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Melbourne Day Six

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My last full day in the land of Aus. I had some small errands to run and Ash elected to accompany me on my adventure into the city. The first stop was an Ugg store, my dad’s birthday is coming up and he was after a pair of house shoes. The Aussie specials are not currently produced in any form I’d call a house shoe, strange. All chunky soles and high calves these days. Oh well. Laneways, Laneways, Laneways We walked further to check the next thing off the list, get Marcel a magic. This is a Melbourne special. A double ristretto balanced out with a dallop of steamed milk. This tastes like the perfect evolution of the cappuccino. Highly recommend. As we sipped our coffee on crates in a laneway we noticed a flock of barristers in gown doing the same. A quick Google later and we were on our way to the Victoria Supreme Court to see what we could see. No more open sessions for the day but they did have some cool exhibits. Big judge gowns and Santa robes. Vintage wig tins. Some fantastic bike...
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Melbourne Day Five

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 It’s been a while since I spent a morning at a proper museum. Plenty of folks have been steering me to the Ian Potter Center and so downtown I went. The IPC displays the domestic collections of the National Gallery of Victoria and has an interesting mission. It shows contemporary and antique indigenous and European Australian art, an interesting mission. Where many galleries might divvy up the space, the IPC mixes all four together. You might see a traditional handmade Aboriginal fish trap displayed alongside oil paintings of white settlers. The juxtaposition is fascinating and helps to remind you of the depth of the history at play. One of the most incredible rooms was a display of bark art. Aboriginals would traditionally peel bark off of trees and paint them. In one room, there is a collection of antique, classically styled modern, and contemporary examples all displayed together. The eye dances from piece to piece and has a lot to take in, the ideas in each example are radical...
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Melbourne Day Four

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 After breakfast and being confronted with footage of last night’s festivities (oof) another relation scooped me up to spend time together. Ruthie and Sam Persol are relations of mine not far from Sam and Eva Menahem. Sam came by the house to pick me up and took me on a tour of his Melbourne. He’s lived in the area for some years and as a local councillor, knows his best well. He took me back to his for lunch where Ruthie was waiting. We caught up over open-faced sandwiches, talked about family, and ate bread with vegemite (it had to happen at some point). Our next stop was a local theater for a fundraiser. Sam is a competitive table tennis player and his local club was selling tickets for a screening of Marty Supreme. Every subculture is excited for its time in the limelight and this is no exception. The movie was weird and good. Sam notes that the quality of the playing was not quite up to snuff. Back to their house for dinner, the whole mischpocha was invited to sit around the t...
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Melbourne Day Three

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 There’s a charm to seeing a city by bicycle. Ash volunteered to take me out on a rip through the inner burbs, winding by the Yarra river and into the city proper. When he and his friend rocked up for the ride in Lycra and on drop bars, I became concerned for my morning. My spidey senses tingled as I felt myself descending from type one fun into type two fun. Best to keep it there and not hit type three. The paths are lovely here and you have a great view of the natural environment as you roll around. Bikie (front) cyclist (back) The ride kicked my ass on the way back. I can feel that I’ve been out of the saddle for too long and what should have been an easy rip was more of a struggle for me than it should have been. I’ll blame the dragging brake. Getting back to the house was a welcome gift and I immensely enjoyed the shower and rest that followed. Once we had recovered. Ash and I wandered into the Melbourne CBD. Ages ago he was gifted his great grandfather’s camera, a Zorki C. No...
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Melbourne Day Two

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The paper here is wide, not the printer paper but the newspaper. I’ve always found a US broadsheet to be just a little bit unwieldy. If you have a Eurocentric commitment to the square root of two and the AX sizing system, your wide broadsheet just got wider. The whole thing feels off in the hand.  I walked from the house and started my day with a new experience, a flat white. Allegedly it was invented here and I haven’t had one yet. Skip it, it’s an extra milky cappuccino. If you love hot milk, hate coffee, and want to tell people you like coffee it’s a great choice. Why? I had to kill some time before my first real excursion, a trip to an art installation at the Jewish Museaum of Australia. Tammy Kanat is making some really incredible woven contemporary art and it was a treat to see her stuff. Full of creativity and craftswomanship. They spin too More art? Why not!? I pointed myself back to the CBD to The Nicholas building, a historic high rise known for being a vertical artist’s ...
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Melbourne Day One

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 I woke up at Sam and Eva’s at about 9. For me, that’s par. In this house, I’ve been unconscious for an eternity. This is an early rising crowd, I think the contrast might be good for me. After a cup of tea I zipped off to downtown. While freshening up, I noticed my hair is growing more than a little too long. Might be best if my first stop is for a haircut. I exit the subway and while getting my bearings find I’m right next to a barber, perfection. The barber expertly lowers my ears and asks a lot of questions about American politics. Lotus of us yanks have been in town for the Australian tennis open and he’s not clear on how things are out there. Apparently we give strongly conflicting answers based on our political orientation. That alone is a bad sign. We really are living in two different realities.  I took a caffeine stop at Pellegini’s, the oldest espresso bar in the country. They got started in the 50s when some members of the local Italian community brought a machine ...
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Sydney to Melbourne

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I haven’t had a good long overland train ride since I left the US. Sure, there were some rail days in Europe but the legs out there are so short and full of transfers that you hardly get any time to relax. Long haul rail is like being on a ferry. You’re exposed to some truly desolate places with all time to unwind and space to stretch. I picked up some snacks for the road and got on my way. Luckily for me, my room is across the street from Sydney Central with a grocery store on the way. Easy and peasy. I found my platform and took my seat. First class on the XPT here is comparable to a typical seat on the Surfliner back home. Unfortunately I don’t get the second story views or the outlets I’ve grown to love. Why is it that outside of the US people think it’s acceptable to run a 10 hour long train service without outlets. Just absurd. My seatmate is an Aussie from the northern part of the country. He just flew in to Melbourne and is going out to the middle of nowhere to spend some time ...
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