I arrived in Melbourne two weeks ago totally knackered and pretty bewildered. It was strange to arrive somewhere hot and busy after cold and deserted New Zealand.
I met up with Nikki again, who had already been here a week. Was kind of weird but not. Mostly it was just odd to meet in a strange city the other side of the world. We've been staying with some friends of Barbara and Judy (from San Fran); Maria and Peter. They are really sweet and have a lovely house in the suburbs of Melbourne, we even have our own separate rooms! It the first time I've slept in my own room since the yacht in Mexico. Maria, who is originally Italian, is also an excellent cook. She always makes us fabulous meals almost every night - including calamari, flans, and lovely home-made pasta and pesto.
My first day here we went in to town . Melbourne is a lovely city and I really like it. Its quite large and busy, but not too busy, yet its really laid back, with contrasting achitecture (old(er) and modern) lots of trams slowly going about the large streets, and the people are so down-to-earth and friendly. I already feel quite at home here, maybe because it reminds me of England a lot - except of course the environment and climate is completely different. As we wandered around, the whole city seemed to be eating out - sitting outside the hundreds of good restaurants (that I cant afford) and nice eating places, lined along every street. I tried sushi for the first time, and I quite liked it. It was a nice sunny day and we sat by the Yarra river in the heart of the city and watched the many rowing boats going up and down in training. Looked too much like hard-work to me.
In the evening the Grubs (as Maria and Peter call themselves, no idea why) had some friends round and we had our first Ozzie BBQ. I tried another first - Kangaroo (ahh poor Skippy), and it was surprisingly nice. Who would've thought I used to be a vegetarian?
That weekend we visited the district of St Kilda's by the bay. Its a really cool area. One main street full of funky shops, nice cafes (with everyone sitting outside again, doesn't anybody work in this city?) and lots of dangerously-yummy-looking cake shops. There is a nice beach too. In the evening we went out to a hip-hop club in the city, it was quite pricey but a good night. They are strange dancers here.
That Monday I went by the Yarra River again and had a look at the outdoor photography exhibit 'Earth from Above'. A really cool collection of prints from all around the world displayed along the river. I then stumbled across a performance by an Italian women's singing group in Federation Square and sat and watched it for while, while some old Italian man jabbered away to me in Italian (?).
The next evening I met up with the friends I'd made in New Zealand; Jayne and Laura. We went to their hostel's bar. Not knowing what we were letting ourselves in for we stupidly nominated ourselves for the 'French Game'. It was a kind of assault-course which involved, whilst being watched by the entire bar , running round the bar to the various stops - racing to eat a huge piece of dry bread whilst downing a huge glass of red wine, throwing a ball at some skittles (supposedly to knock them down), sketching the bar-manager, doing a shot of something dark and nasty, then head-butting some guy. We all lost miserably and I had missed my last train, so after scoffing a Mackie D's and watching the worst film ever they snuck me into their dorm, I borrowed some guys sleeping bag and slept on their floor. I slept surprisingly well. In the morning I borrowed a bikini and we went to St Kilda's beach. It wasn't very hot, but it was sunny and we lazed on the beach most of the day. Job hunting not going so well, keep getting distracted by the beach and bars. Hmm. Must try harder.
The next day I went to the Ian Potter's Art Centre a free (yay) exhibition of Australian art. I saw some aboriginal art and sculptures which was really interesting, some more modern stuff and there was a good photography exhibit too. Then I met Jayne and Laura and looked around the shops. We went to a bar in St Kilda and I ended up sleeping on their floor again. Not so pleasant when not so drunk.
In the morning we headed for the beach again, it was unbearably hot and the whole city was covered in a thick white smokey haze, a result of all the bush-fires. It was surreal. You couldn't see anything. They've had a terrible drought the past few years and at the moment are suffering from the worst bush-fires in the last 70years.
The following weekend the Maria and Pater had a family party for Peter's mother's 87th birthday. There was lots of delicious food including BBQ chicken, lamb, and prawns, various salads. Home-made cake and lots of drink. It was a strange day weather-wise, at around 2pm it was an unbearable 42degrees! then the 'cool change' came and half-an-hour later it had dropped 20degrees and we could finally go outside. Apparently this weird weather is typical in Melbourne.
Yesterday we had a really nice sight - there were dozens of Rainbow parrots feeding on this bright-red tree in the garden. They were beautiful (and loud), - red, green, and yellow - they really did look like rainbows! And seeing them fly off was amazing. You certainly don't get that in London!
Today we booked our coach ticket to Sydney, where we will spend Xmas and New Years! So far Ive found it really weird to see Xmas trees and decorations, hear xmas carols and generally just even think about Xmas, in this heat! Its going to be a very strange Xmas...