Melbourne

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The trip to Melbourne began with a taxi ride to the Ballarat train station. I was rather amazed at how substantial the train station is for the size of the town. Apparently, the state of Victoria has a pretty thorough network of trains. The train trip in was fun, taking about an hour – and dropped us of in another world.

Ballarat, Bendigo, and Daylesford were very white, very European towns. Melbourne is very multicultural. Malay, Western and Eastern European, Chinese, Vietnamese, Aboriginal, African, all mix together side by side in the fast paced busy streets. In some ways I was reminded of London – school boys and girls in uniform, but louder, somehow bigger – not physically, but energetically, and instead of people of Indian and African descent, as in London, there are more east Asians. The pace and the crowds reminded me of New York City – with trams. But the crowds aren’t everywhere all the time. At lunch time, it’s hard to find room at one of the many, many café’s across the city – but at 3 pm, it’s hard to find one that’s still open, and the lanes and alleys that just an hour ago were overflowing with the lunch crowd are shuttered and empty.

We stayed at a hotel/apartment situation on St. Kilda Road, an easy ride on the tram to and from downtown Melbourne, and not far from the (very) trendy beach neighborhood of St. Kilda. We spent three full days in Melbourne, but we didn’t do a lot of traditional site seeing. On the first day we started by going up to the observation deck of the Eureka building, the tallest building in Australia. There, 2.5 kilometers up, we could see the city below us on every side – the harbor and docks, the Southern Cross train station where we had arrived the day before, the Cathedral, out onto the plains where we could see it raining, and then down St. Kilda road towards the beach.

After that, we walked across the Yarra River (er, via a bridge…) and into downtown Melbourne. The last time I was traveling overseas, American Express traveler’s checks were how you kept your money. Now, I just had to look for a WestPac Bank, whip out my Bank of America debit card…and voila! A wallet full of Australian dollars from my bank in Washington DC. So, after locating a WestPac Bank and getting cash, we headed for lunch in one of Melbourne’s many exquisite lanes – small alleyways between blocks, but filled with cafes and shops. I have to say – food and coffee in Melbourne is AMAZING. If for no other reason, go there to decide if you want Malay, Chinese, Italian, Greek, or a brat!

We were intending to head to the Melbourne Gaol (that’s jail, in Australian) after lunch. However, we took the Circle Line, a free tram that circles downtown Melbourne and is a great way to see the city, up to the LaTrobe and Russel Street stop only to discover that (1) the Gaol was packed with school children and (2) the RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology), was built all around the gaol – and built in very, very interesting ways. The three of us were so taken by the university’s architecture that we ended up spending the entire afternoon exploring and taking pictures. Architecture across Melbourne is very interesting. Modern is interspersed with Victorian which is interspersed with avant-garde, and then just a few blocks into the neighborhoods you see houses like we saw in the smaller country towns.

The next day involved more “urban hikes,” starting in Victoria Market (like Eastern Market in DC, but, oh, I don’t know, 10 times better), and winding our way through the colleges of Melbourne University and ending up at the Melbourne Museum. That night it was dinner with a friend who used to live in DC in the very trendy, and VERY packed, St. Kilda district.

And the next day we left for a week in Tasmania…

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Photos

Train Station in Ballarat
Taken with my iPhone, this came out rather well! Inside, all was wood and brass, just like a train station should be!

Inside the station
Waiting for the train to Melbourne.

Entrance to the Eureka Building
The Eureka Building was the tallest residential building in the world when it was built (it's now the second).

Close up
The Cathedral of St. Paul in downtown Melbourne from the Eureka observation tower.

Downtown
Here you can see St. Paul's Cathedral, Flinder's Street Station, and the office towers in downtown Melbourne

Southern View
This is looking south towards St. Kilda's neighborhood and the beach area.

Yarra River View of Downtown
Looking into downtown from the Yarra River. Flinder's Street Station and the cathedral are visible.

The Eureka Building
The gold top of the building represents the gold rush that happened in Victoria during the 1850's.

The architectural mix
A Victorian bank building flanked by two modern sky scrapers. This is typical of Melbourne.

The City Circle Line
The best free tour of Melbourne. Get on one of these and go around the entire downtown district.

I Heart Biking
I have to credit Scott with this shot - he pointed out to me how the bike lock up formed a heart with the shadow. This was on the RMIT camput.

RMIT
One of the RMIT courtyards on surround the Old Melbourne Gaol - the gaol is visible here.

The Melbourne Gaol
Another view of the gaol from the campus of RMIT

RMIT
RMIT had buildings scattered around the same neighborhood; this one really caught my attention.

Close up
A close up of the same building.

St. Paul's Cathedral
A view of the Cathedral from Market Square, pretty much the center of Melbourne.

House in Melbourne
Probably one of my favorites that we spotted as we walked about Melbourne. This one is in the same neighborhood as the U. of Melbourne.

Iron Work
We didn't see too much of this type of iron work in Melbourne that was everywhere in the smaller country towns until we got off the main drag and into the neighborhoods.

Residential Apartment
This reminded me of Venice.