Melbourne, Victoria

Home @ the Mansion 

G'day!

So now I'm in Melbourne staying at Home @ the Mansion hostel ($32/6 bed mixed & $42 for Friday cuz of the Grand Prix).   Unheard of nicety: a flat screen TV in each room.  The Melbourne Grand Prix is 24 -27 March and you can hear the engines from some parts of the city.  I was in St Kilda, a southwest neighborhood of Melbourne, today to see the beach and passed the racing venue.  Vroom, vroom!

St Kilda was great.  Despite the cloudy gray skies, dozens of paraboarders were out on Port Phillip Bay.  Those dudes are crazy.  They were in a harbor and they had wet suits, so they were a little protected.  The winds were really blowing so they could travel very fast if they wanted to.  Some did acrobatics like spins and flips.  One bloke went airborne for almost a minute. You could tell some of them were practicing specific moves.  They did it again and again so I could predict where to turn my camera.  The beach was empty, I had the beautiful Esplanade and boardwalk almost all to myself.  Luna Park amusement park was closed.  Heaps of people at the central business district (CBD) shopping and eating though. The St Kilda Botanical Garden is undergoing (necessary) renovations.

Historic Flinders Train Station

Melbourne is a tourists' town.  They make it easy for tourists to get to all the sites - FREE!  A City Circle tram runs every 10 minutes from 10 am - 6 pm Sunday - Wednesday and 10 am - 9 pm Thursday - Saturday.  But you can actually take any tram along the City Circle route that comes along, but you don't get the commentary and the tram may veer off in a direction you don't expect. (Obviously that happened to me, but it was good cuz it took me to Fitzroy Park where I saw the Fairy Tree and Miniature Tudor Village.)  The trams run clockwise and anti-clockwise (forgot that one in my last blog: anti- instead of counter-clockwise).

Crewing on the Yarra River in front of the MCG

A free Tourist Shuttle Bus hits all the other major tourist areas.  The 1.5 hour circuit has 13 stops and runs every 30 minutes daily 9:30 - 4:30.  That said, most of the tourist venues have admission charges.   The NGV (National Galleries of Victoria - Aussies abbreviate EVERYTHING) and art exhibits at the State Library are free.  And Melbourne has a lot of public art in the form of scultpture, monuments, fountains, gazebo/platforms.  There's also architecture to look at.  Fantastic old looking buildings (remember that everything is less than 180 years old, most much less) juxtaposed with ultra modern structures.   Even with all the free transpo, I walked miles (I walked km just doesn't sound right) every day.

See lower left side of pix for right turn sign and lane 

Speaking of trams which travel the middle of the road,  Melbourne CBD has the weirdest right turn system.  If you want to turn right, you must get into the farthest LEFT lane.  Then you wait for oncoming traffic to clear and wait for traffic next to you that are going straight through to clear, usually after the light turns yellow, THEN make your right turn across all the lanes.  Good luck.   It seems very confusing to me and it must be to drivers too; there's an awful lot of honking in the CBD.  I think maybe they should just ban the right turns like (left turns) on Market Street in San Francisco.  It probably would be quicker and less dangerous.  North - South crossings chirp continuously with green lights to help pedestrians cross. East - West ones cheep once and then click to signal that it is safe to walk.

Aussie's CBDs continue to surprise me.  They don't look like a lot if you just look down the street.  But if you walk down a street, you discover arcades which are mini-mall alleys that may be 1 - 2 stories above/under ground.    So there is a ton of shopping.  I don't know how so many shops can make it; they must depend on tourists, both international and Australian.

Chinatown is surprisingly small.  The few grocery stores were small and only a little messy.  Heaps and lots of Asian restaurants and a small Chinese museum.   At the Chinese museum, I learned that the first Chinese immigrants came from the See (4) Yup area of Canton.  I'm not sure but I think that's next to Toy San where my family is from.   The lady that spoke Cantonese  seemed to know where Toy San was and did not say they were the same place.  Although I had heard that there's a large Chinese/Asian population in Melbourne, I didn't see many Asians.  Certainly not nearly the hordes I saw in Sydney.  I spoke with a Quongjou woman on the train (we spoke Cantonese) who said that although there are many Chinese in Melbourne, they primarily work in Chinese businesses.  Very few work in government or service jobs like delivering mail, driving buses, or working in hospitals.  At the Queen Victoria Market which also has delis and a food court, many nationalities worked side by side unlike Paddy's Market in Sydney where most of the shop keepers were Asian.  There are also Greek and Italian precincts.

Fanciful topiaries at Children's Garden

Melbourne is pretty with a plethora of gardens and parks scattered throughout the city and that line the Yarra River which runs through Melbourne.  The CBD is on the north side where most business and shopping are located including the new Waterfront City and Docklands development (home of Aussie's first Costco).  On the Southbank are the convention center, entertainment venues including the Crown Complex (films) and a huge amphitheater Music Bowl, and a wide range of arts venues including centers for recitals, dance, opera, theater, contemporary art, etc.  A Broadway show district is in the CBD.

The sports venues including the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Grounds) and Rod Laver Arena where the Australian Open (Tennis) is played are just southeast of the CBD.  All very  walkable and convenient by public transpo.

Succulents on side of Guilfoyle's Volcano

The Melbourne Royal Botanical Gardens are extensive.  The best displays are the Childrens Garden and Guilfoyle's Volcano.   The Childrens Garden has kid-sized tree and flax tunnels, a bamboo forest, mazes, fountains, climbing rocks, sand pits, and nooks and crannies galore.  What a wonderful place!  Guilfoyle's Volcano is built around a reservoir that collects water for irrigation of the garden. Heavily planted floating islands help improve water quality and reduce evaporation.  The newly refurbished sides are planted with succulents. The drought tolerant garden around the Volcano features boulders, rock gardens and plantings of cacti and other succulents, grasses as well as young floss silk trees (Chorisia or Ceiba insignis) with their heavily spiked trunks.  The colorful gravel paths and boardwalk allow close inspection of this educational display.  The California Garden area was extensive too; California poppies were in bloom!

Well, I'm actually in Wellington, New Zealand now.  So I will post this now and write about Welly next time.

Cheers!
Cyn