Melbourne (Mel-Bun)

I'll get the part out of the way where I tell you how great it was to go, and how lucky I felt to be there, right now. I'll also spare you interminable details about the long flights (yes they are long and being a bit sick on the way back didn't help - whatareya gonna do?).

The important part was being there! We arrived into Melbourne downtown at about 6am when it was still pitch black (it being winter there as you all know) so there was really nothing to see upon arrival, but just knowing I was in Australia, the land down under, Oz.....just knowing that made me get that special feeling I only get when I arrive in a new place. Especially one I've thought about as much as Australia. In a way however, Melbourne really wasn't the best place to experience the full effect of being 1/2 the world away. It's a cool city, nicely laid out around the Yarra river, with lots of bikepaths and victorian buildings, but with the exception of some odd trees and the aussie accent, you could be in Europe. A particularly grid like England perhaps, with a lot of latticed railings on houses reminiscent of New Orleans.

We wanted a bit more cliche Australia upon first arrival so we immediately got on a tram and headed for the acclaimed Melbourne Zoo to see some of those crazy kangaroos. We also visited a wombat and the "platapusery" the name alone of which amused us to no end. The trams worked on the "honor system" like the ones in Vienna, which somehow stresses me out. Mostly because I can never figure out what, where and how much I'm supposed to pay and where I'm supposed to validate the ticket if I get one. So I spend most of my rides with an inappropriate ticket wondering if I've shorted the system and feeling needlessly guilty. They had quite the signs for fare evaders too. I think my favorite was something like 'if you only paid half the fare, please use up only half as much oxygen as your full fare paying fellow passengers'.

The upshot of my honor system annoyance is that we walked back from the zoo. It was a nice walk through the university area with rainbow lorikeets squawking in the trees as they settled in for the night. However, this combined with our crazy flights, and an earlier walk to the marina caused me to literally fall asleep in my bread, cheese and Tim Tams (an Australian cookie) dinner. You don't get to laugh at that though because Dylan kindly refrained from capturing the moment in a photo.

The next morning promised a beautiful day which was good because we were booked on a tour of the Great Ocean Road. I'm not a huge tour lover, but it had worked out that this was the easiest way for us to do it based on time and money. The bus was small and filled with quite an array of travelers none of them American or even Australian (other than the driver). Our first stop was in the famous surfing spot of Bells Beach which I am told features in a horrible movie with Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves (did I really need to put the adjective before movie?). It was pretty, as was the coastline as we continued on, but not amazingly different than Nova Scotia or Ireland. One town we drove through was famous for their pier to pub swim which is pretty much just what it sounds like. The Australians do seem to have a soft place in their hearts for a beer at the pub. There were more stops at beautiful beaches and quaint little surf towns, a walk through a wicked cool rainforest with humongous trees and lots of ferns, and a jaunt through a grove of eucalyptus trees where we all played "find the koala".

I could have spent much longer than the time allotted in all of these places, and might even have jumped in the water had I seen anyone else take the plunge. It didn't seem that cold for the middle of winter. However the nature of tours leaves one constantly on the move, which actually wasn't such a bad thing since without that forced discipline we probably never would have made it past the koalas.

(I had to throw this picture of a tree in here because it was the sexiest tree I'd ever seen...)

We drove away from the water for a bit and when we returned the coastline had become much more spectacular. There were steep limestone cliffs and lots of rock formations out in the surf. We were a bit dismayed to find out that one of the famous "12 apostles" (rock formations a bit like the flowerpot rocks in New Brunswick) had fallen down only 3 weeks previously, but the remaining "11" (the number is really just a name - before australian marketing got ahold of them they were called 'the sow and piglets') were just the sort of thing I love. High rugged spurs of rock separated from

the cliffs of the mainland by raging waters. Another great spot along this coastline (called Shipwreck Coast for obvious reasons) was a gorgeous cove surrounded by cliffs and where the water rushed in from a small inlet in the sweeping cliffs. I can't possibly describe this satisfactorily so check out the picture (which still won't do it justice). The cove is famous for a shipwreck in which everyone was killed except for a young sailor who was "lucky" enough to be swept into this cove. He then saved a young rich woman and together they spent the night in the cove before he managed to scale the high walls to get help (another lucky maneuver considering the size of the cliffs and the sheer lack of people to ask for help around there at the time). I guess people were hoping for some romance from this adventure, but it didn't materialize. I could have built a hut and lived in that cove.

There were clifftop paths where rock formations could be seen in the light of the setting sun. Stunning. Just as the sun sank we visited the remains of the "London Bridge" formation which collapsed 10 years ago leaving 2 tourists stranded on the seaward side. Oddly there is no sign of the tons of collapsed rock either here or at the more recent 12 Apostles collapse. The stormy sea must wipe out all evidence amazingly quickly.

The following day was for meandering Melbourne's streets and enjoying the alley restaurants. They've turned many of the tiny alleys between buildings into outdoor eating areas and it's pretty cool. More importantly, this is a town that really understands the importance of breakfast! I was to discover later that lunch is a bit of a squandered opportunity, but breakfast is primo. You can get it anytime and with pretty much anything. It is never hard to get a beer in Australia. We visited a unique wood mosiaced church, marveled at the ultra modern architecture of Federation Square and the victorian shopping arcades, and rented bikes to follow the Yarra river around the city. Melbourne was definitely livable. With balmy weather year round, bike paths galore, arts, nightlife, universities, and accessible beaches it met many of my criteria for a perfect city. It's architecture was a bit mixed and mostly too new for my tastes, but some of it, both new and old, was quite arresting. (Speaking of arresting, a new casino in the docks are is said to spend some incredible monetary figure every weekend shooting giant fireballs into the air, but I didn't see it so I can't swear to it). The streets are far too big, many of them comprise 2 or 3 lanes of car traffic plus the trams, and while there are plenty of strictly adhered to walk/don't walk signs, I prefer my city wanders without 5 minute waits at each block. There is also a bizarre driving rule about making right turns from the left lane (leaving the left hand lane free for trams) which kept making me think people were trying to swerve and run me over. But overall it had a good downtown feel, lots of parks and from what I could tell friendly natives.

After another alley dinner we spent the evening trying to find a club we'd wandered past before (unsuccessfully) and, as we had for the previous 2 nights, contemplated going to see one of the movies playing as part of the Melbourne Film Festival. However, that was not to be as the complexity of picking a movie, a time, and a venue compounded with weariness, overwhelmed us.

Winter caught up with us the next day in the form of some gloomy, rainy weather, so we spent some of the morning at the giant Victoria Market which is kind of like Quincy Market in Boston only less touristy. Part of it was covered by a tin roof (popular in Australia) and the sound of the rain on the roof was thundering. We then wandered the supposedly "bohemian" Fitzroy district, but since it was still raining off and on, and we were finding the area more seedy and boring than "bohemian" we headed back to Melbourne center for another scrumptious breakfast. We then spent far too much time in the old Melbourne Gaol where Ned Kelly was hanged/hung. While this seems amazing to the Australians, as far as I know no one outside of Australia has any idea who Ned Kelly is. I was to encounter this phenomenon a few times in Australia. From what I gathered from waaay too much information I heard about this character, he was some sort of a Jesse James of the bush. The most amusing part of the "legend" for me was that he furnished himself some sort of suit of armor out of pie plates or something for protection from the police. It's the funniest looking thing! Apparently Mick Jaggar (see pic) played him in a movie long ago and from what I saw of local television they are still remaking movies from the story to this day.

After our long sojourn in jail we needed some fresh air so we took the tram to the beach community of St. Kilda and walked along the beach admiring its turbulent waves. The sea was looking rough and unfriendly after the rain and there weren't too many people about, never mind in the water. We learned that 6 armed starfish could be "tossed in the bin", but 12 armed starfish are native and should be left alone. Since I was making it a point not to touch anything in Australia, as it seemed from my reading that just about anything could poison a person, I resolved to leave all the sea life alone.

Our last stop of the evening was a park in the city with a little cottage brought over from England (there were a few of these....seemed like a lot of trouble), which had some relation to Captain Cook's family. There was also a row of elm trees which I remember reading were the last remaining avenue untouched by dutch elm disease. We saw a sign that said "don't feed the possums" which struck us as a bit unlikely until we actually saw one. It had a fuzzier tail than the ones in my neck of the woods and was much more friendly. We thought this possum sighting must be an aberration (who expects a park infested with possums!), but as the sun set we realized there were dozens of possums up in the trees! Crazy possums.

Recommendations if you go to Melbourne: Drive the Great Ocean Road if you can...drive all the way to Coober Pedy and on to Alice Springs. Yeah, I know that's probably unlikely since it would take forever...but damn would it be cool.