The Melbourne Experience

Kudos to Alisdaire, who is the MelbournExperience, a CSer that just thrives on CSing, who was mainly hosting and we could truly feel his drive and energy. He organized a trip down the Great Ocean Road - what better way to thank the soldiers for their effort during the war? Have them build a road, this road! -a place where a car accident is so easy. In a car, the driver has a hell of a hard time to keep his eyes on the road and not on the scenery. It's so beautiful. Well, the initial sensation is great, after a while and many stops, beautiful sceneries composed of a clear blue sky, strong currents smashing against huge rocks are just "one more scenery". Still, looking at the pictures today gives me great pleasure.

This trip was superbly organized and we were 8 CSers sharing 2 cars.

It took us 2 days, monday and tuesday, departing from Melbourne at 8AM and getting back at night. He, Alisdaire, already knowing the place knew where to go and what to see. Following his lead we saw waterfalls, Koalas, the twelve apostles, etc...

We camped somewhere quiet for the night and there we could see how well we all got along. I am not saying we were behaving like brothers (or cousins even) but we got our stuff pretty well sorted out and had our camp was setup in no time and lifted the camp again in no time the following morning.

As I am frequently joking about myself, here goes my own gag.

I went to a barber on Saturday and he was quite prolific with his cair clipper. Let's just say that my head feels fresh right now:) Unfortunately, he left the neck like I don't like, with a square cut and I politely asked him to make the transition smoother... Surprise, I suddenly had a white horizontal stripe at the back of my neck because I am so darn tanned and my skull did not enjoy the sun as much as my neck! Let's just say I was not "going out material". Luckily, H had some cosmetics to cover the... stripe. That surely saved the night and nobody noticed it but I used the trip to GBR to shine some light on that poorly exposed area of my head.

So, yeah, it was great and I'll leave only these 2 pics for now:)

Thanks Alisdaire and the rest of the folks for the great time we spent!

Melbourne is a great city, I truly loved it. Starting with its beach, St.Kilda, reachable by Tram, the bars going from the classiest to the most fucked up ("Cherry" and "St. Jerome's"), the architecture.

Once back, I spent one more night at Mandy's place. She is a great girl, friend of Judd's who in his turn I met in Munich at Ilka's (see the connection?). He was a fuckin' great host! Jesus, that guy runs on atomic power, he's totally unstoppable and would stretch the furthest possible to help me and Heidi getting sorted out in Melbourne. Before Mandy, we stayed at Andrew's, another of Judd's friends and a GREAT guy! He works for a beer company which owns (among others like Carlton Draught) Foster's. I invited him to fly over to Munich, all for the sake of beer market research!

With these folks, we went to some cool restaurants, checked out the Italian neighborhood and its plenitude of restaurants and Ice Cream stores. Met up with mooooore people, invited some more CSers, went to some more cool places. On ACDC Lane (yes, there is one!!!), the Cherry Bar was rocking hard'n heavy on... drumroll.... ACDC!!! but when I left The Strokes came up... oh well, I'll give the joint another go when I move in... oops! Did I just write that?

Anecdote: As the lane's sign was quite often stolen, they replaced it with a painted version:)

The city's more urban than initially thought, the graffiti scene for example seems to be very fruitful with the city hall even supporting artists. Another CSer organized a "graffiti tour" where we ended up checking out some great art on quite a number or narrow lanes.

We happily remained quite a long time close to Brunswick St, an arty/alternative road in Fitzroy where some cool stores and bars can be happily checked out. I loved Bimbo's, a bar with LOTS of couches to chill on, have a pizza, admire the (fu**ed-up) interior decoration. The place's mascot is a baby plastic doll, very often suited with a strap-on, masks etc... groovy baby!

I read that the coffee culture was quite present and it's true, it quite felt like Munich but with less Starbucks. H being a vegetarian, she had a special pleasure eating out, in such a way that she considered the pizza she had at the Vegie Bar the best she EVER had! I have a pic of the place, but it's not available... just imagine a restaurant where I took the pic from the 1st floor which oversees the ground floor, there's a square bar, people, tables and chairs... I'll leave it to your imagination but make it very cool!

Other than that, it was quite easy to find our way through the city (H is so much better in orientation than me) and the tram services are good. Walking home was not a problem either, living on Brunswick makes it easier! (this was the "Lonely Planet" kind of information...)

Back in '99, I was an active ICQ member, and my number was/is 14401843. Aaaaanyway, ICQ had a "find random contact" feature and while I was online at 4AM (back then, I really did not have a life) I met a couple of foreign people, one of them being Keryn! We kept in touch for quite a while with diferent frequency levels but we never met in person until like... 5 days ago. I was tired but it was great to meet her (and Luke) and check out her great appartment in St.Kilda. Guys, see you very soon, most surely in Melbourne!

And here's my contribution to our hosts and all of those we met in Melbourne... a bit of humor please:)

(H, I know you don't like this photo but I just adore it:)... and I hope you don't mind me posting it...)

Thanks again Alicia, Andrew, Stu, Alisdaire, Penny, Judd, Mandy, Matt, Keriann, João, Kelly, Gerard, Paul and everybody I forgot to mention (I am composing this post for an hour or so, so give me a break).

Heidi's still in Melbourne while I flew up north to Cairns. It's the first time I ever went to a place WITHOUT ANY plan! If only Bron could see me, she would be so proud of me! snif snif...

She knows what I am talking about, I usually stress out if there's no plan and I have nothing planned for when I leave the city (Cairns does not look like it but she's one...) on Monday except that I want to hitch-hike my way down to... somewhere. Until then, I'll be checking out an aerial cable car travel over the Rainforest and a 2day sailing cruise to the Great Barrier Reef. Too bad I don't have a sub aquatic case for my camera - I am (still) so happy about it, it kicks some serious ass!

I was thinking about taking a 4day OWD Padi course, but I will leave it for another oportunity. Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand are so much cheaper:) and they're all on the travel map I want to share with a future travelmate.

n.-

PS: While reviewing this post, I tried logging in to my ICQ account and it still works:) I wonder who's still on from my old contacts! I have an idea I have to write more about later on involving a cheap, light but sturdy film camera and some people I know from around the world I know but never visited.

PPS: Posting with pictures is so difficult! It won't accept line breaks now! Just great!