Melbourne

So seeing Pat's blog has spurred me to stop being so lazy and whack some updates on this thing for a change. I'm now in New Zealand but I'll work back from the last few weeks in Sydney and Melbourne and then get to the present in a couple of entries' time.

I spent just under 2 weeks in Melbourne staying with an aussie mountainboarder who I'd toured with last summer around Europe. He's got a nice little flat in Richmond, the vietnamese quarter of Melbourne city (about a 10 minute tram ride from Flinders St. Station and all that). What can I say really apart from the fact I completely regret spending so much time in Sydney and so little anywhere else... such is life and I've learned my lesson. Just from spending a bit of time down in Victoria it kinda hit home how big and diverse a country Australia is, in that by only flying 3 hours you can arrive in a city that's so so different to the previous it's unreal!

Where to start on my campaign of love for Melbourne... The bars would probably be a good place. There are thousands, tucked away in back alleys, or in old converted terraced houses or pretty much anywhere with (preferably) 4 walls. I say preferably because there's quite a few little alley bars, one called Section 8 which i went to for breakfast on my first morning (it doubles up as a little diner in the daytime). It was a pretty weird setting for a bar, no roof, just about 50 black umbrellas tied to scaffolding which provided as much cover as you really needed from the elements. Other bars on Brunswick St and in Fitzroy were amazing too, tiny little places full of sofas and comfy seats instead of the unhomely prefab bars you find in Sydney.

I did a bit of research and found out that the reason there's so many more decent bars and licensed cafes in Melbourne is the fact that actually buying the liquor license is about a third of the price there, and there aren't so many hoops to jump through in terms of getting a bar started.

On Slater's weekend off we drove down past Geelong onto the Great Ocean road. Exactly what it says on the tin, a single carriageway that snakes along the coast all the way to Port Campbell national park, through impossibly picturesque little beach villages (every one of which seemed to have a decent concrete skatepark, such is the way of life down there ha ha). Words don't really do it justice so i've attached a whole heap of photos from the drive down that do a better job than I could.

After that trip I spent a few days doing the touristy things in Melbourne: the zoo, the aquarium, fed square etc etc. I went up onto the 88th floor of the Eureka tower (google it, it's amazing) and saw the smoke from the bushfires rising up about an hour out of the city. Pretty horrible stuff.

So that's about it (if i'm gonna write 2 more entries in the next 84 minutes of internet credit i've got I better be quick)

GO TO MELBOURNE.

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