Melbourne

Following a day of meetings and an early morning flight, my next stop is Melbourne. I have more meetings the day I arrive, but the next day is Saturday, so a free day to take a look around. My only exposure to Melbourne is an episode of No Reservations, which hasn’t given me a whole lot to go on, and of course, it is further south so a bit cooler even than Sydney.

I found a hotel called the Charsworth a few minutes south of downtown in an area called St. Kilda. It is near the pier and the beach, so close to a lot of cafes and restaurants provided you walk the right direction (which I didn’t the first night and ended up eating at McDonald’s). The hotel itself is a converted manor house, part of an eclectic mix of old Victorian buildings and new glass and steel construction that co-exist side by side throughout the city.

With my internal clock still a little off (and I admit I’m not trying too hard to convert completely to Australia time since I am not here that long), I am wide-awake a little after 5am. After catching up on a bit of email, I jump on the tram that runs in front of the hotel up to the Victoria Market. This is one of the few open markets I have seen outside of the third world, and is like Pike Place on severe steroids. There are hundreds of stalls selling fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, clothes, and most interesting to me, tasty snacks. I partake of a breakfast bratwurst and spend an hour or two just wandering around the market.

The rest of the morning I pick my way slowly back to the hotel, watching the rowers on the river, passing by the old Olympic stadium, and cutting through the gigantic botanical gardens. Like Sydney, Melbourne seems like a fairly pleasant city, and even on a Saturday, nowhere I go is very crowded.

After a few hours recharging at the hotel, I head back into St. Kilda to see the beach and find a place to eat. Down by the pier, I learn that Australia has penguins (who knew?) that have built nests in the various crevices in the rock seawall. I try to get a few pictures on my cell phone, but I suspect they will look like pictures of holes than anything else.

I’m back to the airport again in the morning to fly up to the Sunshine Coast (near Brisbane). It will be my last stop before heading home, but is also the one place where I have built in a few days to just enjoy some time here.