Week 7: Melbourne

It's a beautiful sunny Sunday here in Sydney, and I'm settled into a corner at one of my favorite study spots in Glebe called Digi Kaf. Even though most shops here have "free wifi", it only lasts for 30 minutes typically, so this is my place. I get five hours of internet for $2 AUD, and always splurge on a nice cup of coffee (or two).

Most of this past week was spent in Melbourne on our BU program trip - Sunday through Wednesday. In Australia, this is the city most often compared to Sydney. In the Sydney v. Melbourne debate, most of my program has decided that they prefer the smaller feel of Melbourne with its quaint laneways, impressive grafitti, passion for sports, and great shopping. I have decided that I'm more pro-Sydney because of its better weather, beaches, and unique neighborhoods, but Melbourne has a few wins over Sydney for sure.

A couple things that Melbourne is doing right:

• Coffee
• Grafitti and street art
• Bike-friendly
• Coffee (repeated for emphasis)
• Chinatown
• Going green

 

My first fantastic Melbourne coffee was found in the dirty underground paths of a subway station at a place called Cup of Honesty. Thank goodness I had looked it up before hand, because this place looks like exactly the kind of hole in the wall business you walk by without a glance... or maybe one you stick your gum under the counter or find infested with cockroaches. I had a great cappucino though, and chatted with the barista a bit about exploring the city since most of my program was gone on a day trip on the Great Ocean Road tour (too pricey for me though).

On Tuesday, my first tour was called "Green is the New Gold" and was led by an ex-BU abroad student named Cal who showed us the many ways that Melbourne was on the cutting edge of green initiatives and energy conservation. He started the tour by treating us all to coffees at a cafe called Silo by Joost, completely waste-free and featuring recylced tables, chairs, cups, etc. We continued through the city to see other eco-friendly city buildings and city structures, ending at a pop up patch where restaurants and individuals can rent out patches to grow fruits and veggies with the advice and care of the patch's staff.

On Wednesday, I elected to take Cal's other tour to St.Kilda - a picturesque Melbourne neighborhood on the water featuring the historic Luna Park and Palias Theater. Fortunately for us Cal was dating the event manager of the Palais Theater, and somehow managed to set up a private tour by the theater's owner (tours do not exist here for the public, so very cool). The owner was extremely passionate about the theater's history, and toured us all through the venue from the catwalk to the old storage areas that still housed the orginal sounds boards used by the theatre in the early 1900s.

Back in Sydney for the rest of the week, I spent Thursday night seeing a fantastic play at the Belvoir Theatre called Miss Julie with my roommate. I had never been in a theater like this before. There were only about 200-250 seats that framed around a small corner stage with perfect white walls and minimal set pieces. Chelsea introduced my to her theatre tradition of writing down three bullet points after both the first and second half of the play describing how we feel about the show. We don't show eachother our words until we get drinks afterwords, and then have two sentences on each point to explain what we meant by our words or phrases. My words after the second half were "intense, tragedy, life". We of course ended up at our favorite bar Baxters Inn for this dicussion, and met up with some friends there too.

Friday night was my roommate Nikita's birthday, so we had Nepalese food and AMAZING gelato (salted caramel and white chocolate flavored for me) before heading out to a night on the town. We went to a speakeasy called Eau De Vie first, then to Lobo Plantation, Baxters, and Side Bar. Apparently we started off classy and ended up at a wild backpackers bar for dancing. Spent too much money of course, but it was well worth it and Nikita had a great time. We lounged around Saturday at Bondi Beach for a little recovery, and nearly got buried alive by the sand since it was so windy. A perfect day all around though ending with a spin class at Sydney Uni and early night in.

Guess I should work on my brand campaign analysis now. Finals are coming up Friday and then Chelsea and I leave for our backpacking trip to New Zealand! WOO!