Williamstown

When god created earth and then humans he would have definetly thought that these guys are going to have a hectic life. So he wanted few places to relax and make your heart and buzzing mind cool. One such place is Williamstown south of Melbourne. We never thought we will ever go to this place. If you have read my earlier posts you might remember my first house. The land lady of that house stays here. She has invited us once to her home. But since none of us took her home we were hesitant to go the place. And since it was winter and the whether was damn chill we thought it will be more chill as the place is nearer to the ocean. We were roaming around in the CBD every week. We got really bored seeing the same places and the same shops. So we wanted to venture out. There were two options. Either to a beach or to a place where u need to pay an entrance fee. We thought the former is more feasible. So we decided to go there on a sunday.

Melbourne is well connected by trains, trams and busses. You need one ticket to travel in all these three. There are variety of tickets available. Since that is not the discussion here i am not going into it. But need to tell you all that on a sunday the ticket rate is pretty cheap compared to the weekdays. And since Atanu wants everything cheap he was not ready to travel on other days. So we were ready to travel on a Sunday. As per the trains the entire area covered by the train network is classified as two Zones. Zone 1 and Zone 2. A ticket for Zone 1, which cannot be used in Zone 2. I didnt try what will be the penalties if you travel this way. Except for the sunday ticket other tickets has to be bought for Zone 1 or Zone 2 or Zone 1 + 2 (which is costlier than everything else). There is no point in getting a ticket combining both the zones as we wont be travelling to zone 2 place at all times.

Atanu told Williamstown is in Zone 2. I had a Zone 1 monthly ticket as my house is in Zone 1. So went to check with the officers whether on sundays we are permitted. They said except for the "Sunday Saver", which can be used in both the zones, all other tickets can be used only in those zones. I thought ok we will drop the plan of going to Williamstown and choose another place in Zone 1. But when we checked the map we realised that Williamstown is in Zone 1 and the next train leaves in another five minutes. We rushed to the platform and got into the train. In the video display in the platform they have mentioned that for Williamstown we need to change to another train in a station called "Newport". Since we were new to the route, we were checking each and every stations. Siraj slept as we both were alert. Then when Newport came we all got down.

I was under the impression that there will be another train from some other route which goes to Williamstown. But then a train came from the depot and it was destined for Williamstown. From Newport Williamstown is fourth station. We got down in the station and were surprised to see a silent, quiet area. Its a total opposite to the buzzing Melbourne. When we got out of the station we were able to see the ocean and also the ships. But there was something different, I didnt realise it at that time. We started walking towards the beach. It was not chill at the same time not warm. What kind of beach is it?

After a 10 minutes walk we reached the beach and immediatly understood the difference. There were no big waves in the beach. It was silent. And due to this nature they have made it as a harbour area. We have seen this place from our IBM office. But never recognised or realised. There were couple of big ships. There was a small area like a peninsula which was full of shells. I went there and started taking photos. Atanu and Siraj didnt expect this kind of beach and they didnt come inside. Took enough photos and then came out of the peninsula. Walked towards the harbour area. But it was not open to public. So we started walking back to the station. Atanu and Siraj took coffees from the mobile coffee shop there. We reached the station. Took a train and came back to Melbourne. Even after reaching Melbourne the silent and the quiet beach was in memory. I donno whether the other two liked the place but I simply loved it.

Photos - http://picasaweb.google.com/guruswaminathan/Williamstown?authkey=tKA-W1y9Kvo