Today I went out all around Melbourne. I first headed to the Prahran Markets which is a marketplace selling all sorts of fresh goods from coffee, flowers, to meats and fish. The scents were alive with the commotion of people, and I found myself having a flashback to being in Russia. It’s funny how scents do that. After having lunch nearby, I headed to Melbourne’s own Luna Park down toward the water. It’s an amusement park just like Sydney’s with the same entrance. It’s right next to the water’s edge, so I wandered down to the pier and took some pictures along the bank where a shipwreck sculpture had been created. I’m still surprised that Melbourne isn’t as cold as I would imagine. I then headed back to St. Kilda where there’s a palm tree lined street with tons of shops and boutiques. Melbourne has a huge tram network, and these cars can be seen all throughout the city. The city I thought of in comparison, was Hiroshima with all of its trams.
Category: Australia
Arrival in Melbourne
The short flight over to Melbourne went by quickly. I’d never flown this direction from Sydney before, so it was interesting to see the landscape below. Australia is really a fascinating continent and I’m glad I’ve been able to explore so much of it. We flew over Canberra, which is Australia’s capital, a planned city. It was very geometric looking from above, and I will venture down there sometime next month to see it first hand. When we started to approach Melbourne, the clouds hid the city, and from what I had heard, the winter is quite cold here. However, upon descent from the clouds, I was surprised to actually see how green it was. The landscape looked lush, wintery, but lush.
After I arrived, I headed for the skybus which connects you to the city from the airport. The woman who happened to sit next to me was also American, traveling on her own from Chicago for her school vacation–she was an 8th grade science teacher.
Once I arrived in the city, I started to tour all around finding it quite easily to keep my bearings. I wandered to Bourke Street Mall which is familiar with Pitt Street Mall in Sydney, and saw all the find shops. Stopped and had some amazing soup, and I bought a scarf to keep warm. It was 10C, not terribly cold, but enough to start feeling it after a while.
I got a map to see some places of interest, and continued wandering around. I took some shots around the city especially the Flinders Street Station, which has some good traffic in front. I then walked all along the Yarra River to see the great scape of Melbourne at night.
All in all, my first impressions compared to Sydney are:
There are more smokers on the streets here.
The food is better, and less ‘hit or miss’
The fashions scene is higher
While planting palm trees to line the streets, it still doesn’t and won’t ever have a ‘beach feel’ like Sydney.
Off to Melbourne!
Wow it seems like ages since I’ve been to the airport for a trip! I guess in actuality it has been almost 6 months! Today I’m off to Melbourne, supposedly the more cultural of the two Australian rivals — Sydney / Melbourne. It’s to be quite cold there, so I’ve packed a lot of warm clothing along with my photography equipment as I’m planning to visit the 12 Apostles. These are land formations out on the southern tip of the continent that are jutting out of the water. Actually there are no longer 12, 4 have fallen down in the recent years, so I will see 8. Anyhow, off to the airport and I will be writing my adventures on here!
End of Term II / One year anniversary
This was a busy month full of last projects, final exams, etc and now going away parties for friends that are moving back home after being here a year. Which, also marks my one year anniversary of leaving the US. I can’t believe how fast time moves, and how my Australian chapter of life will be closing by the end of the year. It’s been an exciting, challenging, reflective move, and I have a great feeling about coming home and starting a career. For winter break, I will be traveling to Melbourne, and hopefully finding some interesting subjects for photography to add to my book. I have also planned a trip to Tasmania for the same, which has pushed the publishing back a couple of months, just in case I find some amazing shots that I’d like to include. School starts back at the end of July for my last term, so keep enjoying the photography as I happen upon interesting subjects!
One step closer
I have been working quite hard on my new photography site which is finally finished. I have tested it on as many browsers as possible, but of course Firefox always comes out on top with display accuracy. Please take a look at my new site, and be sure to leave comments so I can hear your opinion on my photography :)
You will also notice under the purchase section, a project I have been working on since January. If all goes according to plan, I should have a hard copy in my hands no later than the end of June. If you’re interested in a copy, feel free to submit a preorder and I will put you on my distribution list to update the status of the book’s completion.
Spelling in Australia
So just a quick entry about something I just stumbled upon. The spelling in Australia has been quite humourous sometimes to get used to.. for instance, I saw a sign saying: Warning, Police are now ticketing Kerb Crawlers. Meaning, cars that actually pull up on the curb.
However, tonight as I’m working on a group project, I used the word maneuver. Yet, my word processor highlighted it (as I’m in Australian mode) as it was misspelled. Apparently, the british spelling for maneuver outdoes any other spelling I’ve seen before (ok, foetus is a little interesting) but here it goes:
m a n o e u v r e
Impressive, isn’t it?
The Moon
So today, my friend Tim told me something very interesting. In regards to my latest picture on my photography site, he said ‘Wow, you really do see the moon upside down from Australia”. Which of course, piqued my interest in getting to know why. If you look at most pictures of the moon, there’s a crater called Tycho at the southern pole of the moon–it looks like an orange. So take a look here and compare it with my photo here. How cool is that?!
Photoshoot at the Blue Moutains
Today, I headed up to the Blue Mountains after my work at Paddington Markets with a photography buddy to shoot the ‘Three Sisters’ rock formation in the Blue Mountains, northwest of Sydney. It was great to get out of the city for a little while and see some other terrain. Our drive went by quickly, and one thing I noticed that was quite funny about Australian Motorways is the fact that there are hardly any overpasses. We would see a sign that says, service stop/restaurants, yet since there are no overpasses, they have built a mirror image of the services/restaurants for both sides, because you can’t cross to the other side. It was so interesting–it was like a gocart roadway that just goes off to the side, then there’s a row of the gas station and restaurants, then it goes back into the road.
Anyhow, once we arrived at the site, we set up our tripods and started capturing some beautiful moments of the sunset alongside several other photographers. The wind started picking up and it really felt like winter all of a sudden, and the crisp cool air made me think of being in a ski village and wanting to sit next to a fireplace with hot chocolate. The full moon made it a very special night to photograph as well, and you can see my photos on my images site.
Birthday Weekend
This weekend, I celebrated my 27 years of life. It’s interesting how birthdays make you do just that, think of your life. I like to think of it as a time to also set new goals and such–like New Year’s. Perhaps, reaffirm what I wanted to do this year, and make sure that I keep on track. 26 was quite a year for me. I started it with a surprise party in San Francisco, set plans for coming to Australia, quit my job, visited country 26 and 27, moved to Sydney, visited Hawaii, visited New Zealand and have now started my second of three semesters of my Master’s Degree. I’ve learned a lot in this move, and I think it’s given me even more focus on what I want out of life. So, things are looking good.
I recently moved to a new apartment in Newtown, a very diverse area of Sydney. It’s a great area with tons of restaurants (re: can’t cook) and an easy fun walk to university. My classes this term are quite interesting, and I’m looking forward to the projects. With the new flat comes new flatmates, and this weekend, they took me out to dinner at a cafe nearby, then on to the IMAX theater for ‘Mystic India’ a 2-d film on India’s culture and land. It was absolutely beautiful, and I am eagerly looking forward to any opportunity I get to visit India.
Today, I also went with a group of friends to finally visit the Sydney Taronga Zoo. With breathtaking views of the city from across the harbour, the giraffes definitely have the best view of the city. Check out the view here!
How long can fish survive out of water?
This morning when I got up, I passed the fish bowl, and one of the fish had jumped out of the water and was laying there on the ground. It was relatively dry, looked like he had been there for quite a while. So I poked him, and his mouth moved! So, I picked him up by the tail, and threw him back in, and he swam around in circles. A few weeks ago, our black fish, Destiny died. So, we got another one, that seems to be missing an eye, who was aptly named, Destiny’s Child.