Currently Listening to: “Starman” by David Bowie
Melbourne, a city with a similar vibe to San Francisco. Melbourne is a city that has great food, a fantastic China Town, lots of museums, and street art down many of its small alleys.
View of Hosier Lane, Melbourne
Rachel and I left Sydney Friday afternoon, and in typical adventure fashion didn’t get past the food court in the Sydney airport before encountering something odd. While enjoying an airport lunch, a man behind some temporary curtains received CPR and was shocked with an AED. We have no idea what happened to the man prior to our arrival at the food court, but I can say that EMTs and airport employees remained very calm and few people even noticed anything was happening at all, so great job guys, you all remained calm in an emergency like you’re supposed to.
After the food court incident, a short hour flight, and a taxi into the city, we arrived at the apartment we were renting only to find that the key was not in the location specified by the owner. When presented with a problem like this, there is only one solution: find a bar, get a drink, and figure out the next steps over that drink. After two hours of back and forth with the owner and her friend, we eventually made it into the apartment with enough time to drop our bags and run to dinner. Despite the odd start to the weekend away, dinner was delicious and relaxing and also conveniently around the corner, so with half a bottle of wine left after dinner, the manager let us quietly take it with us home.
Saturday was the day I was most looking forward to. We went to the Australian Centre for the Moving Image and saw the phenomenal David Bowie exhibit. Tracing his years in the entertainment industry from the beginning to now, the exhibit used some really amazing technology to make it an interactive experience. Each person is given headphones and as you walk from room to room and screen to screen the audio changes on its own. At one point, there is a wall of four TVs. You start at the furthest left TV and the music for that music video begins to play. You then take two to three steps to the right and the music changes to the next music video. It was great and now I can’t stop listening to David Bowie.
The rest of Saturday was spent eating food and exploring the bars in Melbourne. We eventually went out dancing at a place called Fad Gallery that played music from the last five to six decades, so they played music. We discovered that covering that many decades was awesome and it also was great that drinks were cheap.
Sunday was a lazy day spent taking the tram out to see the beach in St. Kilda. We visited the Luna Park and eventually made our way back to China Town for some dim sum.
Monday I spent all day traveling up to Port Douglas. After leaving Melbourne 45 minutes late, I missed my bus to Port Douglas by 10 minutes. The whole experience with Jetstar can be best described by John Mulaney, just replace Delta with Jetsar. I eventually made it to Port Douglas at 10:30 PM, so about 12 hours after leaving the apartment we stayed at in Melbourne.
Today I’m doing absolutely nothing. I’m currently sitting in a hammock enjoying the sea breeze near the pool of my hostel. Tomorrow I’ll be heading out on a snorkeling tour of The Great Barrier Reef. More to come on that later.
Strange Trails 