Mellowing out in Melbourne - clean air, familiar language, & a vibrant, laidback lifestyle

We landed in Melbourne on November 3rd. After finally finding some coffee, we took a long taxi ride through the cool, grey day to our hotel in the CBD (central business district). Following the hot and humid weather of Bangkok and Singapore, we both had to put on jackets as soon as we arrived - even though it wasn’t really that cold.

Melbourne was the first stop of our two week visit to Australia, and this was the first visit to Oz for both of us. Very high up on the bucket list. I’m glad we started with Melbourne - the funkier, slower paced cousin to Sydney. The Sydney blog post will be out soon, so check back in a few days. 

We stayed at a beautiful Sheraton and, due to a holiday coming up the following Tuesday, the hotel was relatively empty. This holiday was for the Melbourne Cup - their equivalent of the Kentucky Derby, including people wearing fancy hats.

We received our first upgrade (yay!) to a suite with an amazing city view including a 19th century Catholic cathedral. One night we watched spectacular lightning & thunderstorm through the big windows. My friend Larry would have loved the storm. Amazing.  

Speaking of weather, we were in Melbourne during their spring, which means even more unpredictable weather than usual. The Australians have a couple of sayings about the weather in Melbourne: “you can enjoy 4 seasons in one day” and “if you don’t like the weather, just wait 5 minutes.”  We ended up with some very chilly, rainy days intermingled with a very hot and windy days. Ok, not 4 seasons in a day, but definitely 4 seasons in 1 week. 

It was very easy to get around Melbourne, especially in the CBD, with a free tram that crisscrossed the downtown, and good walkability. We did a lot of exploring our first full day in the City. There were some very cool neighborhoods to explore, interesting shops, and great restaurants & bars. We also visited a Costco (yes, the same chain as in the US) to pick up some wine... and, well, also to say I went to a Costco out of the US. It was unfortunately exactly like Costco at home. I still kick myself for not going into a Costco in Japan, because they must have had different things for sale. Another familiar name we visited: the “largest“ Fluevog shoe store in the Southern Hemisphere.. albeit the only one in the Southern Hemisphere. It was the size of a giant walk-in closet. 😀😀 If you don’t know Fluevog, just google it. Colorful, funky shoes - Jos has a few. We also visited a modern art museum, which was mostly free - a great way to visit without feeling committed to see the entire collection.

On their Cup holiday, we strolled through the empty streets around our hotel - we couldn’t even find an open coffee shop. We toured the Melbourne Gaol (aka jail) which was open, walked through a hip neighborhood (Fitzroy), and went by the 19th century Catholic cathedral that we could see from our hotel window, but it was closed for holiday! The Fitzroy neighborhood was full of cool shops and cafes, including Poison City records and a bar named “Naked for Satan.” 😳 Not sure you could have that name in the US .. and definitely not in Japan, Singapore or Bangkok.

The jail was interesting, and had a storied pass with hundreds of executions and tough conditions during the 1800s and early 1900s. They treated the prisoners fairly well -- except for the floggings and hangings -- but the cells were tiny, and they didn’t get much time outside. They also housed women and pretty young kids there!

One famous resident of the jail was Ned Kelly. Kind of an Australian Butch Cassidy - we was a wanted criminal, and then staged a rebellion to try to form a new independent state. He didn’t win, but the homemade suits of armor were a clever detail. One day, we visited the wine region of Macedon Ranges. Even though we signed up for a group tour through a local guide, we ended up being the only two in the tour...so basically, a private tour for the price of a group tour. It was cold, very windy and with a few sprinkles, but we had a wonderful day exploring the region. We stopped at 4 wineries and had lunch during our 9 hour tour. Most of the wineries we visited were small & family owned with wonderful, powerful reds. They also made some pretty good whites. Our guide Paul was a really good guy and we found out he and one of the winemakers are big music fans and we’re looking forward to an upcoming festival. He was blown away the last time he saw Patti Smith, and Jos enjoyed talking to him about her and other musicians, in addition to the wine.

We stopped by the Catholic Cathedral, St. Patrick’s again to finally get a look inside. Absolutely breathtaking, with gothic arches, stained glass, murals, and a massive pipe organ. I went by there our last morning in Melbourne, hoping to hear the pipe organ during their 7am service, but learned they only play it during the large weekend masses. We also had a nice evening out with people Jos knew from San Francisco - Bruce and Christy. We had a few drinks and snacks at a beautiful outside venue by the river; one of their go-to places after work. We saw crews rowing on the river. It was wonderful to hang out and hear more about life in Melbourne, Australia, and also to swap travel stories. Thanks for the nice night out, Bruce and Christy!

After 6 days in Melbourne, we picked up our rental car and set out for The Great Ocean Road Southwest of Melbourne. This is their scenic coastal drive like the Pacific Coast Highway. Our trip included sightings of a Koala bear(!!) and lounging kangaroos. More in the next blog post..