Hello again. I'm now home in Seoul and really behind in my blogs so dates, times, events - throw them out the window since I have no memory of specific events. Still a lot of things happened to me in Melbourne and I want to share them.
First off, I haven't really spoken much about the city of Melbourne. Melbourne is a truly lovely city, planned and maintained to perfection. There are beautiful parks throughout, and the architecture is a lovely blend of colonial and Victorian. The area in which I stayed is called East Melbourne. It feels as if you're walking through Savannah, Georgia as you stroll down the streets. The lattice work, sweeping porches, beautiful front gardens all contribute to its charming, historic past. Plus East Melbourne is in walking distance to the CBD (Central Business District) - a term I did not know prior to coming to Australia. The CBD is very well organised considering that the city was planned. Collins Street is the main thoroughfare and that's bisected by several other main streets. The City Hall and other government buildings are beautiful. The city has shopping arcades very much like Paris. You enter through an archway and you're inside a covered courtyard and high end stores. You can walk blocks through these arcades.
The only weird thing about Melbourne is the weather. The temperatures can fluctuate to extremes. Many mornings I was walking with a coat on, but by mid-day it's in the 90s, then at night it can plummet to the 50s. It was almost guaranteed that one day I would be freezing, and the next day roasting. The Australian sun is particularly strong. The natives say it's because of a hole in the ozone layer. Given how fast and easily I burned, I have no doubt this is true. Also, Melbourne is very windy. If the wind comes down from the continent, it's warm and windy. If the wind comes up from the ocean, it's freezing and windy. Still, despite the weather, I fell completely in love with this city. A lot of thought has gone into maintaining the antiquity of the buildings, creating public spaces that are inviting, and making sure that the gardens and green spaces are lush and vibrant.
One day I took a bus tour to the wineries. The tour started off a little lame. We went to this nature preserve and stopped for tea. There was a section where you can feed the cockatoos. I had heard that cockatoos were wild in Australia, but didn't expect hundreds of them to be flying around. There was an area roped off for the feeding. The guide gives you food on a giant metal plate (it looked like a chip and salsa dish) and as soon as you leave the building ten birds swoop down onto the plate and you're left struggling trying to hold it up. Cockatoos are not light birds. One bird landed on my shoulder and decided he liked it up there just fine. He wouldn't get off. I tried offering him food, offering him other people's food, but to no avail. So for 20 minutes I walked around with a bird on my shoulder. I finally asked the bird keeper to take it off. This wasn't the lame part of the morning. That came with the ride of Puffing Billy - the steam train.
I like steam trains and I rode a great one in Durango Colorado. I had high expectations for Puffing Billy. As it turns out, they were too high. The train was rather small, and the cars were filled with overly pushy Asian tourists. They swept down into the cars and before you knew it were sitting on the window ledges hanging their feet over the side of the train, effectively blocking the view of anyone who chose to sit in the seats (like me). They didn't seem to mind at all that they were completely blocking the view of the other passengers. Everyone was taking pictures flashing the victory sign. When the train finally started moving, it crawled along. I could've walked faster then the train was going. It climbed a steep hill, but there really wasn't much to see besides vegetation. Which was good because really all you could see were the asses of the Asian tourist hanging over the sides taking pictures of really nothing at all. I think the ride lasted 30-minutes and we traveled the distance of perhaps one mile. I was happy to get off and get back on the bus.
The trip to the wineries was through some beautiful countryside. Everywhere you drive in that part of Australia, though, you see evidence of bush fires. These bush fires devastate the land almost every year. Because Australia is so dry, and that part of the continent is so windy, bush fires are inevitable. It's hard to find a tree that isn't blackened by fire. The first winery we visited was very large. It had its only helicopter pad, a four star restaurant and a giant stage where they hosted big name acts. The wine was actually pretty good. Australia produces some great wine, but many of the good wines aren't exported to the US. Apparently the US hits them with a 45% tax! That's unfortunate because the wines I sampled were very good. At the second winery we went too, we had lunch. The lunch was buffet style but really good. The wines were even better here than at the first winery. After lunch we stopped at a chocolate factory and sampled free chocolate. Two more wineries afterwards and we headed back into Melbourne. Once again we drove through beautiful farmland and countryside. Victoria is a lovely part of the country.