Flying to Melbourne

Well, what a difference an airline makes, despite our trepidation about the flight Quantas was actually quite a pleasant venture. The people were great (an entirely a male flight crew), the seats were quite comfortable, the food was great and we got to watch first run movies the whole way. We only got a few hours of sleep but watched the sun rise over the Pacific and hit Melbourne on a sunny Monday Morning. Melbourne was a city really built on the Victoria gold rush of the mid 1800’s – it was literally a boom town. It was also the capital of Australia for the longest time until it was moved to Canberra, a town literally designed to house the parliament and be the capital city, sort of like Washington D. C. As a result much of the downtown is made up of wonderful Victorian buildings interspersed among some striking modern architecture. It has very much a Toronto feel being very multicultural with a small compact core and sprawling hugely in all directions. The city centre is great as everything cultural, sports related and food related is literally within walking distance. The city core is surrounded by a free electric ring tram which you can hop on and off so getting around is a snap. This is also known as the shopping capital of Australia – a fact not ignored by Mary Rose. The only thing you have to watch out for is the weather it literally changes with the drop of a hat. The day before we landed they had been hit with golf ball sized hail that did a lot of damage. It has been alternately sunny, windy, rainy and cold all through the day so we travel with jackets and umbrellas wherever we go.


Monday it turns out was Australian Labour day so the city basically shut down for the parade (a block away from our apartment) and Moomba a city cultural festival – so off we went to Moomba which was held downtown along both banks of the Yarra River. There was music, performance art, a huge arcade with really wacky (stupidly dangerous looking) rides and the Moomba Masters wake boarding competitions down the river. From here you can see the city skyline, Federation square, the Victorian Arts Centre and the beautiful Victorian Flinders Street train station. The wakeboarding slalom was really cool, however one of the unique sites was an aboriginal woman performing hip hop with two guys playing didgeridoo’s – only in Australia!