Messing around in Melbourne

Martyn was working during the week, so it was up to me to get myself up and out to explore Melbourne. Since he lived close to a park and ride this was easy. I managed to get off the bus at a central location and take the tram a couple of stops to Federation Square, which is the hub for transport and tourist information. The city is under a square mile and built on a strict square system like American cities so its difficult to get lost. The architecture is s good mix of varying styles with some clever modern works, non more so than Federation Square which takes the colours of nearby buildings in clusters of fractal triangles. There are also some impressive French second empire styles, notably the heritage listed Royal Exhibition Building, which is cleverly counterpointed by the modern glass fronted Museum of Melbourne next door. Yes, there are few Lego buildings but even they seem to have adjacent structures which justify them. In amongst the modernity there are classical brick, Victorian building, but non of the neogothic monstrosities that Brisbane had; small colonial style buildings with wrought iron verandahs and Edwardian Villas. Flinders Street Station took some getting used to, opposite Fed Sq. A seriously large red brick structure with ochre facings. To my eye the ochre should have been a little lighter to blend with sandstone colours in other buildings, but hen one considers that ochre is naturally occurring and the traditional medium for aboriginal body painting, it probably is the right colour for the area, and maybe its the lighter sandstone shades that need geeing up a bit. Altogether a pleasing city to look at.

I rode the free circular tramway a couple of times, and sat by the harbour watching life go by. (I love being near water). The tram has a good running commentary, so you don't need tour guides to tell you what's what. People were friendly and helpful, and I generally liked the vibe in the city. There is a definite coffee culture there, with many places declaring the type of beans they use in their coffees. The shops were fairly standard, and didn't hold much interest for me. Generally I found Aus expensive, but as their minimum wage is about twice ours, that has to be expected.

The days I spent in Melbourne had very similar patterns. I visited the museum and looked at Aboriginal art, and walked in the Aboriginal herb garden, and on Friday went to the Koorie trust exhibition where I got interested in the traditional creation stories. I bought a book of them so I can get to grips with some of them later. There are hundreds of tribes throughout Australia, each with their own language and traditions, so its hard to be definitive about anything Aboriginal. Another day I went to the Immigration Museum and learnt about the migrants from many different countries. I had not realised that the Chinese had migrated in such great numbers, and had suffered as much discrimination as anyone at the hands of the (mainly) English settlers. The reconstructions of living quarters on the boats of the 1950's and 60's that brought my uncles to Aus were interesting, but the details of the Barnados children who were forcibly removed from UK during the 2 nd world war made me ashamed to be British. (This was not my first introduction to this atrocity but seeing it in such detail was upsetting). Migration is still very much part of Aus culture today, and it would be easy to say, they have the room so why not? However, life here is high quality, better than UK, and migrants need to be able to live up to these standards if this young country is to grow. There is s till a big issue with integrating Aboriginal needs and attitudes, whilst acknowledging rights, without adding the likes of Sudanese boat people, for instance, to the mix. However without the rich mix of migrants Aus would not be such a vibrant place and certainly the gastronomy would suffer.

The large covered market, was a delight. You could buy everything there and there were numerous stalls selling similar goods, so prices were keen. The market has wholesale outlets for fresh produce as well as the more familiar retail stalls. It was a fantastic place for people watching too, and the fresh smoothies weren't bad either! One of the preconceived images I had of Aus was of high quality food. Brisbane overall didnt come up to that expectation, but Melbourne excelled itself. Even supermarket fruit and veg is tops, fresher than Morrisons and Marks & Sparks in UK, probably at standard UK market freshness.

There is a China town in Melbourne, but it didnt hold my interest, probably because once you have experienced London's Soho it paled into insignificance. It did however, give an idea of the oriental ethnic mix, including Korean, Vietnamese and other eateries. Sushi bars are common place in the main stream areas, and out of town. There is also a good integration of Thai restaurants, not that these held any interest for me. In fact every time I saw one, I felt a dread that I have a further 5 days in Thailand to come, and I have to run the gamut of food that makes me ill.

The weather was good and the temperatures sometimes touched 40. Happy days.