Day 74: Melbourne, Australia (March 22, 2011)

Melbourne is really cool.  I wish I'd known this before I made my schedule, I'd have stayed longer than 4 nights.  And my next two days are mostly devoted to day trips out of town, so I really only have 1.5 days in the city.  (I don't want to miss either day tour, so I don't regret booking them.)

For those who are wondering why don't I change my schedule and stay longer... Well, I could, but I'd have to pay to reschedule my flight to Christchurch, and might lose a deposit on my hotel there too.  One thing I learned about around-the-world tickets when I made my plans was, there really isn't a hop-on hop-off option.  I'm flying on about 10 different airlines, so what I have is a series of pre-booked flights, not one flexible ticket.  It's possible (but I don't know this for a fact) that around-the-world tickets booked through a single airline might allow more flexibility, or maybe such things existed in the past.  But they don't seem to now, at least not for my itinerary.  Now back to my day...

I took a walking tour of Melbourne today.  As I expected, the tour skipped most of the obvious tourist sights, like monuments and museums, and mostly walked through parks, city streets, back alleys and some arcades (the old shopping malls, not the video game parlors).  Our guide was quite good, and told a nice mix of stories and history of the city.  Some of what we saw would be pretty obvious to anyone walking around town:

A bell sculpture that plays music all day long.

But we also spent time exploring the alleys, which are covered in street art, much of it quite fantastic:

Yes, the dude in the lower left wants "Brains."

Later, over dinner, there was a discussion about the difference between graffiti and street art.  My oh-so-astute observation was that if it's ugly, it's graffiti and if it's beautiful it's art.  But I know that's much too simple an explanation.  Maybe someone who's studied art or the philosophy of art can explain the difference?  (Hint hint @ my dad!)

I vote "art."

Melbourne has 4 million people, but it doesn't feel crowded at all.  Bustling, yes, but not busy or crowded.  Like most other Australians I've encountered, everyone is pretty friendly.  Most of the shops close at 5 or 6 (it seems like the whole country closes at 5 or 6!) but there are lots of pubs and restaurants that stay open later, so we had no trouble finding a place to eat dinner and desserts.

Oh, and by "we" I mean Sandra, Jon and I.  Sandra and Jon are visiting Australia from Hong Kong (originally from The Phillipines) and we chatted a little on the tour.  They were very nice and we compared notes about our travels around the country.  Tomorrow is their last day here, though, so I won't get to see them again.  On this trip at least... maybe I will make it to Hong Kong someday.

Sandra and Jon

Speaking of dinner and desserts...  Australia has really let me down food-wise.  So far, I'd say I'd eaten one tasty restaurant meal (at a pub in Sydney) and discovered one really tasty snack (pastizzis, I think they are called, also in Sydney).  Every other meal I've had out has ranged from bland to dubious.  The grocery stores sell a few tasty items, especially the Woolworths, which prepares some of its own dishes.  Otherwise, though, the food in this country has really been a let-down.  My biggest food disappointment came today, when I discovered there is a Wagamama town!  Every time I go to London, I eat there at least 3 times, so of course I really wanted to go here.  Sadly, the Melbourne Wagamama was as bland as everything else.  :(  Our dessert in another part of town wasn't so bad, though.  Oh well, it's been good for my budget that I've been buying a lot from the groceries.  Like everything else here, dining out is expensive.

Oh and I almost forgot:  In between the tour and dinner we stopped at the Australian Center for the Moving Image, which is sort of a museum dedicated to moving images of all types:  TV, movies, videogames, video art, and pre-20th century inventions like the flip-book and those hand-crank machines that show little movies when you look through a viewfinder.  Keep an eye on the blog later today for a cool little film shot at the ACMI.