melbourne condensed (in a longwinded fashion)
the suburbs of melbourne suited my love of wandering just right, and additionally also the best thing for aiding my recuperation (which i discovered had taken more out of me than i realised). one of the first such mini-treks i undertook was to the botanic gardens. the wind was up, but the sun was out, and the only mishap that occured was when the lid of my long black coffee blew into the lake i was sitting beside while i was adding excessive amounts of sugar to it. it promptly sank, and as i watched it disappear under the water, i could only hope none of the pond life or unsuspecting ducks would meet an untimely death because of my plastic carelessness..
melbourne botanics are a wonderful walk, and i was particularly touched by the childrens´ garden, a space where everything is literally child-sized, to the point where even i had to crouch down to wander through the reduced forest glade, or side-step along the bamboo pathway. a wooden hut revealed a woman reading from a story book, and the enraptured audience made the little garden perfectly complete in my mind.
you may remember my surprise at the jogging population in sydney. in melbourne i came across an even more obscure sight. here were not just your average 9-5 ´training luncher´. these were hardcore mummies, who ran in packs. i kid you not. should there ever be any such thing as the mothering olympics, then i certainly saw some athletic professionals for such events as the 500m buggy sprint, or the baby harness relay race. every female was kitted out in fashionable sporty style (including the baby harness and buggy), and i will never quite forget the vision of six buggies in a line being pushed by their jogging mother at the rear.
some of my other wanderings took me through the suburbs of fitzroy and carlton, through brunswick street, which although a relatively quiet and unexciting place during the day, kicks off spectacularly at night, and welcomes an impressive crowd to come out and play. we went there one Friday night for a birthday celebration to a cheap cheerful pub. i couldnt resist sampling the most inexpensive beer of all, even just for its name if not for the price, as its not every day you get to ask your barman for a pint of f*%king good beer (without being escorted from the premises)!
the city centre was also by no means devoid of culture. i was disappointed to have just missed the famous melbourne writers festival, though managed to catch the start of the fring festival and a street performer or two. my first port of call took me to the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, a fantastic building located at federation square, dedicated to the various styles of film documentary, produced by celebrated professionals and students alike. i went back for a second trip to take in some more of the short films done by students.
the melbourne museum also didnt disappoint, and i lingered in an exhibition on the mind and emotions. it went through the process of how memory works, which parts of the brain are used to learn a new language, and how emotions are triggered. the stress test i took revealed i was calm (on a scale of calm – anxious) and i would not budge from that spot. i take that as a good sign!
the exhibition also went over some aspects of mental illness, and included very intriguing personal stories from people who suffer from depression, schizophrenia, and one i find the most interesting, syneasthesia.
one commodity that fills the streets in melbourne more than anything else, seems to be food. the usual junk food replicas, of course, but these are equally rivalled by japanese, chinese, indian, vietnamese and greek restaurants and take away stalls, interspersed at regular junctions by starbucks and gloria jeans coffee outlets. a friend from international school, mary, introduced me to some of these new dishes, and took me out for vietnamese noodle soup, chinese rice (clay) pots, and the most unique of all, bubble tea (varieties of ice or milk tea with black jelly, or pearl, balls). its qute difficult to walk down the street and not be tempted!
another recommendation i was taken to by sandra and a coursemate of hers, was yum cha. similar to an all you can eat sushi night (sandy!), except brought round on trolleys for you to make your selection from, and involving anything from dumplings to chicken feet. i couldnt bring myself to eat the chicken feet, but did enjoy some fried squid tentacles dipped in chilli sauce! this also introduced me to a casual and common way of dining out in melbourne, that of the BYO, bring your own bottle(s). when two bottles of wine appeared on the table from bags underneath, i was caught between whether to be apologetic of the social faux pas, or to snigger like a school girl who had slipped in with something naughty.. whether i will ever get used to that im not sure, but it certainy made for a relaxed atmosphere, despite the oddity of having the waitress top up a glass filled with your own wine.
during one of my aimless (though i like to call them intuitive) ambles in the city centre, i stumbled upon the scots church, relatively famous for being the first presbyterian church in victoria. i popped inside, and determined to go along to a service that Sunday and relay greetings from the church i grew up in in rotterdam, and part of the church of scotland. by an odd twist of coincidence, it turned out that the ministers daughter is travelling europe, and amsterdam in particular, whilst i had found my way to melbourne, and i was invited to have dinner with the family one evening. not being one to refuse a hospitable offer of home-cooking, i gladly accepted, and thoroughly enjoyed a warm and relaxed family evening, a welcome break from the backpacker cocoon i have so far been surrounded by.
i also came into contact with my first glimpse of melbournes current all-encompassing obsession, australian rules football. we watched the semi-final between hawthorn and st kilda (both melbourne based teams), and i spent most of the game asking questions, and essentially trying to figure out if i was watching something more like rugby or football. the players are all equally toned and buffed up, in a way neither football or rugby players are. the game is hard hitting and very fast paced, and i was surprised they wore only a sleeveless strip and no further padding, considering the physical contact the game brings with it. each game has four quarters, each of 20 minutes, though this is easily exceeded as only actual time of play is counted. points are scored by kicking a rugby-esque ball through two of the taller middle posts, or either of the side. more points for the higher centre of course, although i thought kicking through either of the shorter side posts well made up for the lesser points by its terminology of ´kicking a behind´. this week is game final week, with the deciding match on saturday, and the city is mad for it. walking around the centre the other day i found one or more people had gone to the trouble of knitting team colours modelled to fit such things as chain link fences, lamp posts and even the four legs of a statue of a dog.
it seems new zealand has engrained in me, for the time being, the need to keep moving, and I am en route to adelaide as i write this, on a shaky train that will preface more such journeys to come. melbourne was wonderful, and exactly what i needed. i will miss evening chilling with sandra and james, Thursday wine, the antics of binkying bunny harrison, and sales shopping and jugs of beer with mary. i wonder, among other things, whether ill hear the word ´decadent´ at quite the same intensity anywhere else in australia, and hope i wont encounter a possum at night for a good while to come. (they do actually scare me – the eeriest thing to see crawling along the wires at night. as big as cats, with a ferret face, long tail and piercing screech. i even had a nightmare that one jumped into the bathroom and massacred poor rabbit harrison…)
Oh, and of course, how can i not miss the ciy circle tram song! (to which i sadly know both chorus lyrics and catchy jingle)
¨come take a ride on the city circle tram, come take a ride its the way to understand, the layout of our town, its the way to get around, its FREE melbourne city circle tram¨
until adelaide!
with love,
Rx
