Today, Justin and I are concluding our 5 day stretch in Melbourne. We wandered around a lot just browsing shops and looking at different areas, went to museums, ate a variety of foods – from pancakes to “Australian food,” visited an old jail and watched two performances. At the jail, we caught a dramatized story-telling of the life of Australia’s notorious ‘wild west’ bushranger, Ned Kelly. At the theatre, we saw Moliere’s The Hypocrite.
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- Justin and I having breakfast at a pancake restaurant. Yummy!
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- Justin visiting with penguins in Melbourne’s aquarium
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- Vanessa looking out over Melbourne from the Eureka Skydeck
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- Above Melbourne
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- Vanessa in front of the West Gate Bridge(?)
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- Gondola on the Yarra River
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- Ready for the play!
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- Justin as Ned Kelly with the actors
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- Vanessa with the actors at the Melbourne gaol
What is blatantly and oddly obvious is the lack of integration of blacks in the society. I saw only one black business person since we’ve been here. We saw some aboriginal children in Sydney that had a white teacher and were doing a tour of the Harbor bridge, but we just haven’t seen any interracial couples or many black people at all. Aside from one aboriginal man selling his artwork on the street, the only black people we’ve seen have been tourists from Africa dressed in traditional garb and speaking in a tribal language. From that standpoint, it’s incredibly different from the states. Perhaps this is because the history of the murder and attempted assimilation of Aborigines in Australia is gruesome and evil. Also, there aren’t very high numbers of aboriginal people in Australia compared to the rest of the population. Anyway, it still seems very odd to me. The only groups that seem to be fairly integrated here are Europeans and Asians. We’ve seen plenty of Asian-Caucasian couples.
On a less shallow note, most people that have been to America really like it. The attitudes of those that haven’t visited America are about 50/50 like and dislike. Those that have been to America’s southern states really like it and commented on the southern hospitality. Those that haven’t been don’t think they’d like it and don’t want to go. Most Australians we’ve talked to really want to see NYC. Most that have been there really like NYC. I met one girl who worked at the Aquarium that said she liked New York but also visited Chicago and absolutely loved it. We shared a few moments gushing about how awesome Chicago is. In general, the people here REALLY want you to like Melbourne. One fellow at a cafe where we stopped for lunch pummeled us with questions about the US, our lives, and what we thought of Melbourne. He also asked us of we thought it was strange. He also wants to move to the USA.
I also got told I had a “cool American accent” by a guy that works in an Australian restaurant here. I told him that was the first time I’d ever been told that and had actually heard American accents were awful. His response was that “those people are just idiots.” haha That works for me, especially since the guy gave me a free espresso and a cookie. He really wants to move to New York. It seems like the “American dream” is alive and well for a lot of people here in Australia.
Just watching the news here, America is mentioned a lot, especially with the global recession that began in America. Here (as in many places, I suppose), America is truly viewed as the most important, powerful country in the world and Americans make headlines in the newspapers as well as on TV. However, the papers here tend to have a global focus anyway, which I quite enjoy. It’s nice to know what’s happening around the world and not only what pertains to America. There is news in the papers of so many different countries and random happenings—both good and bad.
People from Melbourne are very proud of their “cafe culture.” There are little coffee shops with prepared food pretty much everywhere. Almost every single one of them also serves wine, and most serve mixed drinks as well. Coffee and wine is served throughout the day and people seem to partake whenever the mood strikes them. Tons wines from all over Australia are on all the menus… I read, before coming here, that you’d be hard pressed to find wines from outside of Australia for purchase at restaurants. That’s not far from the truth. I keep getting confused when I see a wine from “SA” on the menu, then remind myself it stands for South Australia, not South Africa.
Aside from some of the differences here, Australia really feels a lot like the US. Not much like New York, per se, but a lot like the US in terms of the people, the dining and entertainment options, the cities, the history (or lack thereof), the way it was settled, etc.
As I mentioned, today is the end of our lengthy stint in Melbourne. Justin and I are taking to the open (Great Ocean) road to see the 12 Apostles – cool rock formations off the coast. Do a web search! We’re also heading to the Yarra Valley which contains over 70 wineries and to Phillip Island to see penguins. We have 2 days to cover lots of distance and site see before we fly off to Tasmania. Wish us luck. The three major points we want to hit are plotted on a map here.
