Now It's Really Winter!

Thursday August 7, 2008

Back in Melbourne... it was my fourth time passing through this city. I returned to the same hostel, the Melbourne Connection. Again, I was reminded about how dingy the place is. The location was very convenient (close to the bus station in the city centre) and the staff and people who stayed there were entertaining and friendly, so that’s what kept me coming back.

I was amused that some of the same people from my first time through this hostel (nearly two months prior) were still staying there. Some of them had picked up jobs in the city so were now essentially living in the hostel.

Friday August 8, 2008

The agenda for today was pretty simple. Just like my past few times in Melbourne, I spent some time in the State Library of Victoria using the free internet to attempt to catch up with this blog. I was woefully behind. Writing the blog is starting (or once again) to feel like a tedious chore. I enjoy putting words to a page, but you may underestimate the number of hours I have to put into it... Every once in a while, though, I get an email from some unexpected person complimenting me on my work or my trip and that keeps me going. Thank you readers for stoking my motivation!

The weather in Melbourne was still a little cold. Winter still held the southern parts of Australia in its grip. I don’t think it was as cold now as it was back in June, though. The Melbournians were still bundled up in parkas, scarves, boots, and toques (though the Australians call them “beanies”). I needed more clothes, too. I’d be in Australia for almost two weeks and I didn’t have enough to keep me warm. It was time to go shopping.

I spent a few hours exploring the second-hand and vintage clothing shops on Brunswick Street in the neighbourhood of Fitzroy. I came away with a nice second-hand long-sleeve top. Yippee! New old clothes!

That night I met Joe Clancy and Natalie Thompson for dinner and drinks again at a bar called The Commune (does that make us communists?). Just like a couple months ago, Natalie was having a going-away party again. Last time, she was going to Singapore for a few weeks for a conference. This time, she was going to Washington State for more post-graduate studies (Joe, correct me if I’m wrong... I know you read this thing!). Just by random chance, I seemed to pass through Melbourne during these parties!

One of Natalie’s coworkers was from New Zealand and had recently received a gift from her sister who still lived there. It was a Flight of the Conchords CD! Sweet! I explained to them that I was still wearing my sideburns because of my passing resemblance to Jermaine Clement. The CD came with a poster, which lead to a great photo opportunity.

So, do I look anything like Jermaine?


Saturday August 9, 2008

Tonight there was an organized hostel outing to see an Aussie Rules Football Game (or just “Footy”) at the legendary Melbourne Cricket Ground (the “MCG”). Melbourne is considered the most fanatical city in Australia for sports. Their big games are cricket in the summer and footy in the winter. Both games are played on the same round fields. The 100,000-seat MCG is considered the holy grail stadium for both games.



Footy is vaguely like rugby, except played on a round field. There are some other differences in the rules, too, but most of them went over my head. I did learn that there were two tall goal posts surrounded by two shorter ones. If you kick, throw, carry, (or anything) the ball through the two centre posts, you get six points. If you put the ball through the two side goals, you’d get one point (this kind of goal is called a “behind”).

The teams were from the neighbourhoods of Saint Kilda and Collingwood. Footy is so popular in Melbourne that even individual neighbourhoods can garner enough supporters to sustain a team. After three quarters of action, it was so cold out that I was shivering, despite wearing five layers of tops (without a proper winter coat, I resorted to simply wearing lots of clothes at once). Most of our group left the stadium to go for drinks at a pub. We weren’t missing much. For the whole game, Collingwood was thoroughly spanking Saint Kilda. Rumour has it that Saint Kilda rallied and caught up somewhat in the fourth quarter, but stilll lost.

It was my last night in Melbourne, so I had to celebrate. The bar was playing fun music and it was good times. That night, I met a cute and friendly Japanese girl Mayumi from Osaka. She had travelled extensively in Canada and seemed to have picked up jobs at various ski resorts in Australia and Canada. I told her how much I enjoyed Osaka and told her the story about how Will Chau and I tried to order sushi in the japanese restaurant there while every person in the restaurant stared at us. After professing our mutual loves for okonomiyaki, she promised to make it for me if I returned to Melbourne sometime in the next few months!

Sunday August 10, 2008

My bus out of Melbourne today left at 7 AM. It would be a thirteen hour trip (including a couple breaks) to reach Sydney Central Station, almost 900 km away.

The last time I travelled between the same two cities it was a mere one hour flight. This bus ride was only $60. The flight was $92, and that didn’t include the costs to get to and from the airports. I know that there are occasional specials for dirt-cheap flights on Australia’s busiest air route, but I did not succeed at finding one this time around.

As the bus drove past the mountainous regions near the Australia capital city, Canberra, I saw something I hadn’t seen since February 1.


Yes. That’s SNOW on the side of the road. It was COLD out.

The bus stopped for about one hour in Canberra. I had a short time to walk around and take pictures. This is a photograph of the Parliament House of Australia. The building is located mostly underground to better fit in with the surrounding hills and landscape. This photograph is taken from a great distance away since I did not have enough time to walk the rest of the distance to get closer. Wikipedia tells me that the building cost over AU$1.1 billion (1988) to build, making it the most expensive building in the southern hemisphere.


Maybe some day I will return to Canberra (maybe when the weather is warmer.... BRRR!) and capture a better photograph to please my readers.

We arrived at Sydney Central Station at 8 PM. I walked a short distance to the nearby Sydney Central YHA hostel. It’s a huge hostel... seeming more like a vast hotel than a cozy home. At least it’s squeaky clean and modern. I’d only be here one night, though. In the morning I had one more short trip to take... the Blue Mountains!