Melbourne cold nights...

L writes: Well, actually, this is rather misleading since there was only one cold night probably in Melbourne so far this year, what with the 45C heatwave this year and all, and it was on NYE! More to come on this.

As you guys will know by now, since one of our memory cards was stolen from our hotel room in Sydney end of Feb, all photos are courtesy of Nicky (thank you Nicky!) and the blurb is from memory. More feelings than facts therefore..

Well, clearly we had such a great and leisurely time in Melbourne that we found it probably the city we bonded the most with in Australia. We arrived there by bus from Sydney and after 14 hours overnight hit Flinders street station about 8.30am. We had arranged for Nicky to meet us there but basically, had no idea what car she might be driving so dutifully waited at the arranged spot, corner of 2 streets. Shortly, we are soon beeped by a car with a friendly hand waving at us. After driving past us a couple of times in an effort to stop (Oz is crazy for parking - need a diploma to decipher the rules!) Nicky is here and we are soon on our way for our first coffee of the morning and first chance to experience the notorious Melbourne coffee culture. No disappointment there. Cool city areas have numerous cafes spilling out on pavements à la continental Europe and offering strong italian coffees with delicious pies or sandwiches.

As it happens, Nicky is house sitting that week and for the length of our stay in Melbourne. Julie, the house owner has kindly accepted for us to stay there too and we are delighted to discover soon that her house is a really lovely, new modern house built by her architect husband, with a fireplace and even a swimming pool! We soon move in and get acquainted with the fiery house cat, Tiger, who is all charms (not that many I would say but I am not exactly a cat worshipper) but also paws (as I fall victim of them!).

Showing us around town, we discover different areas which are all distinctive in style but are really cool. The seafront at Saint Kilda is proper beach business while other boroughs come packed with great pubs, music venues (like the Espie), vintage clothes shops, restaurants, etc. The city centre offers proper shopping stuff though like Sydney most of it here is still pretty conventional high-street/surf gear. I FINALLY - better for the sake of Martha who was short of going mad about it - buy new swimming shorts! On a day wandering the streets, we also stumbled upon some of the notorious Melbourne street art examples, tho we couldn't find the Banksy. There is a thriving graffiti scene here some example of which can be seen here (no photos of our own anymore :-(

As for the cold night, well, we get ready to celebrate NYE on the beach with Nicky and some friends with some booze and food. We stock up in beer (wine is just as expensive as the UK here) and are promised a warm night. The previous year, the weather was 28C all night, clear sky and allowed swimming and general chilling on the beach until very late. The food and the drinks are there, the friends are there but someone forgot to invite the weather: 16C and chilly winds make us wrap up warm and eventually shorten up our night on the beach just after midnight. Not that we did not had a few interesting experiences in the meantime.. Nicky's friends with us that night include a barrister and two australian cops. So when a cop van descends on us stating that booze is forbidden on the beach (on NYE! and we are hardly rowdy sitting down at tables with 2 children..) and insist that they are going to confiscate our beer and champagne, they are well handled and sent back where they came from!

Other highlight of our trip includes visiting the Healesville Sanctuary nor far from Melbourne. The sanctuary rescues australian animals from over the country and can be visited in their reconstructed habitat. Feel a bit undecided about some of the caged birds and animals which in fact seem to be reared there, but anyway, it was the occasion for us to see all those crazy Australian animals that we won't see in the wild from Tasmanian devils to Platypus (such a weird creature), etc.. Great! On the way back, we stop at a wine producer for a spot of wild tasting. We then discover an uncanny resemblance between the owner's dog and Nicky. Only to discover that the dog is also called Nicky - spooky and hilarious photos are taken with Nicky being Nicky.

All in all, a very pleasant one week stay and we leave Melbourne for Cairns with great memories and well relaxed! Ta again Nicky for rising at 4am to take us to the airport - what a mate!


*Graffiti panorama photo from MfWren

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