A Week in Melbourne (Australia: Part 1)

I went to Australia for three weeks this summer... which was winter is Australia, in case you didn't know. I had a great time and saw some amazing things with some amazing people. It has taken me awhile to organize all my thoughts and photos, but finally I am ready to start adding some blogs about my wonderful vacation.

My blogs will be split up into three parts, I suspect, since my vacation was split up that way. I spent my first week in Victoria in beautiful Melbourne, my second week in New South Wales visiting vibrant Sydney, and my final week in Queensland in-and-around the gorgeous Gold Coast and the city of Brisbane.

While I was in Australia, I had a journal with me. I knew that I would want to post something about my trip, and I was worried that memories would become blurry and hazy. Every night, before bed, I tried to jot down a little something about the day and what I'd done. I have turned to those notes from my journal in order to create this blog. I hope you enjoy it!

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July 29^th, 2007 (Melbourne, Australia)

I arrived safely in Melbourne after a long and painless flight. I managed to sleep for part of the way, and I was greeted to an amazing sight once we were over the Australian continent: the desert seen from the air! It was awesome!! It looked like huge ripples of mud... a lake of odd colour that stretched on forever... Have you read "Only Forward" by Michael Marshall Smith?

As for my arrival in Melbourne, it was good. Hell, my luggage was with me and I didn’t even have to wait very long for it!

I got the SKYBUS into the city and they had an infomercial playing that gave me some ideas of things to do and see in Melbourne (which I wrote down). When I arrived in the city I went to the SKYBUS ticket office and asked about purchasing a copy of the video, but they said there were none available.

I took a taxi to my friend Tom Dimovsky’s house. We hit it off right away (which was good, since we’d only ever met on-line through AVENUE, the Saint Etienne fan-club mailing list). He’s very animated and talkative, as is his wife Nicki. She was out of town the first night, but when she got in the next day, she and I also got on right away.

Tom and Nicki set me up in a beautiful guest room with a four poster bed and hardwood floors. It was so large, bright, welcoming and spacious that it was a real delight after the personality-deficient cement boxes that pass for bedrooms in Taiwan.

That first night in Melbourne, Tom and I retired to his music room and listened to music all night. He even stocked his bar to accommodate me, and while he enjoyed Bacardi, I enjoyed Canadian Club.

Tom’s music room is unbelievable. It is a converted garage, and stands separate from the rest of the house. CDs line nearly two full walls of the room, and vinyl fills in the rest of those walls. Also stored around the room are posters and other musical paraphernalia. Aside from the shelves which hold the CDs and records; the only furniture in the room are 2 glass cabinets which hold rare memorabilia, a fully stocked bar with a refrigerator, a small table and lamp, and a couch that sits about 6 feet away from a stereo system, which has been arranged for optimum sound quality.

It was awesome. There really is no other way to describe it... of course, like an idiot I didn't get a picture of it to show you how awesome it really is!!! GRRRRR!

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July 30^th and 31^st, 2007

I spent these two days chilling out and unwinding. Most of the time was spent at Tom’s place with him and his wife, though we did go out and get some fantastic food from the local chippy!!

I also went into town with Tom one day and did some poking around the record stores on Brunswick street, Fitzroy! It was loads of fun and it was a great place to walk around and people watch!!

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August 1^st, 2007

I woke up really late, feeling relaxed and well rested for the first time in a year. Today was the day we went to Phillip Island to see the penguin parade! We woke up fairly early and headed out. The drive was actually about 2 hours or so, so it was quite a drive!

We arrived at the little town near the Penguin Parade site and got something to eat, then we headed out towards the beach area where we would settle in and wait for the penguins to arrive. We bought our tickets and opted for the slightly more expensive, yet less crowded area. There were only about a dozen or so people there, as opposed to the 60 or more at the main location.

As we waited, we were entertained by the ranger, who informed us what we would be seeing and how the penguins normally behave.

The penguins were out in the ocean at the moment, fishing. Once the sun set they would head back to the beach and make their way past us into the low hills where they have their nests. As we waited, the guide explained to us that the penguins usually drifted in groups of a dozen or so penguins, called rafts. They would drift in towards the beach and cautiously make their way out of the water. The lead penguin would normally act as a kind of marshal, deciding when it was safe for the penguins to begin their march across the sand. This was where they were at their most vulnerable, and it was often the case that they would become spooked and jump back into the water.

This picture shows the beach where the penguins come in out of the ocean. At the top of the picture, you can see the main bleachers, where they can cram in a hundred people of so. At the bottom of the picture is where we were sitting, and there were a lot less of us there that night than there are in this picture. It was really nice.

We were sitting in wooden bleachers, facing the southern ocean off of Australia’s southern tip, drinking hot coffee and cocoa. Then the sun finally set and we waited as the white crests of the dark waves rolled into the beach. Shortly, we were rewarded by seeing the first few penguins waddling tentatively up out of the water and around the boulders, then straight up the beach and within about 10 cm of us! It was a hoot! They were so cute… but NOISY!! They make a nasty terrible racket! HA! It was really cute.

We hung out at the bleachers for about 2 hours, watching them waddle up into the grass and chit chatting. It was a little cold, but despite the prediction of rain, we only got a very mild sprinkle which quickly passed. It was really fun to wait for the penguin rafts to arrive, because you quite literally couldn’t see anything until the penguins stood up! Their black feathers so perfectly blended in with the black of the ocean water that it was always a surprise when the little white oval appears and waddled towards you.

When we decided to walk back to the car for the trip home, we were amused to see all the penguins waddling around the fields to either side of our walkway, and even in amongst the rocks up near the ranger station and cafeteria. We walked back to the car, checked under it for stray penguins (as recommended sue to “incidents” in the past), then headed back to Melbourne. It was an AWESOME day!

I regret that we weren't able to take pictures, but as the ranger explained, too many people forget to turn off their flash and this can seriously injure or even blind a penguin permanently. These pictures were purchased at the gift shop, and all proceeds go towards maintaining and running the place, so it was a good deal for $1.00.

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August 2^nd, 2007

Went for a drive with Tom and Nicki into town to poke around shops and browse for things. We went to a great little comic book shop where I poked around and found some books I was interested in at a very fair price. (Marvel comic's Exiles #1 to 7!)

I also found a DVD of an interesting BBC mini-series called “The Second Coming” starring Christopher Eccleson, who played the Doctor in the first season of the latest series. I bought it and was looking forward to watching it. (NOTE: I have since seen it and it was EXCELLENT)

Downtown Melbourne was a nice walk this afternoon. We went and got some of the best kebabs I have ever tasted, and then went for a further stroll around the shopping district. I found a couple of cheap CDs and I even managed to find a puzzle mat for my sister Susan. I was especially excited by that: it is a felt mat that you lay flat and use to make your puzzle on. When you want to put the puzzle out of the way, you can roll up the mat and fit it into the special tube it comes with. The mat is made of a kind of felt material that has just enough roughness to it that your puzzle pieces will stick to it and remain where they are as you roll it up. When you want to work on your puzzle some more, just unroll it and all your pieces will be where you left them! How cool is that?

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August 3^rd, 2007

I went to the old Melbourne Gaol with Nicki today!

Tom wasn’t very keep on doing anything too touristy, and his wife Nicki was… so she and I spent the afternoon together and had a really great time!

The first thing we did was stop for some late breakfast/early lunch. We went to an amazing South American restaurant where we had some delicious food who’s name I can’t pronounce, and the most delicious hot chocolate I have ever had.

I had a big mug of Mexican hot chocolate, done in the traditional way with huge pieces of chocolate placed at the bottom of the mug, before adding warmed milk and sweetener. YUUMMMM! (Did I say I had *a* mug… I actually had two).

Nicki, being adventurous, had a mug of chili chocolate milk, which was also surprisingly good and very, very spicy! It was the same idea as my chocolate milk, but to the whole thing was added a dollop of chili sauce. You take a mouthful of the hot chocolate and it is sweet on your palate, but when you swallow it, it spices up and tingles all the way down: perfect to warm you up on a cold winter day in Melbourne!!

The old Melbourne jail was very cool, though a bit macabre. It certainly reminded me why it is always best to be on the right side of the law. I most definitely would never have wanted to end up in a place like that!

It was very creepy. Every cell of the jail had the desk mask of one of its former occupants, along with their story: who they were, what they were convicted of, as well as why and when they were executed. There were death masks of men as well as women, as the prison used to have separate areas for each.

Apparently, these death masks were made after execution so that doctors could study the lumps and bumps on the convict’s head. It was believed at the time, that criminal behavior could be mapped and traced via the shape of a person’s head, and so whenever a convict was executed, their heads were shaven and a mold was made of their head and face after death. It was all meant to be scientific at the time, but it strikes me as creepy and gruesome.

::SHRUG::

The picture (below) was taken with a very long exposure so that you can actually see the place clearly. In reality is was far darker than this. It was certainly a dark, humourless place.

We saw where Ned Kelly was hanged (it is at the far end of the picture, on the right), and we also saw his death mask and replicas of his costume, guns, and the “armour” he wore over his head (They are in the center at the far end of this picture, on the ground floor).

OK... OK.. his armour was nothing more than a tin pot with eye holes cut out of it... but apparently it was considered a pretty cool idea in those days, LOL!

There were quite a few kitschy things too, like the room where you could get your photo taken with a ghost… or the miniature ball and chain for sale in the gift shop!

It was a very strange experience going to a place like that and looking at all of these things. It left me feeling a little creeped out, but it was definitely a novel way to spend the afternoon and very interesting. After our visit to the jail, Nicki and I went and got another cup of hot chocolate, and I stocked up on some candies at the local lolly shop!!

Our last stop before heading home, was a trip to the supermarket to get stuff to make dinner for Tom's birthday!

We celebrated Tom’s birthday with a nice dinner at their house. Members of both Tom and Nikki’s family popped by for dinner, which was an awesome meal, followed by spectacular birthday cake! We had quite a good time, and I was really pleased that I had the chance to be there!

After dinner, when everyone had gone and the place was all tidied up, Tom and I debated going to see a concert in town (one of my favourite bands, the Lucksmiths, who happen to be natives of Melbourne were launching a new album that night and would be performing live…!). It was a heck-of-an opportunity…but in the end we decided to make the most of our last night together and listen to music in Tom’s music room and have a few drinks together one last time before I flew out to Sydney the next day!

I didn’t do a lot in the way of tourist things that first week in Australia, but I saw bits and pieces of Melbourne, and I had a whole week to spend relaxing and getting to know Tom and his lovely wife Nicki. I got to soak up the atmosphere in a beautiful city filled with gorgeous architecture, and had loads of opportunity to enjoy great food. If there is one thing Melbourne has, it is an abundance of delicious food! It was a fantastic start to my vacation!