More on Melbourne

Hey everyone out there. Jesse did an excellent job of documenting our trip to Melbourne but I wanted to add a couple things and show off some more pics.

Melbourne did feel completely different than Sydney. Much more laid back and pleasant. I would say the culture factor was much larger. I feel like people don't live in Sydney so much as pass through or visit briefly (we aren't helping to change this stereotype) so its more difficult for Sydney to develop a special feel when there is no consistency with the people. Whereas Melbourne is more distinct. I don't know how to better explain it. The bars were amazing. The people were friendly and helpful. There seemed to be so many more things to do even though the city was much smaller. Also they do have Nando's which is really pretty great. Here is the bird they gave me when I ordered my food.



Also as Jesse said, Melbourne's sense of architecture and art was pretty amusing. Here is the sculpture out in front of the library (pretty close to where the old library sunk into the sidewalk)


It appears to be some sort of gladiator dueling a dragon. I loved it. If anyone can discover what sort of mythical epic or historical story this piece of art is depicting I will give you a prize. Anyways Jesse's timeline of Melbourne was pretty accurate. I noticed a couple events got switched in their order of occurrence but it really doesn't change the overall feeling of the trip. So I won't spend my time correcting as much as elaborating on the story he told.

Our first day in Melbourne was highlighted by an excellent open air market. Aisles and aisles of useless chattel (word of the day) including this rack of "slightly imperfect" clothing.



It's hard to tell from the pictures but if I had one word to describe the shorts and shirt we are displaying it would be imperfect. I love honest advertising.

Then here is a nice pic I wanted to highlight of Skinner eating his salad at the park. Skinner is being vegan these days which we totally respect but sometimes its pretty funny like in this picture.



The rest of that day was pretty fun. The casino was really pretty massive. We got lost a number of times and we didn't even have access to all the parts of the casino (members only) and didn't really explore anything but the first floor of it.

Moving on to the second night and the pub crawl. Jesse mentioned most of these highlights so i am just going to remention them again.



Jesse didn't really like the Misty Bitch Bar all that much but I thought it was ok. The problem was we got there pretty early in the night and we made up 80% of the people in the bar so I would give the place another chance when there are more people around that adds a little more atmosphere to the place. Anyways while the Misty Bitch drink was definitely the most exotic, I selected a local beer that is brewed in Melbourne called Cricketers Arms Lager. I thought it was a great beer though all beers pretty much taste the same to me. Anyways here are the two aforementioned drinks.



Velvet carpet on the walls with weird art. Another fun place. Check out the rest of my pics with the link on the right hand column on this bar to see Jesse and Erin mesmerized by the carpet on the walls. Also check out the link to the pics cuz there are lots of new pics from the Blue Mountains and Cricket and Melbourne.



Moving on here is the infamous Croft Institute mad scientist bar. This is the only really decent photo I took of the place. The lighting was so dark and spooky it was difficult to get good pics of the whole place, but here you can see a lot of the crazy decorations.


Finally here is a shot from floor 88 of the Skydeck Tower.



There were some gorgeous views from up there. We did this little ride where they put you in this glass box room and then the room slides out of the building so you are standing in this box and looking down and you can see the city. They try really hard to freak you out and give you vertigo by shaking the box a little as they are moving it out of the building and they play sounds of glass cracking too. But the glass was all scratched up under our feet (even though they made us wear little booties so we wouldn't scratch it anymore) so it didn't feel like there was nothing between you and falling 90 floors. At least thats what I thought. There was a lady that went out in the box with us that felt quite a bit differently. The glass under our feet had small little steel bars crisscrossing through to add support and this lady refused to step on the actual glass and was tiptoeing all around on the small little steel parts. I really wanted to start jumping up and down in the glass box but I felt like there was a good chance I could give that lady a for reals heart attack. So thats Melbourne in a nutshell. I think we have mostly caught up our blog to our lives now minus a couple small things here and there. Its good to be back in the blogging world. Its almost Inauguration Day and LOST is back and Pittsburgh is going to the Superbowl. Life is good.

B