I’m sick. Rapid-fire travel, the fluctuations in temperature, having a few beers most nights, and not necessarily eating the most healthy foods possible. It catches up to you. So I really haven’t seen much of Melbourne. It’s a beautiful city with a LOT of construction projects going on. The Great Ocean Road would be cool, the wine tours nearby could be cool, but I just haven’t really felt up to it the last two days. Bit of a sore throat, maybe a low fever. Today I’m taking it pretty easy, just mostly strolling around St. Kilda and the Melbourne CBD (That’s aussie-speak for “downtown”).
I’ve continued to meet a lot of cool people. Seems like a LOT of Germans here in Melbourne, enough that my Deutsch has improved a little, and some more Brits. My British geography is getting a ton better on this trip. Last night I hung out a little at the BASE backpackers, since Olembia isn’t exactly a social place. I met a couple of Americans… bf/gf who both work for Southwest and are *passionate* about their company. They really love it. Evidently Pittsburgh is going to become a big Southwest airport… they were talking about 50-60 flights/day in the near future.
There are a couple of really neat streets here in St. Kilda. Acland street and Fitzroy. My first night here (Saturday) I went to the Espy and saw the best cover of Voodoo Child I’ve ever seen. You have to be pretty ballsy to cover Voodoo Child. The guy was no Hendrix but he was really good. The smallish crowd around 9pm was pretty thrilled. There’s a little restaurant here called the Vineyard (I went in wearing my Black Dog shirt last night), that turns into a pretty cool club/bar/live music venue later at night.
Other than that, not much to report. Melbourne is a sun-drenched city with a bit more of a focus on the arts and a lot more laid back than Sydney. At least that’s my take… maybe if I had stayed in Manly Beach instead of Glebe I wouldn’t feel that way. I’m definitely getting the sense that to really get a feel for a big city, it takes a LONG time. There’s too much going on, and especially with cities here in Australia, the culture is like laid-back, friendly, healthy Americans… the cities don’t really scream at you with a charicatured individuality the way they seem to in Europe. There you can’t help but notice the differences in each big city. Here it seems a bit more subtle. I really like it here, but I’m also very eager to move on to the last half of the trip where I won’t be moving very quickly.
Cheers, mates.