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  Melbourne, Australia
Monday, October 22, 2007

G'day and welcome to my last entry from Oz.  It's been awhile!!  I've been visiting my friend Angela since getting back from Tasmania.  We had a great visit and the time has gone quickly as it would with a friend you only see once every 13 years..or is it 15?  Despite being very busy with three kids under 5 and a husband in Albania, with the help of her father we were able to steal away some time together in the beautiful city of Melbourne. 
  A good blog is a challenge to write as one runs the risk of sounding like a checklist for Tourism Australia.  So I will keep the list short and the stories long.  The list:  Fitroy, Immigration Museum, Federation Square, Victoria National Gallery, Yarra River boat cruise to Williamstown, Botanical Gardens,  Australian art gallery, St-Kilda's.  There!
  My first challenge in Melbourne was to learn how to take the tram.  Can you believe I lived this long without ever getting on a tram?  It's sad, but true...I guess that's the St-Lambert girl in me...although they had trams in St-Lambert, but before my time.  Angela carefully walked me through the procedure, but upon hopping on I required the assistance of a charming teenage boy.  I was trying to put my 10 dollar bill into the ticket slot, but he suggested I might want to purchase a ticket first.  After seeing me trying to put said bill into the change slot, he stepped in again to help me out.  Finally, ticket in hand and well on my way into town I sat down and enjoyed the scenery.  At the end of the day, I realized that I really had no idea how to get on the trams in the city, so I bought a cappucino on Elizabeth Street and watched the rush hour crowd get onto their trams home. 
  Yes, the rush hour crowd.  They are an interesting batch.  They all come out at the same time, wearing the same black clothes and swarm the sidewalks for about half an hour.  I was hard to miss among them in my orange top.  I imagined myself as a backpacker splotch staining the fabric of urban Melbourne.
  Music.  I haven't heard much lately, but on the tour of Tasmania someone put in a CD by a guy called Xavier Rudd.  His 2005 CD "Food in the Belly" is awesome and fit my mood.  He is a Canadian artist who moved to Oz and has a folky Canadian sound blended with different Aussie instruments, like of course the didgeridoo.  I'm sure you can download it if you have the knowledge.  The first track called "The Letter" is a favorite.  He is actually playing in Melbourne this week, but the shows are all sold out.   Ange and I went to Fitzroy to stroll around, have a glass of wine/coffee and just be generally hip and happening.  It was the perfect place to drop into an alternative music shop and ask if they had any Rudd.  Too cool.  Of course, the cool factor for me has always been fleeting.  The next shop I went into, I dropped 20 dollars on a tea towel with all the Australian Reds on it.  Back off, these are my only souvenirs to date!!
  The art galleries here are amazing.  At the National Gallery they had an exhibit on Krishna and Karma.  In the entry, there was a giant Buddha with his hands folded over his heart.  I looked around and realizing I was alone, Namaste'd (is that a verb?) him in a giant bow of my own.  Can you picture that?  The Australian art is housed in one of the funky buildings at Federation Square.  This was the perfect gallery to end my trip because it had paintings from Australian artists (native and non) of many of the places I had visited.  The Blue Mountains, Byron Bay, Cape Tribulation, Port Douglas and the Aborigional art was phenomenal.
  On our last evening together, Ange took me out to Southgate to see the incredible complex of luxury hotels, the casino and restaunts I will never eat in...$150 for lobster?  The lights sparkled over the Yarra River and fire came rushing out of the pillars that line the complex.  Quite spectacular.  The Spring Carnival was on which preceeds the horse race that "stops a nation".  Ladies were dressed to the nines with fun little feather hats perched on top of their well-coiffed heads.  We found a nice place to eat and spent our time watching the people with their bubbly, feather hats and equally bubbly and feathery men hanging off them.  Occasionally, we were distracted by the restaurant staff who served with a smile in between moments of swearing at each other and doing shooters behind the bar.  Quite a spectacle!!
  My last night in Australia couldn't have been more lovely.  The evening was hot and humid and perfect for a real Aussie Bar-B.  We headed over to Ange's brother's house for an evening shared with three generations of Greeks.  I'm sure I don't have to tell you how good the food was.  Homemade (duh!) tzatziki, cheese bread, Bar-B prawns and lots of other meat, a variety of salads and beautiful deserts, sweet, but light.  The conversation was fun and interesting as some uncles struggled with the notion of Quebec separatism and after several glasses of Pinot Noir I found myself defending America from the onslaught of negative stereotypes.  I knew it was time to go.
  And so, my dear friend Angela, whose family so generously opened their homes to me, drove me to the airport and like we did so many years ago, said goodbye, not knowing when, or if, we will ever see each other again.  When you meet good people, you hang on tight, even if they live on the other side of the world.  Cheers, mates  

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