I took a short break from my journey south along the eastern
coast of Australia and hopped on a plane to Melbourne for a few days. New state – Victoria! The purpose of my trip was to satisfy my
hunger for some ultimate frisbee in the 24th Melbourne Hat
tournament (the largest hat tournament in Australia), but I also built in a
little extra time for exploring.
I took advantage of the Greeter Service through the
Melbourne Visitor Centre. It is a free
walking orientation of the city for small groups of visitors lead by local
volunteers. I did not book ahead of
time, but there was one remaining spot.
As it turned out, the folks who had booked did not show up, so I had a
one-on-one tour with a lovely lady named Freda.
She has lived her entire life in Melbourne, and I really enjoyed
spending over 3 hours with her seeing the sights and hearing her stories. I especially liked hearing about the changes
that she has observed. Melbourne is a
fairly young city, and it seems to be constantly growing and changing. In the city centre, the narrow lanes and
arcades are full of neat cozy shops and cafes, where you can dine al
fresco. Visitors would miss a lot of
Melbourne if they stuck only to the main streets.
One of Melbourne’s most recognizable landmarks is the
Flinders Street Station, the central commuter railway station. These clocks show the upcoming departure
times of the trains. In the past, a
railway worker would adjust the clocks manually with a long pole – a constant
task with a busy train schedule. At one
point, the station replaced the clocks with digital ones. It created such uproar that the old clocks
were returned within 3 days. Only this
time, the departure times on the clocks were adjusted by computer. Given the location of this landmark, the
steps under the clocks have long been used as a meeting spot; “I’ll meet you
under the clocks” is a famous phrase from Melbourne.
The orientation tour was great. I think Freda really liked showing me
around. It seems that you can spend
heaps of time exploring the city and always be discovering something new. Fortunately, she gave me a head start,
because she took me to places I probably would not have wandered into on my
own. For example, now I know where there
is a restroom with a great view of the city.
Melbourne’s Greeter Service is modeled after a program in NYC, but it is
such a great idea that I would love to see it in more cities.
During this trip, I met up with the one person I knew in
Australia before coming here (from my time in San Diego). It was great to see a familiar face! Georges and I grabbed dinner at a delicious
vegetarian restaurant. Actually, I found Melbourne to be extremely vegan
friendly, sometimes surprisingly so. I
did not expect a fast food place called Lord of the Fries to be vegan
friendly. It looks like a typical burger & fries place, but it turns out that it’s completely
vegetarian. I may have visited a few of
their locations during my short visit.
Heaps of options everywhere – it was great; when I return, I’ll have to
learn to pace myself.
The big topic on everyone’s mind is the weather. Melbourne’s weather seems to be the most
variable in Australia. Melburnians might
wait for the 3-day weather forecast before making plans outdoors. During my few days, I definitely experienced
some changes in the weather. When I
first arrived from the Gold Coast, I felt a little cold walking around in
shorts and thongs (flip-flops); heaps of
folks were wearing jackets (it’s summer!).
The first day of the tournament was windy and hot with a high of 35
degrees; on the second day, the high only reached 18 or 19 degrees. It is best to just be prepared for weather
changes in Melbourne.
The tournament was great!
It attracts friendly players of different levels, including some who
have played at Worlds, from all over the country as well as overseas. Still everyone comes together for spirit circles at the end of every game. Surprisingly, I knew someone else from San
Diego at the tournament – an Aussie ultimate player who is back in the country for a little
while. Melbourne Hat was kicked off with
a round of frisbee golf in the Fitzroy Gardens.
The party on Saturday night was a silent disco. At this silent disco, everyone wears wireless headphones with 3
different streaming music channels, so you can pick which one you want to hear
and alter between as much as you want. I
was a bit skeptical at first, but it was fun once you get into it. You might be dancing to a completely
different song than the people around you.
When there’s a popular song that everyone tunes to, it’s entertaining to
take off the headphones and listen to everyone (attempt to) sing along. Until an iconic song of Australia comes on
and I’m the only one who does not know it!
I spent a couple of hours of my final evening away from the
city centre in the suburb of St. Kilda.
It is home to the beach closest to the city. I dined at Lentil as Anything, as recommended
by one of my travel buddies to Alice Springs months ago. He had worked in this vegetarian
restaurant. The menu has no prices;
diners pay by donation. You are asked to
pay what you think it is worth, or if you are currently low in funds, you pay
what you can. This community-focused restaurant
has been around for several years now, so the concept appears to be working for
them. The pumpkin curry was very
delicious. If I were not in a public
place, I definitely would have licked my plate.
The main reason for my trip out to St. Kilda was the chance
to see penguins(!) in the wild. Formally
known as fairy penguins, little penguins are the smallest of the 17 penguin
species with average adult heights of 33 cm.
They take shelter and build nests in the rocks of the St. Kilda
breakwater. Super cute. Flash photography and white lights are not
allowed, because they would disturb the penguin colony. Here are a couple of my less blurry photos to
mark the occasion:
Melbourne has heaps of things to see and do, and
this short visit only gave me a taste for it.
I will have to return, Melbourne... I’ll see you under the clocks.
No comments:
Post a Comment