Out and About - Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Mon 15 Mar 2010 02:25
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37:48.662S 145:00.700E
While Don lounged around Sue and John's airy
apartment dozing and reading in equal parts as his healing ankle sat
on top of a teetering stack of designer cushions, I was out and about with Sue
traveling in and around Melbourne.
First, there was the book club. Topic of
conversation: The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery .
General consensus of the group with one exception: too much philosophizing
and not enough believability. This from a group of eight
women, ranging in age from 40 to 75ish, most of whom were teachers at some point
along the way, and all of whom were not shy about expressing their
opinions. Opinions were expressed often and loudly, usually before the
book club member currently expressing her opinion was finished.
Really, it was no different than any other get together involving eight women
and several bottles of wine - it's just that the words spoken had an Aussie
bent to them (as did the pronunciation), and the topic of conversation on
occasion, did swing back to The Elegance of the Hedgehog . Most
of the time, however, the topic of conversation involved politics,
travel, other books, movies, plays and toward the end when the amount
of wine in the bottles had diminished significantly, good
jokes. These were generally told by one of the older members of the club;
a very polite, smartly dressed retired teacher with bright white hair and
cutting edge wit. She wasn't afraid to whip out the f-word
or ridicule a major religion if the joke in question called for
it. For example...A very devout Catholic priest prayed throughout his
lifetime that when he died, he would have the opportunity to meet the Virgin
Mary in heaven. It so happened that he did die and he did have the
opportunity to meet the Virgin Mary in heaven. "Mother Mary!" he cried,
"I've always wanted to ask you why you look so sad in all the beautiful
paintings. You are always holding the Baby Jesus lovingly, but your eyes
are always downcast and full of sorrow. Why is that? Why were you so
sad?" The Virgin Mary looked upon the priest and decided to answer his
question honestly, "I was hoping for a girl."
Second, there was the aquatic aerobics class.
There I was in a sea (well ok, a pool) of about forty older women, all clad in
conservative, black, Speedo-type one-piece swimming togs, and me in my
fuchsia-colored bikini. Needless to say, I stayed low in the water with
only my head sticking out so no one could see me trying to keep my bikini on
while cavorting through all the required aquatic aerobics moves. I
survived and have since purchased a more conservative black one-piece swimming
costume for use in future water-related emergencies.
Third, there was the trolley ride through Melbourne
to the trendy old Victorian home district where Sue's extremely
hip, yet surprisingly restrained (meaning not flamboyant, not that
there's anything wrong with that!) gay hairdresser works. One-hundred
dollars and a new spikier hairdo later, we were transformed from boat-people
into proper Australian city-dwellers. $100 for a haircut is a new
record for me. As I paid my bill, I thought fondly of Reggie, the
transvestite Polynesian hairdresser in Savu Savu, Fiji who charged only
$12 for his services.
In our Melbourne travels, we saw many neighborhoods
and individual buildings of the Victorian architecture style - all so graceful
with loads of "iron lace" railings on balconies and gingerbread under
the eaves. The iron lace balconies look like those in the French
Quarter of New Orleans (although I didn't see any sleazy bars or
giant blue drinks in plastic to-go cups in Melbourne). In general, there
are no really old buildings in Australia, the country is simply too young.
Australia wasn't "discovered" until 1770 when Captain Cook arrived on the east
coast. The first British settlers followed in 1788 - consisting
mainly of convicts and their military masters. It wasn't until later in
the 1800's that Australia really got going and cities were built. Of
course the Aboriginals wouldn't feel that way about it since they have been here
for thousands and thousands of years, but right or wrong, when
discussing the development of a nation, it's usually the arrival and
subsequent invasion of the Europeans that defines the
timeline.
More fun facts about Australia...
We finally realized just how large Australia is
after scrutinizing the charts and planning our sail from Brisbane on the east
coast around to Darwin on the north coast. It doesn't look it on the
Mercator projection world map, but in terms of land mass, Australia is the sixth
largest country in the world with 7.7 million square kilometers.
In case you were wondering, Russia is the largest country, followed by Canada,
the US (9.6 million sq km), China and Brazil. Australia is a huge country,
but in terms of population, it's relatively tiny. Only about 21
million people live here versus about 305 million in the US. That means
the population density in Australia is miniscule at 2.7 people per sq km
versus 31.7 for the US. Because the interior (outback) of Australia
is mostly desert, the people generally live on or very near the coast, with
the highest population density in the southeast between Melbourne and
Brisbane. In July, when we finish our land and sailing tour of Australia,
we will have only seen the coastal areas from the south (just west of
Melbourne), around the east and as far north as Darwin. We will have
seen nothing of the interior or the entire northwest, west and southwest
coast. Maybe we'll see more the next time around. Anyway, sorry for
the lecture on Australian geography, population density and distribution, but we
were surprised by the vast nature of this place and thought you might be
too.
Back to Melbourne...
The city is said to be the cultural capital of
Australia and has a laid back and intellectual feel about
it. Most of the buildings aren't in-your-face flashy, but instead
have more of an understated elegance. The abundance of Victorian
architecture certainly adds to this. The city is a huge
melting pot of neighborhoods occupied by the Vietnamese, Chinese,
Greeks, Indians, Spanish...you name the nationality or culture and
Melbourne will show you a neighborhood stuffed with the people, shops and food
associated with it. Underneath it all though, is a strong British
foundation. We've been surprised at the English traditions, manners
and expressions that persist here. However, we are happy to report
that the Australians, and Melbourne people in particular, have broken with
British food tradition and instead offer some of the best food in
the world. We've done our best to sample most of it.
You won't be surprised to hear that squeezed in
with the ankle recuperation, book club, aqua aerobics, high flying haircuts and
general touring about, there was a bit of partying going on in Sue and John's
apartment. Not the least of which was a reunion with an Irish couple from
one of the World ARC rally boats, Blueflyer. Hugh and Val sailed their
boat Blueflyer from Ireland to Australia in 2008. We met them
in January of 2008 in St. Lucia when we both joined the World ARC
Rally. We last saw them in Fiji in July of 2008, but had heard through the
boater grapevine that they had successfully sailed Blueflyer to the
Australian east coast, and then on to Melbourne in the south.
Hugh and Val have a daughter living near Melbourne, and upon retirement in
Ireland, decided to move to Australia. Sailing Blueflyer here was
part of their retirement plan and they are now safely ensconced in
their newly built home outside of Melbourne with Blueflyer close at hand. It was
great to see Hugh and Val again and reminisce about all the crazy people and
times we had in the World ARC.
We also saw Heather again, one of Sue and John's
friends we met last season during her stay on Storyteller in Fiji and
Vanuatu. We also met and had dinner with Sue's daughter Brigid
and husband Pete, as well as Sue and John's friend Min and beau John (more
about Min and beau John later as theirs was one of the homes we stayed in
during our land tour).
Picture 1 - The Melbourne train
station.
Picture 2 - An example of the very funky
architecture of Federation Square in downtown Melbourne (definitely not
Victorian-era).
Picture 3 - Downtown Melbourne as seen from the
Princes Bridge over the Yarra River.
Anne |
