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Published: October 28th 2013
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Melbourne
Cab fare from the airport - $50.80. but I guess that is normal. And it was raining. The hotel is in Southbank and we were starved and weren’t sure where to go to find reasonable meals. We ended up going to Subway!! The next morning we had a walking tour of the Arcades and Alleys and found we had been close but just hadn’t seen all these little cafes and restaurants in all the alleyways. Melbourne is known for their restaurants, they have so many tiny little out of the way places. There is even one restaurant called The Switchboard, where you order on one side of the hall and sit at one of three tables in the window across the way. Melbourne has a phenomenal mix of old and new architecture. All old buildings are required to keep the old façade but can build new behind. One of the old bank buildings had been converted to retail but they used glass partitions that did not touch the old columns – nicely done! The ceilings still had the old tintype ceilings and the mosaic floors. In central Melbourne graffiti art is everywhere, even the garbage bins are covered. We
stopped for a honey tasting. I didn’t know how different they could taste depending where the bees were getting their nectar. Melbournians love their chocolate. There are several chocolate shops and Sarah took us to one of the shops. The Hot Chocolate was to die for! There were only 6 others on the tour, 2 couples from Holland and 1 couple from Washington, DC and of course Sarah, our tour guide. She was great. Explained that all children wore uniforms for school, whether they were public or private schools. They are in all colours with many plaid or plain. The boys were either shorts or long pants. All of them have school emblems. And it is only 3 weeks before the grade 12 kids write their final exams so there is lots of funny stuff going on. We see many kids dressed up like we would for Halloween but they don’t have our Halloween customs here - no trick or treating. Lots of kids seem to be out doing Scavenger hunts. The younger kids are out on field trips. The next day we went to the Parliament, there was an group of civil servants sitting in the senate, where they
were learning the roles of the politicians and how their house of representatives worked and the relationship of the senate (this is the Victoria state government house which is the same as our provincial legislature except they also have an elected senate )! So we could only look at that part of Parliament House. This building was erected in the 1850’s, at the time of the Gold rush in Victoria and as a result they were a very rich county. There is 23carat gold leaf painted on the columns and on the ceiling in both houses. They have both MLA’s and Senators elected in Victoria (State/Province). They make you go through security before you go in and they didn’t like my tweezers. So I had to leave them behind and collect them when we left! The library had a huge round table and a chandler converted from kerosene to electricity. –just gorgeous. Ken just loved the lights outside the building – he says: They are very majestic (looks like a crown on the top of each light standard )!!
Yesterday, we were on the Little penguin tour out on the southern coast. We did get to see Koalas, Wallabies,
Tasmanian Devils, Emus all at a little zoo. It is mating season for the Wallabies, so two of them were shocking some of the young Asian guys on the tour! And then we got to Philip Island. You have to wait until sunset to see the Penguin Parade. Obviously, Paula, our travel agent knew what she was doing, as we were in the upgraded section. Not sure what you could actually see from the regular stands. They weren’t anywhere near where the penguins were coming out of the water. And it was raining again! You wait until you finally see a group waddling across the sand to the water stream and then you notice another group beginning to come in, but they come to a stand-still on top of the sand mound. There they preen themselves and one another. They feel safe now that they have passed over their danger area between the water and the bush. Gradually, they make their way to their individual homes in holes they make in the foliage around the sand They go through the same routine in the morning when they go out to sea to feed themselves on fish and in the evening
the same parade out of the ocean all over again. Apparently they spend 80 % of their time in the water. They are the smallest species of Penguins and are so cute. But you are not allowed to take pictures of them. They are protected and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them become extinct sometime in the future. They have lots of predators, sharks, feral cats, hawks, etc. Wallabies were wandering in the wild and are friends to the Little penguins. 11:30 before we got back. Much past our bedtime here!
I haven’t told you about the women here in the cities. Sydney was warmer, but generally women wear more dresses and skirts than they do at home. In Melbourne, they all wear black tights or kneehigh boots. The skirts are very short. In Sydney, we didn’t see the tights or the boots but it was much warmer. They all wear the very high heels or flipflops (even to work and they may match their outfits) And they do dress even in the morning (Saturday) – even with Princess Kate hats. – Maybe they were on the way to a wedding! But it is a little cold to
be going without coats! Or there are the very casual dressers with floral and patterned tights. The guys are in business attire or just normal stuff. Sorry they just don’t stand out!! The weather has been windy and raining off and on much like the last week or ten days since it is their spring here and the weather can change for the better or for worse much like home.
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