Back to Melbourne!

September 8 - 16, 2017

          My first week back in Australia was spent with friends I had met on the plane over here the last time I came to Australia (three years ago for my Interactive Qualifying Project at WPI), and had spent a lot of time with on the weekends. As always, they had plenty of adventures in store for me- managing to fit in surfing attempts, mountain biking, and wildlife encounters into an already busy week full of multiple birthday celebrations, while still giving me a chance to get over my jet lag!      Upon arriving in Melbourne, I quickly realized I had forgotten one key fact: it’s cold in that part of Australia in September (early Spring).  Think about it this way, the world is upside down here.  Therefore, the North is where you find the toasty weather, and the South is where it's "brr".  Well, maybe not like Buffalo in April cold – snow is not a thing in the city of Melbourne- but temperatures did dip to 50 degrees or so, with occasional random spouts of rain.  And by spouts of rain, I do mean flash floods.  Nothing like being outside for ten minutes and ending up as soggy as you would if you had fallen in the ocean.  But, my Australian friends were not to be deterred by the weather, so I was determined not to be. Sometimes that meant making the most of a rainy afternoon by playing table tennis and inventing our own games (hey, if anyone ever comes out with table squash, I thought of it first - fun game by the way: just fold the ping pong table halfway up so you have a wall instead of a net).  Sometimes that meant running in the rain (which is very cooling) or arriving back to the house insanely drenched and other times that meant just dressing correctly (raincoats are a beautiful thing).  But overall, it didn't stop us from doing (and seeing) a lot of cool things, so I was happy as a clam.  Here’s the thing about Melbourne, though.  The first time I was there, I LOVED the city – to the point where it was like, “Do I really need to bother going home again?”  But now, knowing that if you’re there before late October, Melbourne packs a chilliness that while not by any means matching that of my frosty hometown, still requires pants and a fleece every day, I think I would hesitate a bit before dropping everything and showing up permanently.  

            

            All that said though, I do still LOVE Melbourne.  I mean, I feel like I could show you the below pictures and not even explain it and you’d all be like “Oooh, no wonder she loves Melbourne.”  But there’s far more to it than that.  

There is plenty of opportunity for walks or runs along the beaches in the suburbs, and ample time to wander through a city comprised of great parks and hidden alleyways full of cafés, “arcades” (basically a 19th century style shopping center), and awesome street art.  

 

I spent a day wandering through a whole bunch of alleyways (such ACDC lane) looking for cool street art.  When I was done in the Central Business District (CBD), I walked around Fitzroy, which is kind of the hipster part of time, and is also where my gym was when I was here for school, and found some other cool street art there (although I'm wondering if some of that may have been commissioned).  

Last time I was here, I was constantly rushing towards the Yarra River to keep the Lindt Store at its banks in business while getting my weekly chocolate fix, but I didn’t even realize that a few miles down the river is a community of bats (Flying Foxes) numbering roughly three to five thousand. 

 

And forty-five minutes away from my friends’ place in Hampton, we rode mountain bike trails in Lysterfield and sighted over 50 kangaroos in two hours, including the Joeys in their mother’s pouches, and two (or possibly four) kookaburras!  

                   

Silly kangaroo with an identity crisis: He thinks he's a rabbit!

Kookaburra, Kookaburra sits in an old gum tree...

If penguins are more your thing, St. Kilda (a beach town 6 km south of Melbourne's city center) 's the home to a group of little blue (or fairy) penguins who come back to shore in the evenings after fishing all day. We even got to see one mother who was feeding her young!  (The red light is because they come back at night and white light damages their eyesight).  

      

Sunset at St. Kilda is pretty gorgeous too!

Overall, I think I love Melbourne because it combines the best of city life with nature - animals, beaches, and the opportunity is there to easily get out and surf or sup (stand up paddle board) or mountain bike or whichever (I guess, in a lot of ways, it reminds me of San Diego).  

On my last day, Markus took me to work with him since he works on a tugboat.  They had a few jobs guiding the container ships into shore which was pretty cool to watch, and they even let me help a little! 

Well, except for the following straggler photos, I think that pretty much sums up my time in Melbourne (at least for now; I'll be back in mid to late October for another visit!).  

Tawny Frogmouth!  It looks like an owl but is
 honestly not related to owls at all.

I've never eaten here but I like the play on words enough to get excited every time I see one!  

Do I still look like a roadie now?  Maybe I'll be a mountain biker yet!  (plus kangaroos in the background)

Black Rock!  (Very different than the Black Rock neighborhood in Buffalo which was actually named after a black rock: limestone that was blasted away in the 1820s). I was excited to get to walk here with Markus and Helen when I first arrived (and learn about the shells and sea creatures that abounded) and go on some runs near here this time around.  I absolutely love this beach and have fond memories of spending Thanksgiving weekend here nearly three years ago, eating leftover drumsticks and sandwiches, learning to wakeboard, and seeing my first (wild) sting ray.

Native starfish! Hmmm, it's kind of weird that it's not actually star-shaped,huh? I thought so too.

Non-native starfish... They come to Australia in the ballast tanks of ships
 but like all invader species, it's an unideal situation for the other sea creatures around.