Melbourne: The Story

April 28 2330

Once again, I feel the need to inform you this is a rather long post covering all of what I can remember of my time in Melbourne...

Well, after five days I have finally arrived back in Brisi after a great, long Anzac weekend in Melbourne, Victoria. When I went to check in for my flight on Thursday night, I was faced with a message informing me my flight had been cancelled. Thinking there had been some mistake, I called the airlines help number and was indeed told that my flight to Melbourne had been cancelled. When I asked what the airline intended to do about it, I was told I could be put on a flight at 1700 instead of the 1900 flight I was supposed to be on. This would have been fine, if I didn’t have class until 1600 and wouldn’t get to the airport on time. So she told me she had a flight at 2000. I asked her to please switch me to that flight and she told me to hang on because she had to ask her supervisor if she had room on the plane for me. So now I’m thinking that I may not even get on this flight and miss the whole first night after I already had a hotel booked (much as I did when my plane got re-routed in New Zealand...coincidentally, it was the same airline too...) and I was beginning to think I would just have no luck flying Virgin Blue. Alas, she got me on the flight and I was able to go to bed knowing I had a seat and I would be leaving Brisi the next day as planned, albeit getting into the city an hour later. But all would continue to not go as planned. We still ended up being delayed in Brisi for about a half hour because, well, I don’t even know why but we were. But I eventually got on the plane and we had a pretty quiet two hour flight down south. The first thing I noticed about Melbourne upon leaving the terminal was how chilly it was. Brisi has been around the mid-twenties the past few weeks and Melbourne was around fifteen I would guess. I was already glad I had packed jeans and long-sleeved shirts for the weekend. After about a 20 click drive, the bus dropped us off at Southern Cross Station, one of only two above-ground train/bus stations in Melbourne (the other is the Flinders Street Station). From there, it was a short cab ride to the hotel (I could have walked it but at this point I didn’t have a map and it was raining so I figured better safe than sorry). I got to the hotel, checked in, went upstairs where I met my two roommates (one from Sweden and one from somewhere in Aussie-land), and hit the streets (I now had a map and it had stopped raining). By now it was midnight/0100ish and I was amazed at how crowded the streets were. I walked all the way down Swanston St., and eventually came to Federation Square. This is the happening point of Melbourne, although at this time of night there wasn’t much going on. It started drizzling again so I walked back up Swanston in search of a cheap place to eat dinner quick. I found a small Chinese place (I think I’ve eaten more Chinese here than I have the rest of my life put together) and sat down for a quick meal before heading back and going to bed. This had already been about the latest I’ve been up in all my time here in Australia so I was feeling pretty beat.

The next morning, I got up and it was time to really explore the city. I started out going down Elizabeth St. (since I had gone down Swanston the night before), and was delighted when, a couple streets down, I noticed a familiar design: it was the Harley-Davidson logo! All of a sudden I was in seventh heaven. Of course I had to walk inside and check out the selection of bikes, and, surprisingly, I found that it rivalled that of a US of A Harley store. There were bikes everywhere. Unfortunately, I must not have looked the part of a Harley buyer because no one came up to help me out so my dreams of taking a test-ride through Melbourne got shot down. I continued down Elizabeth and eventually got to the Flinders Street Station, the second of Melbourne’s two above-ground stations. It is a grand looking building (I would describe the architecture but I cannot think of what to call it right now, so out of fear of being wrong I’ll just say it looked “cool”) and definitely holds its own being right beside the heart of Melbourne, Federation Square.

Unfortunately, I’ve just given away my next stop, but of course you knew it was coming sometime so why not just get it over with right? The buildings around the square are some of the weirdest looking things I’ve ever seen in my life, but at the same time they serve to make Fed Square, Fed Square. I found some kind of media gallery, can’t exactly remember what it was called, and went inside. Turns out, they had two exhibits that were free to students so I quickly pulled out my UQ ID card and took advantage of one of the many times it would come in handy. The first exhibit was all about media and the different stages of film and television, such as when the first moving pictures were ever seen in a theatre and when sound was finally heard, etc. It was kind of entertaining but not really, although I did learn one interesting fact: Australians viewed Neil Armstrong walking on the moon five seconds before the rest of the world saw him. This was because the cameras on the moon beamed their images back to a station in Sydney, who then broadcast them back to a satellite above the earth where they were sent to NASA HQ in Houston before Houston finally sent them to the rest of the world...of course, the Sydney station just couldn’t keep the footage to themselves and broadcast it to the rest of Australia as well.

From Fed Sq., I walked down St. Kilda Rd in search of the Shrine of Remembrance. Unfortunately, I decided to take a path off to the left towards the river and ended up walking off the map provided to me by the hotel. This didn’t bother me as I always kind of thought of myself at being rather talented with a map. As I checked it, I figured out that I was walking in the Alexandra Gardens and that the Melbourne boat sheds were right down the way. I reckoned that if I followed the river, I would find the street that ran next to the shrine and I’d be set. Well I started walking, and found a skate park that was on my map and it appeared as though the shrine was right across the way. So I crossed the street and found this kind of rotunda/pergola/memorial type thing that was dedicated to someone I can’t remember. Up the way a bit was another statue with Queen Victoria on top and, upon checking my map, I ventured to guess that these two structures made up the shrine. But I had heard so much about it in my short time there that I was sceptical. I asked an older lady if this was the shrine and she pretty much did everything but outright laugh at me. She said, and I quote, “Son, take this here path up yonder until you see it.” I asked her what it looked like and all she said was that I couldn’t miss it. So, after being semi-owned by a grandma, I started walking. After about 5-10 minutes I saw this huge building through gaps in the trees. At that moment, I understood what was so funny when I asked if I was at the shrine: the thing was enormous. Like, huge. Like, bigger than huge, whatever that is. And it was beautiful. Long stone steps led up to the gigantic stone building and it was absolutely breathtaking. Inside was an area called the Sanctuary I believe and it had one of the most beautiful floors I have ever seen. Tall, black, marble columns surrounded the area, and in the middle was a plaque that read, “Greater love hath no man.” The words come from John 15:13, and every year at 1100 on 11 November, a ray of sunlight passes overhead, lighting up the word “love.” This marks the exact day and time the armistice ending WWI was signed, and 11 November has become known as “Remembrance Day” in Victoria. It is a time when public dignitaries and other higher-ups would gather in the sanctuary while the sun passed overhead. Last year, the ceremony was made public, and 6,000 people passed through the sanctuary while the sun shown down on the Stone of Remembrance. I then climbed the steps to the top of the shrine, 67 in all, and was awarded some of the best views of Melbourne. It was amazing how stretched out the city was, extending for what appeared to be many, many miles in all directions. You could also see the tallest tower of the Governor’s House, which had the yellow flag flying meaning the governor was somewhere in Victoria.

After visiting the shrine, it was time to check out the Royal Botanical Gardens, which were right across the street so I couldn’t get lost this time. Haha. Go ahead and laugh. I know you want to. So anyways, I walked through the gardens. They were not as breathtaking or “eye-catching” as the gardens in Christchurch, but they were definitely something that should be seen by anyone in Melbourne. There were lakes and islands on the biggest one, but as far as flowers went, they were few and far between. I guess Melbourne is pretty far south but the trees and other bushes made you feel as though you were nowhere near the city when you got deep into them, as all skyscrapers were hidden from view and traffic noise became non-existent. I did see an older couple walking their Mini Schnauzer, and of course I had to go over and talk to them. I told them that I had a mini at home, his name was Charlie, and how awesome he was. They let me pet him for a few minutes and then I continued on my way, having thoughts of home for the next several hours. I then walked back up the road towards the city, and stopped by Southgate where the Eureka Sky Deck is located. This is the tallest viewing platform in the southern hemisphere with ninety-two storeys and 3,680 steps. Not to mention, the top ten floors of the building are plated with 24 carat gold. I was planning on going up until I found out that they wanted almost $20 as a student and I decided that I would not pay that much to go up by myself, but if I made it back to Melbourne with Brett I’d think about it. Oh yeah I forgot to mention, I was able to get online and found out from my mother that my brother booked his ticket and is indeed coming to visit for two weeks at the end of the semester. He still has to leave a week before I do, but depending on when my final is I may try and move my flight up to give me more time at home to work.

Ok so back to Melbourne, I then walked back across to the main side of the river, and walked back up Swanston St. There were two really good street performers playing so I gave them each a dollar, and then I decided to treat myself to a Caramel Macchiato from Starbucks. I then went and people-watched (Grandpa Lehman would be proud) from a bench in front of the State Library of Victoria while a bagpiper played across the street. I ended up getting lost deep in thought didn’t even notice when the bagpiper stopped playing and it was getting later on in the night. There was an Asian kid sitting on the steps reading a book, and he had a really good Golden Retriever that laid down beside him and didn’t move no matter how many people walked by...so now I not only thought of Charlie, but also way back in the day when Snickers still roamed the hills of east Holmes County. On my way back up Swanston, I noticed a church off to the side and noted that services were at 0900, 1100, and 1800 on Sunday. I decided right then that I’d go to church in Melbourne the following morning. By now it was almost quarter of ten but I wasn’t quite ready for bed yet. I was kind of in a jazzy mood and set off to find some, somewhere. I had to search for a while, but found a quartet playing outside this little Italian cafe so I listened to them for about ten minutes (they were done, unfortunately, and I had just found them). I asked if they knew of any place else to go and the one guy pointed me up the street about twelve metres. It was a small jazz club that had a performance that night, and concession prices were half off! So I went in and listened to a jazz performance for about an hour and twenty minutes, and now I was ready for bed.

Sunday, my alarm went off earlier than I wanted it to, but I had told myself I was going to church so that’s what I did. I had shook out my nice shirt the night before so it wouldn’t be too wrinkly, got dressed, ate brekkie quick, and set off down the street. I found a seat near the back and sat down. Later on, this older guy came and sat next to me and started asking me questions about where I was from and what I was doing in Melbourne (is it that obvious just from looking at me that I’m not from Australia?). I told him I was from the States, was studying in Brisi, and was in Melbourne for the extended weekend. He asked where I was studying in Brisbane, and when I told him UQ, he informed me that he did his doctoral work there. He asked where I lived and he knew my street and so we talked about Brisi for a while after the service. I then went and got lunch, and this is where things start to go fuzzy in my memory. I wrote down what I did Saturday, but Sunday, my iPod was dying and I didn’t want to drain the battery so I left it at the hotel. I am currently looking at a map trying to figure out where I went. I know I walked down St. Kilda Rd. again, because I walked into the National Gallery on that road. And I walked into the casino just to see what it was like, and it seemed very Vegas-esq. I watched a few hands of blackjack, then went on to check out the aquarium. I was expecting another good student price, but found out it too was close to $20. I decided that I’ve seen fish before, wouldn’t die if I missed these, and could do it with Brett if we got down there since he really likes that sort of thing. I then walked over to the Immigration Museum to see how much admission was, saw that it was free with a concession card, pulled out my UQ ID, and walked in. It seemed like something that I would have found really interesting if I had ancestors in Australia, or if I had been Australian, but overall it seemed a little out there to me. There was a cool ship exhibit that you could walk through to experience the different kinds of quarters people experienced on their voyages to Australia from Europe. I then got on something that would make me an outcast in Holmes County forever: I rode the Melbourne Tourist Shuttle around the city... I am happy to say it was a pain in the butt as we spent more time waiting at stops than actually driving around, but I saw parts of Melbourne I wouldn’t have seen otherwise, aka, the docklands, Lygon Street, and Uni of Melbourne. I got off the shuttle somewhere in the city, and started walking along some of the smaller side streets, and eventually I found Chinatown. I found a small restaurant that had $7 Sweet and Sour Pork, so I went in and ended up eating the best beef and prawn dumplings I’ve ever tasted. I walked back to Swanston St., and walked by the church, realized it was 1800 and walked inside. It was a continuation of the missionary that spoke during the morning service, and it was fascinating hearing about his stories from the region of Asia consisting of Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, and the Yunnan province of China. Afterwards, I sat in the sanctuary and gathered my thoughts about life, what’s been going on here, what I want to do when I get home, what I want to do when I graduate, etc. Some guy ended up coming up to me and asked if I had talked with David someone that morning. I said I had sat next to a David but didn’t know his last name and he said that was the guy...go figure. He then introduced me to this mid-twenties guy who lived in Chicago for a few years, then essentially grew up near Tucson, Az. He invited me out to dinner with some of the guys from church, and, even though I had already eaten, went with them and got a small appetizer of dumplings. We ended up all chitchatting until close to 2300, when I decided I needed to get to bed because I needed to get up around 0630 to get ready for my Great Ocean Road tour.

At 0630 Monday morning, I woke up and got ready to meet the bus that was coming to pick me up. Once I was picked up, we went and picked up some more people and then we hit the highway towards B100 (that’s the technical name for the Great Ocean Road). Our first stop was at Bells Beach in Torquay. This is a prime surf spot on the southern end of Australia, and the home of the Rip Curl surf headquarters and the Rip Curl Classic. I walked down to the beach and there was this dog that was running around with a stick. I tried to call him over to me, but he was pretty timid and dropped the stick at my feet then backed off and looked at me expectantly. I grabbed the stick and threw it, and the doggie went and fetched it then brought it back and dropped it about four metres away, making me go to it. So I played fetch with this dog for a while, and he finally came up to me towards the end and let me pet him when we were about to leave. I can’t really remember where all we stopped that day, but what we saw was beautiful. We stopped at several places to take pictures, then we had morning tea. Along the way was this koala sanctuary where all these koalas lived in the wild but people camped there and the koalas just lived among humans. We got really close to them and got some cool pictures. There were also these two brightly coloured birds that were walking around on the playground and we got some really cool pictures of them. We stopped for lunch at this small beach town, and I had a chicken sandwich and an ice cream, and then walked along the beach for a ways and found a harbour that I walked to and looked off the dock for a while. I then realized that I had to be back at the bus in ten minutes and it had taken me at least fifteen to get there. So I started running. In jeans and a jacket. With shoes that were eating up the back of my heel. Not fun. I ran through this golf course I had no idea was a golf course, got yelled at by an old grandma, and came over the hill to see everyone at the bus but no sign of Mac, our driver. I ran for nothing. My ankle was bleeding. Then we got back on the road and drove to this rainforest walk thing. It was kind of cool, really short but lots of vegetation.

During the next leg of the drive, I learned that Australia has a special breed of dairy cow: they get whiter when they need milked, and, after milking, they go back to being black. Mac thought this was a pretty funny joke. I thought he was insane. The Chinese guy beside me believed him and he and his wife went on about it in Mandarin for the next ten minutes. Little did they know I understood every word. The next stop was the reason for my going to Melbourne in the first place: the 12 Apostles. Let me just say right now that everyone needs to see these before they die or before the apostles collapse in the ocean. And you don’t know which will come first so sooner rather than later would be great. It is truly an amazing sight. At the “main” apostles, there are two on the eastern side and six on the western side. We were there late in the afternoon, so the ones on the eastern side came out better in photographs than those on the west. They are so big and just utterly breathtaking, it was easy to understand how they are Australia's third highest tourist attraction. It was hard to resist forking over the extra money to take the helicopter ride, but I figured that was another thing I could do with Brett if we went down there. I’ve never been in a helicopter and I’ve been dying to ride in one, but my common sense got the best of me and I just walked away from the beasts and viewed them from the safe distance on top of the cliffs.

The next stop was Loch and Gorge, which was the sight of a shipwreck in which there were two survivors. A young ship’s mate rescued a young doctor’s daughter and then he climbed out of the gorge and got help to get the girl out. No Hollywood ending here, the girl, who had lost all her family, went back to Ireland and the boy never saw her again. But at the sight, there were what could be called two more of the apostles and a rock formation called the “Razorback.” This got its name because as the sea spray chips away at his top-most layer, the harder rock is left behind and it looks like a razorback (hmmm, I wonder how it got its name...?). Finally, we got to London Bridge, the last stop of our tour. London Bridge used to be a double arched bridge, but, in 1990, the first archway collapsed while a man and his “girlfriend” were out on the end of the bridge. Obviously, London Bridge had indeed fallen down, so, naturally, news crews from all over Australia flooded to the scene. The couple had to wait on the island until a Coast Guard chopper could come and winch them off, all while being filmed and shown live on the news. This wouldn’t have been a problem, but, as the story goes, the man’s wife was at home watching the news that night...and he was supposed to be at work...

We then drove back to Melbourne, taking the quicker inland highway now that it was dark, and I was dropped off in the city, without a room as I had checked out that morning and hoping I could stay with one of my friends down there. Well, neither one of them was answering their phone. It was now close to 2230, so I called Casey and asked for the number of the girl that came up to visit a couple weeks ago. I finally got a hold of her, and she scanned me into the building until my friend came back. His phone had died and we had no other way of getting a hold of each other. So we played a game of pool (I won of course) and then went to bed. I got up early cause he had class, and tried to figure out something to do to occupy my time. I walked over to the Melbourne museum, and, once again, flashed my student ID and got in for free. It was rather interesting and ate up a good deal of time. I then got on the tourist shuttle once again and rode over to the Queen Victoria Market in search of some cheap lunch. As it turns out, their market isn’t like our market, and they didn’t have any food vendors. So I found a food court and had some good Italian pasta and read for a while since it was raining. I then got kicked out of the food court cause they were closing. So I walked, in the rain, found a McCafe and bought a hot chocolate and finished my book. Since I had already seen pretty much everything there was to see, I went over to the State Library of Victoria, signed up for a library card, and am now a member of the State Library of Victoria (I figured that was something not too many passerby have done before in their lives). By now it was about 1900 and the library was closing, so I walked to the IMAX theatre at the museum. Avatar was still showing in 3D and, as I had yet to see it, I bought a ticket and watched Avatar on my last night in Melbourne. It was kind of cool because it is the world’s third largest Imax at seven storeys high and I think the largest 3D screen in the world. It was cool to see and the movie wasn’t that bad either...your typical Hollywood ending but the idea was pretty cool.

I then trudged back in the drizzle and cold to my friend’s apartment building, where we watched a movie then I slept on a couch in their common room. I was getting up fairly early to head to the airport and didn’t want to bother anyone when I got up.

When I got to the airport, I breezed through security (remember no taking off of shoes or belts?) and saw a big picture window at the end of the gates. It looked right out onto the active runway at Tullamarine!!! How lucky was I? I saw three B747’s take off and a brand new Qantas a380 go right in front of me! Oh was it my lucky day or what? Not to mention about three B777’s to boot. Plus the 737’s, a320’s, etc. You know, all the little stuff you see every day. The flight back to Brisi was fairly calm, with clear skies so I could actually enjoy my window seat for once. We landed and I got the train back to the city, where I went $15 on my GoCard. I will throw this one away because a new one costs $5 so I will save $10. It may be considered cheating the system, but $15 to get to the airport is insane. Every other route is $2 with some change. I then got a bus back to the apartment where I had a birthday package from home, then went grocery shopping, then wrote this 8.5 page 4,700+ word journal entry. Hopefully I remembered most of what I did, if I did not, then look for future posts regarding what I remember as time goes on. Melbourne was a blast, really reminded me of New York in some ways, and definitely one of the most fun times I’ve had down here in Australia.