Last night I slept poorly waking up often with that “oh crap have I overslept” thought when you have an early flight. I got to the Sydney airport quite quickly given I was traveling there at 6 AM. After checking in and getting through security I saw a travel store and stopped in to find a backpack replacement. Thankfully they had more, and cheaper, options than I’d seen in the city. I picked up a new backpack and went to the Quantas Business Class Lounge to transfer my stuff from one to the other. As I settled into the lounge I was struck with the realization that everyone in here was dressed for work. It was after all an early Monday morning and the flights between Sydney and Melbourne were every half hour, reminding me of the Delta Shuttle between NY and DC/Boston. I felt a tad out of place in my shorts and with a backpack instead of a briefcase…and I was happy with that feeling!
The flight to Melbourne was short and I got in a taxi to head to my hotel. My taxi driver was Iraqi and we spent the ride talking about Saddam Hussein and the horrors of his regime. We also laughed a bit about the fact that this morning Bush had been in Iraq and a reporter had thrown his shoes at him, a heinous insult in the Muslim world. On my travels I’d learned that most of the world had been watching the elections and most of the world was very happy to see the US with a new President. It gave me hope that Americans would soon not be the most hated tourists in the world. While I’d not experienced anti-American sentiment directed at me it was definitely present. I thought back to the taxi driver in Dubai who yelled “stupid American” out the window at someone while Theresa and I sat in the back seat hoping we’d arrive at our destination without a confrontation. I hope that this sentiment will begin to dissolve.
It was cold in Melbourne. Much colder than it had been in Sydney. I set off from the hotel towards the riverfront. It was a bit of a walk from the Hilton, situated on a park just outside of the city center. I enjoyed the fresh air and once at the riverfront found a lot of the restaurants and shops that the city has to offer. I dug into some Chinese food outside at a table next to the river and watched the tour boats going by. Crossing back over the river after lunch I wasn’t really sure what to see in this city. I wandered for a bit just taking it in and found a pedestrian walkway called Bourke Street Mall that had a tram running through it and was lined with shopping. Melbourne is apparently known for being a fashion capital and I watched as people ran in and out of shops clearly doing Christmas shopping on their lunch break from work. I checked out a few shops and saw that David Jones, the Australian version of Saks 5th Avenue, has a great food court. It reminded me of Harrods in London and I made a quick mental note to come back for a relaxed and easy meal at some point on my visit.
I wandered around the central part of Melbourne for a while and began the walk back to the hotel, past the Parliament House (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliament_House,_Melbourne) and through Fitzroy Gardens (http://www.fitzroygardens.com/Index%20Page.htm), a park reminding me of Green Park in London with its criss-crossing walkways. The Hilton that I was staying in bordered Fitzroy Gardens on one side and looked out at the MCG Stadium (http://www.mcg.org.au/) on another side. MCG is a huge hundred thousand plus person stadium that is used for a variety of events from sports to concerts. Next to it was the Rod Laver Arena which is home to the Australian Open tennis tournament that takes place here every January. Just past that were the older buildings that had been used in the Melbourne Olympics of 1956. My hotel room looked out from the nineteenth floor onto these sporting venues and beyond to the ocean.
Back in the hotel I booked a tour for the next day. I had not yet seen a kangaroo since my arrival in Australia and I wanted to get out of the city and see some wildlife. I booked a tour that would take me out to the Yarra Valley for some wine tasting followed by a visit to a sanctuary where I could spot Koala and Kangaroo! The concierge told me which tour he thought was best and I booked it so I’d be picked up the next morning at 9:15. A quick rest and I was back on foot to head out for some dinner.
Although I could take the tram from my hotel to the city center I decided the walk was nice. I took a different route this time and wandered through a neighborhood that was full of gracious old homes. I got to Flinders Street which borders the city center and runs next to the Yarra River (http://www.yarrariver.info/) and entered Federation Square (http://www.federationsquare.com.au/). Federation Square was an interesting, modern set of buildings and open spaces full of restaurants and shops. It overlooks the Yarra River and seems to be a center of entertainment for the city’s residents. While there were many dinner choices in Federation Square I wanted to go down to the South Bank area (http://www.melbourne.com.au/southban.htm) that is directly across the river and has great views of the boats and the city skyline. I found a restaurant called Bistro Vite and devoured my favorite, steak frites and had a couple of glasses of Aussie’s best Shiraz. Following dinner I walked around South Bank a bit and then back in Federation Square paused to watch some of the very popular street entertainment going on, a disco show with a Christmas twist to the costumes. Pretty funny stuff.
After a good night’s sleep I woke ready to get out of the city for the day. I went downstairs and waited for my pick-up from the tour company. The bus pulled up and I hopped on ready to take off. There were only two other people on the bus and I wondered how many other stops we’d be making before we left for our destination. Ends up we only made one stop that was at the bus tour company offices in the city center. Had I known I would have simply walked over there as we sat at the office for forty minutes waiting for people to arrive. At around ten we finally headed off with our bus driver telling us the history of the city and places we were seeing on the drive. The bus-ride took us into the Dandenong mountains (http://www.parkweb.vic.gov.au/1park_display.cfm?park=49). Dandenong is an Aboriginal word meaning high or lofty place. They weren’t exactly high compared to most mountains I’ve seen but relative to Australia I suppose they are pretty tall. These mountains are often referred to as the Blue Dandenongs since from a distance they can appear to have a blue haze over them. According to the bus driver this is due to the Eucalyptus trees emitting a chemical that can create this haze. There are over one thousand types of Eucalyptus trees in Australia and the Dandenongs have several types. There is a canopy of fern trees as well that grow barely a few millimeters a year with several being many meters tall showing the great age of the forest. In the middle of the mountains we made a stop that I’d not know we were making. We stopped at Puffing Billy, an old style steam locomotive that used to be used as a true transportation method and is now a tourist site. Unbeknownst to me we were stopping here for half an hour to pick up those that had taken an early morning tour to included Puffing Billy.
Glad when we finally left Puffing Billy behind we began to wind down the other side of the Dandenongs in the Yarra Valley (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yarra_Valley). The Yarra Valley is like the Napa Valley of Melbourne, full of vineyards and wineries. We went down winding roads that had Koala and Kangaroo crossing signs, making me even more anxious to get to our destination. Our tour included lunch and wine tasting at Fergusson’s Winery. I sat down at a table with a few other people and we got our lunches and began chatting about where everyone was from. My International Studies professors at American University would have been thrilled with the table’s diverse geographic composition. Me from the states, a mother and daughter from Northern Ireland, a man from Austria and a father and son from Bangkok. We spent part of lunch talking about the riots and political situation in Thailand and then went on to many other topics focused on learning more about the places we were each from.
A few glasses of wine later we boarded the bus with a half an hour to nap before we arrived at the Healesville Sanctuary (http://www.zoo.org.au/HealesvilleSanctuary). When we got to the sanctuary we were greeted by some guides who began to give us an overview of the sanctuary. We walked in and first saw Emus walking around. I’d been expecting a place where we were looking for the animals all in the natural setting and was a bit disappointed to see that so far this was pretty much a zoo with the animals in penned in areas. Our guide, Jan, opened a gate into the Kangaroo area and I was now excited as it appeared we’d be walking into an area where we could come face to face with them. Unfortunately I was again disappointed as the Kangaroos were still behind a fence and they were all lying around on the far side of the pen so we could barely see them. Apparently the afternoon is not a good time to see animals since everywhere we went the animals were napping. We got to see some Koalas and then saw a bird of prey show with a few eagles and a huge vulture named Beatrice. It was fun to see all of the animals but I was a bit bummed not to have seen the Kangaroos in the wild.
Back on the bus I was ready for a nap for the hour and a half back to the city. I quickly perked up when the bus driver announced we’d be going through an area with lots of Kangaroo running wild and we’d likely see some on the drive. My eyes were glued to the window. We first saw a couple of them lying in the weeds on the side of a hill. They were hard to spot but I finally saw them and was excited to see them out there like deer in the US. Then we got a great show. There on the side of a rolling hill with the vineyards behind them were probably thirty kangaroo (a herd is called a mob). They were all standing around grazing at first and then they all started hopping! Our bus driver was able to pull over and we could watch as this mob of kangaroo hopped off past the vineyards and up the hill. It was so cool to see them and I was happy…now I had only an hour for my nap.
We arrived downtown and I decided that I’d walk back to my hotel instead of spending more time on the bus. I realized I was right next to David Jones department store and I remembered the food court downstairs. The food court is different than what you’d normally see in the states. This was more like a store with different counters for different types of foods. Each was a different proprietor. I got some fresh fruit, a sandwich and some chocolate…each from a different stand. After stopping for a huge bottle of water I made my way through Fitzroy Gardens back to the hotel and had a picnic of sorts in my room.
This morning I was lazy and slept in. It helped that the blackout curtains in my room were the most effective I’d ever experienced. It could have been the middle of the night in the middle of the day. It reminded me of Bos’ room, when we were roommates in a house in Virginia, where he covered the screens with aluminum foil so he could have complete darkness when he wanted to sleep in. After dragging myself out of bed I made my way down the street to the Laurent Patisserie and had a leisurely breakfast and read the newspaper. The rain began again (a twelve year drought came to an end while I was in Australia) and I decided to spend a bit of time updating my blog and starting the process of packing up to be organized for my trip from Australia to California tomorrow.
I walked over to the City Circle Tram to see different areas of the city center. This tram is free and has a good recorded guide that explains some of the things going by the windows. It is certainly used by tourists but was full of locals using it as well. One stop into my trip on the tram there was some sort of snafu on the tracks with a protest of sorts taking place in front of the parliament house. I’d had enough of protests but thankfully they kept us informed and a few minutes later the police had cleared the tracks and we kept going. Looking at the map I decided I’d get off the tram at Docklands, an area of the city that used to be primarily freight docks but had been given new life with restaurants, shops and apartments. This would be a good place for a lunch break. I kept going on the tram and after a while realized that we’d taken an alternate route and we wouldn’t get to the Docklands. I jumped off and found myself at the Southernstar train station. Thankfully there is a pedestrian walkway that took me to Docklands. I walked past Telstra Stadium and took a picture…after all it could be a collectors item since yesterday this telecomm company had lost $12 billion of its market capitalization. I figured soon enough there might be a different corporate name on this stadium.
When I got to the Docklands there were lots of restaurants which was good since I was now starving after the tram delay and detour. I chose a fish and chips place that had outdoor seating. Armed with lots of fried food I ate looking back at the city next to the boats in the harbor. After I wandered around Docklands and then decided to walk a ways through the city since tomorrow I’d be on a plane for nearly twenty hours! After my feet finally got tired I hopped back on the tram and made my way back to the hotel. Now I’m finishing up getting ready to leave and going to bed early since I’ve got a 4 AM wake up call so I can be at the airport for my flight. I’m a bit sad to see the end of my international travels but am excited for a few weeks in California. I’ll get to see family, friends, my parents’ dogs and of course get some rest in Orinda and Borrego Springs. I’ll be in Borrego Springs for Christmas with my parents and New Years in the Bay Area.
More to come from California!
