't much reviews online and most of the tourists that goes to the show stay overnight at Ballarat or else they will take the afternoon train or tour home. My only way to watch the show is to catch a particular train at the train station at night which I don't even know what will happen if I miss the train... It was so nerve wrecking!! I guess I was kind of crazy...

Anyway Sovereign Hill was really nice and I remember Running Man coming here with Kim Woo Bin previously doing their mission HAHA.

Such a beautiful place oh my gosh. There weren't many people by the time we arrive which was at around 2-3pm. By 4pm we were already done walking around the area and our ticket included entry to the Gold Museum too which was just opposite.

Gold Museum

There's really nothing much at the Gold Museum but it described some of Victoria's old history of the gold mines and how people got their jobs and all. By 5.30pm I was done so we walked around the outskirts of that area... The roads were all so wide and scary. There's some shops along that lane but almost all were closed! There's this fish & chips store though and so we went in. The shop looked like something that came out of those old Texas movies!?

I spotted a lake on the Google Map and we walked towards that lake. Had to walk through all these houses that's around this area. The lake ended up looking creepy with lots of trees. I guess it's sort of abandoned?...

We had to wait for about an hour or two before the show started. The concept was cool and we were able to sit on this rail that brings you around Sovereign Hill at night. But it was so weird because we were literally the only Asian! Everyone else are caucasians and they were all covered well! The temperature dropped tremendously. I think it was probably about 5-10 degrees at that point of time and we only wore 1 thin layer over...

The craziest thing is that when the show ended at about 8.30pm?? I can't really remember the exact timing but because there's no more bus services, and there's no cab around that area, there's practically nothing! If you go to Sovereign Hill or find it on the map you will know. So I used my google map and decided to bring my mum to walk to the train station which was at the central of Ballarat :-)

So it was about a 45 minutes walk 'cause we walked really quickly. The thing about Australia is that there's practically no street lights. All the landed properties were so dark and there's no cars on the road... I had to use my torch light and I was so scared because it was so eerie that I had to play songs on my phone. Hahahaha. We even walked passed some universities and hostels. We finally reached somewhere near the central. Everything was already closed. The Ballarat we saw in the morning seemed like a different place at night! Only certain bars were open and there's this Cinema where there's some teenagers hanging around.

Okay so we finally arrived at the train station and I went to find a man that seem like he was the only one in charge of the station. There seem to be many homeless people around the train station. He told me there's no train even though the app told me there is! But he say if I want to go to Southern Cross station I can go outside to the bus waiting area and there's a free bus that will take me there. So skeptical about it and why is there a free bus when I can't even find any information about it online!? By the time the bus arrived, there were quite a few people around there that boarded too. So it took about 2 hours before we arrived safely at Southern Cross Station! What an adventure man...

First time on a long bus ride at night in Australia and I was so shock at how the road is completely dark and you only rely on your headlight to drive!!

Walking through the empty dark streets... Not having a clue on whether I can get back home.. I'm glad everything went well.

My mum got sick after that day for about 2.5 days. But we still went out for the next 2 days as I booked a tour for Great Ocean Road on Sunday. So on the third day I went out alone in the morning for a solo adventure.



I guess only when things gone wrong is what makes every trip memorable...