Australia Day 2 - More Melbourne/St. Kilda Festival

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Woke up around 8am today feeling much better despite a night of on/off jetlagged sleep. After a quick breakfast Ali, his roommates Julie and Nui and I made our way over to the St. Kilda music/arts festival via Melbourne's excellent public rail transit system. Ali and his Kiwi roommate Nui stayed up until around 3am the night before over rounds of whisky and dominoes while I hit the sack early to get some sleep. Needless to say I was the only one alive and alert despite my jetlagged condition. Nui in particular looked like about 3 different shades of green and barely makes it off the streetcar without yacking.

Walking through the crowd at the festival once again reminded me how similar yet different the people are compared to American folk. Just an overall more causal attitude about most everything...very friendly but very dedicated to having a good time. Also there are differences in dress. If I had to compare Australia at this point it woud be a mix of South Bay (Los Angeles) in dress and the caual beach attitude, Seattle for that bigger city feel, and Portland for the dedication to local goods and the great music scene (more on that below).

Made our way down to the beach and waded around in the water for a bit. Water is pretty warm...especially compared to Oregon's coast. Gorgeous beaches here all around with sand volleyball tournaments and loads of people all over the boardwalk celebrating the festival.

We eventually made our way through the dense crowd and past all of the scenester bars charging patrons $10 entrance fees without guarantee of a table oranything. At this point we're looking for good food and beer options but I'm distracted along the way by some great music. First we passed a street artist playing what I can only describe as a sort of "inverted steel drum" but with much warmer and more musical tones. I took a video that I will post on Facebook later - the guy was badass on this instrument. A few yards down the road there's a high school brass/jazzband playing to a modest sized crowd. I was kind of blown away by the quality of the ensemble -- in all honestly I'd put their quality up against many of the professional horn-based jazz bands I've seen previously. I've been told that music is a big deal in this city and so far I feel like that's very true.

Rain from an afternoon storm started to come down pretty hard so we finally found a food n drink spot that wasn't a complete zoo. After a short wait for a table I was greeted with the largest fish and chips platter I've ever seen - two huge slabs of breaded fish, probably as big as my face and with the skin still attached underneath the breading. Without queston the best fish and chips I've ever had--sorry Horse Brass but it's true. I put the entire plate down along with some bites of Ali's lamb shank (nom!) and Julie's chiken kiev (nom nom!). So far I'm REALLY impressed with Melbourne's food scene. The food itself is crazy expensive but the quality is rivaled only by some of the better Portland restaurants...and due to the prices I've generally made sure to eat every last bite 😊

Stuffed and happy we left the bar and hopped back on public transport for the ride home. Along the way we stopped at a little prohibition style pub to sample some Aussie craft brews (seriously...American prohibition pictures on the walls...I got a good chuckle out of it). I was honestly impressed with the beer offerings. So far I've had an IPA/Saison, American Pale Ale, and Australian Pale ale here. They also do a lot of single-hop beers with Pacific hops such as Soriachi Ace and Pride of Ringwood. Pretty much all of the craft beers I've had so far would hold up in the PDX market...but I haven't quite had anything I'd place in the upper echelon yet.

On the way home from there we have an interesting and hilarious exchange with a druken local about a couple of funny bar signs that Ali found earlier. There's a place called "Dicks bar" with a liquor store connected called "Dick Liquor." Obviously Ali would find that hilarious and for about 10 minutes Ali and this guy went back and forth riffing on different jokes about different ways to put "Dick Liquor" in a sentance (we need more black dick liquors, anyone?)

We went out again later that night to have another drink but the night ended early. I'm still a bit jetlagged and Ali and team were tired from staying up the night before. Tomorrow we're probably going to rent a car and drive out to the Great Ocean Road to check out the 12 Apostles--huge cliffed beaches with towering columns of sandstone eroded out in the ocean waves. Looks gorgeous and I can't wait!

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