Blog 3 -- Melbourne

Melbourne, the capital of the southern state of Victoria and second most populated city (after Sydney), appears to be a modern, vibrant cosmopolitan city and is considered by many to be the most European city in Australia.  Parts of it have been compared to Paris with its leafy eastern section of Collins St, while others say it reminds them of New York with its high-rise buildings.  But what makes Melbourne unique are the more than 230 laneways (narrow lanes) within the center of the city that contain world-class restaurants, bars and street art on the sides of the buildings.  I do know that it is as noisy as most US cities with its trains, trams, trolleys, buses and cars.

Sporting events also dominate the every day life of people living in Melbourne.  On the outskirts of the city are located large sporting venues for AFL football (our soccer), cricket and horse racing.  And in March of every year, the F1 racing opens its season with the Melbourne Grand Prix.  In fact, there are almost as many public holidays devoted to sporting events as there are to religion (e.g. the day of the Melbourne Cup horse race and the Friday before the AFL football Grand Final are holidays).

Making a right-hand turn in Melbourne (called a Hook Turn) is rather unique.  In order to make a right-hand turn, you must move over to the farthest left lane (remember Australians drive on the left side of the street).  You must have your right turn blinker on.  When your street has the green light, you then drive across the intersecting street (the one you want to turn right onto) to the farthest left lane and wait there until this street gets the green light.  You then can make your right-hand turn (the cars waiting to cross the intersection from this street must yield to the turning cars).  This is done as trams run down the middle of the street, and you cannot block a tram when you want to turn right.  So see, New Jerseyites – jug handle turns are not that bad!

Today we begin our 2-month odyssey through Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand in earnest with a Parliament/Pub walking tour.  Our first stop was the Melbourne Sea Life that was not on our original tour, but the tour company that is taking us to the Great Ocean Highway and Phillips Island gave us a free admission to the Sea Life.  It was an interesting aquarium that included fish and sea life in the Great Barrier Reef and in the ocean around Melbourne.  The stingrays were huge as was the salt-water crocodile – I certainly would not want to run into one of them in the water!  There was also a very interesting Penguin exhibit that featured King and Gentoo penguins.  There were three in a separate area – a male that was keeping a 15-day chick warm and a nesting pair that had a chick that was even younger.

Pig-nosed Turtle

Manta Ray

One large salt-water croc

Gentoo penguins

Gentoo enjoying the water

Molting Gentoo

King Penguins

King Penguin and chick

Parliament Building

From the aquarium, we went to the Parliament Building, but unfortunately for us it was not open to the public – Parliament was in session so it was closed.  The Parliament House was built between 1856 and 1930 and is where both houses of Victoria’s Parliament – the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council – still meet today.

We then walked to the Old Treasury Building, now a museum, where we learned about the origins of Melbourne up through WWI.  One of the interesting facts is that the building was designed by a 19 year old -- John James Clark in 1857.  In the basement were the old concrete bank vaults.  Several rooms dealt with “the Nation Divided” – the argumentative debate over conscription during WWI.  It was soundly defeated both times it was brought up for vote.  One of the interesting items was a poem, seemingly written by a mother who had voted “yes” and now regretting her vote:

St. Patrick's Cathedral

From the Old Treasury Building we walked down the street to St. Patrick’s Cathedral with its towering twin spires.  Built in 1897, the spires were not completed until 1939.

From the Cathedral, we walked over to the Windsor Hotel, located just across the street from the Parliament Building. Opened in 1883, it was considered the most opulent hotel in Melbourne.  Inside the hotel is the Cricketers Bar, a bar filled with memorabilia of cricket.  We went in for a drink (I had a very good Sauvignon Blanc while Bill had a local pale ale).  They had a game of cricket on the TV, but I’ll be darned if we could understand it – it didn’t seem to matter what team was up to bat, both teams kept accumulating points and then losing points.  I once tried to read a “Cricket for Dummies” that I found on the internet, but you need to be a very smart “dummy” to understand the game.

Cricketer Bar

Enjoying a drink at Madam Brussels Baar

From the Cricketer Bar we walked around the corner and quickly came to the rooftop Madame Brussels Bar – are you beginning to see a pattern in our walk today???  It was located in what was once the Red-Light District of Melbourne.  Although this bar was never an original brothel, it is themed in a naughty garden party style.  We each had another drink and shared an appetizer of pastry-wrapped sausage. 

Fortunately for us (or we may never have found our way back to our hotel), the remaining two bars on our walking tour did not open until 6 PM.  One, the Croft Institute, is located down a very bright graffiti-painted alley.  The alley fits right in with the theme of the Croft Institute – designed to resemble an insane asylum.

Alley leading to Croft Institute

With no more bars to visit, we walked to the Shanghai Dumpling House to sample their wares.  Bill had a Chinese beer while I had a very mediocre white wine.  However, the vegetarian egg rolls and fried prawn dumplings were very good.  From there we walked about six blocks to our hotel – a very interesting first day in Melbourne.