So, I've been back from Melbourne for a few days now and just remembered that I haven't updated about it yet. I would have to say it's been a few of my favorite days here in Australia so far. I wish we could have spent more than the four days that we had there because there was clearly just so much to explore there that we had no time to check out. Despite the shortness of the visit, I am so happy that we went.
My group had the earlier flight on Sunday morning. That meant I had to leave at 6:15 am while the others left at 7:15. That hour did not make much of a difference, though; we were all pretty exhausted getting on the plane. Still, after a nap and some time to wake up, I wasn't too tired by the time we got off the bus next to our hotel. Melbourne is a beautiful city--in some ways, it was sort of like Boston with its historical buildings. In other ways it was more like Chicago, with the more planned layout of the city. Sydney is the opposite, with modern buildings and no distinguishable layout whatsoever. It was also a little colder in Melbourne. That is, colder being 65-70 instead of 75-80. The weather for those four days was absolutely perfect.
After we dropped off our luggage in a meeting room because our rooms weren't available yet, we were brought in groups over to Victoria Markets (not unlike Paddy's Markets, just outdoors). We spent a few hours there, browsing various clothing, getting lunch and buying souveneirs. I didn't really get anything there, but it was still fun to look around. Just a side note because I just remembered--while we were eating lunch we got to listen to some nearby man with a guitar's lovely renditions of the ABCs. Then, once that was done, Twinkle Twinkle. And when he was done with that..the ABCs again, and then Twinkle Twinkle again. I have no idea what he was doing but we were cracking up.
After an hour nap (completely necessary), we got dressed and made our way over to St. Kilda, a half hour busride away from Melbourne. Program directors had recommended to us that we go because of a festival going on. Unfortunately, we didn't make it in time to see the festivities. We still got dinner at the Spaghetti Bar, a restaurant in the area that was, for being a last-minute decision, really good. We did some exploring afterwards, went bar-hopping a little and caught the last bus (along with a ton of other people in the program) back into the city.
The next morning was another early wakeup for all of us, having an hour-long seminar on the history of Melbourne. Before coming to Melbourne, we had all signed up for two academic tour groups. For those of us who had our first one that day, we met up with our respective groups and headed out for the afternoon. I had signed up for a street/grafitti art tour. Within the first few minutes of the tour, I wasn't quite sure what to expect after our guide said, "I apologize in advance for the general odor of this tour. The nature of what we're looking at will bring us to back alleys and such, so it will be quite smelly."
The first few sites on the tour lived up to this warning a little too well. While the grafitti art was astounding, the garbage smell was absolutely horrible. Every one in a while, in the middle of a lecture on the history of this artist or that mural, a car or garbage truck would start driving slowly down our alley, forcing us to press against the bricks until they went by.
After our third site or so, the spots started getting less smelly and more interesting. By the end, I was in complete awe of the city and all its little hidden spots that you would never even know about unless you decided to explore a little. Unlike Sydney (or any other city I've visited, for that matter), its best spots were not out in the open. There were no big signs showing you where to go. Instead, you turned a corner, walked a little down an alley covered top to bottom in street art, turned another corner and suddenly arrived at a hole in the wall cafe or even, in some cases, a completely hidden street filled with under the radar shops and cafes that seemed to blend in with the graffiti that surrounded it. There were some spots that I just wanted to stop at and just people watch for a few hours. Of course, we would always keep moving, finding ourselves at places like ACDC lane (yes, the band ACDC) and obscure bars that looked more like emergency exits to more high-profile buildings.
What seemed different about Melbourne to me was the fact that it was so impressive with its giant skyscrapers and historic buildings but, at the same time, its more underlying subculture was just as impressive--those back alley spots that you had to make an effort to find. I definitely could have spent more time there without getting bored, and it seemed as though most people on the trip agreed.
The next day, those of us who signed up for the Great Ocean Road tour got up early and embarked on a day-long tour that brought us about an hour and a half away from Melbourne. All I knew when leaving was that we would be brought along the coastline. I had no clue what it would look like, what I would see, anything like that. By the end of the day, my friends and I easily agreed that it was one of, if not the best day spent so far in Australia.
Our tour guide--as some of us called him Andy part II--was eager to make sure we had the best experience during the day, always changing the music and asking for requests to make sure we were all happy. Maybe in his early 30s, he was always asking if we wanted more talk, less music or more music, less talk. I felt bad for him at first because everyone was wiped out in the beginning, recovering from the night before. He even asked me at the first stop what he could do to make the trip better because I was sitting up front and seemed to be one of the only people responding to his questions or laughing when he put on Time After Time. I told him to give it a while, that his music was fine and not to worry. Sure enough, as soon as people started waking up and talking the whole bus ride got livelier and once Red Hot Chili Peppers was playing, he freaked out, driving faster and singing along to the lyrics as if he had had 7 Red Bulls. It was hilarious to watch. It was clear that as soon as we were awake and interacting, the trip went the way he wanted it to. He even made us learn--and sing along to--the Koala Bear song. Twice. It was great.
Not to mention the tour itself. I felt as though I were in a desktop background the entire time. The views were beautiful of the Australian coastline, as well as the portions that brought us through the rainforest and more peaceful rural fields and farmlands. Winding roads would all of a sudden bring us to these breathtaking views that seemed to come out of nowhere. We stopped every once in a while at spots worth stopping at, from the 12 Apostles to the rainforest, to a secluded cove where we could stick our feet in what I called Disney water--that ridiculous blue that seemed way too perfect to be real.
After a variety of stops and singalongs (ending the ride with Livin' on a Prayer), we arrived back at the hotel around 9:30 pm, completely content and exhausted from the day. I took a million pictures and, looking back on them, can hardly believe I was there myself.
The next day was our last day there, where I went on my second academic tour of the Melbourne Architecture. It was a nice complementary tour of the street art one, showing the more conservative side of the city. After the tour a few of us went to the ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image), a museum that our Mass Media professor for the next part of the semester recommended all students of his visit while in the city. It was great--all for free, we got to play video games from the early nineties, test out various interactive light, movement and sound areas, have Matrix moves recorded of us, and learn a little about the history of film, television, etc. I even watched a few of my upcoming internship--Publicis Mojo's--past commercials. Overall a very worthwhile experience.
After a quick trip to the top of the highest building in Melbourne, a late arrivial to a group picture that resulted in about 15 of us being in our own sort of group picture of shame (we all had to pretend to look lost and/or out of place), and a 5 pm flight back to Sydney, I was exhausted by the time I got to my bed.
And, because I can't leave it out, an RA-sponsored group of us went to see a play, Optimism (for FREE might I add) at the Sydney Opera House! We all got dressed, had our pictures taken on the steps and took our seats for the 8 pm show. I'm not quite sure what I thought of it--it was very quirky, a little trippy and at some points pretty confusing--but regardless of any personal review, I can now say that yes, while I was in Australia I did see a show at the Opera House. Definitely something I'll remember.
And, as for interesting points go, that brings me up to tonight! After hopefully making my way to the beach tomorrow (I seem to say I'll go far more than I actually end up going), I'll have to start studying for finals. It somehow seemed to slip by me that yes, we DO have finals and yes, they ARE this week. Oh well--I'm not too worried with the free time we have this week. And besides...next week is Spring Break, i.e. our trip to Fiji..which means it's a little hard to let some studying get me down at this point. I suppose my next update will be after Fiji! Until then..let the studying proceed.
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