Melbourne Bound

We had a few cities on our list of places to visit before we come back to Canada. This list includes, in no particular order, Sydney, Cairns, New Zealand (it is SO a city) and Melbourne.

Last weekend, we scratched Melbourne off the list.

Sunset before we left for the east coast. Still had to pack but I decided to goof around near the train station with the camera instead.

In case you ever get the chance to fly JetStar, the discount arm of Qantas airlines, here's a little tip I picked up that will make your trip much more enjoyable.

Don't fly JetStar.

Flying with JetStar is like getting a ride from these driving dogs. You know they've been trained to do their task but they still need an excessive amount of coaching. They get to where they're going eventually but it takes a reeeeeally long time. Also, the whole time they're driving you're stuck with a undeniably doggish smell in the passenger cabin.

On to Melbourne.

We landed early Friday and went looking for breakfast in the Victoria Market, which is sort of like the St. Lawrence Market back home except they have a lot more seafood and a lot more cheap clothing.

Either chickens for sale or eggs for sale... I'm not sure. I actually don't know if people rear chickens in the Melbourne city limits.

Fun fact: Australians call chickens chooks.

Eating hands free out of a trough - one of the many benefits of being a farm animal.

All kinds of birds here

Silky chicken. He gets his own cage because he's the 1% of the chicken world.

Meat volcanoes

Yabbies!

Fresh abalone - surprisingly blue shells

One fish really surprised to be caught, the other just pissed off about it. Hard to believe that monkfish is a fish and not a pile of crap.

If the glass wasn't in the way, I would have tried to put my arm in to see how far it would go.

Moreton Bay Bugs. Going to try one of these before I leave. Trust that I will take meticulous dissection photos of that dinner.

Biggest crab claws I've ever seen. It's like the size of the claws they use to grab toys out of the machines at Chuck-E-Cheese. HUGE.

It's a type of king crab, which is a misnomer. It's actually properly known as the Biggest Claws Out Of Any Claws In The Claw-niverse crab.

I don't know why Canadians say donuts are part of the Canadian experience. They weren't invented there. Canadians aren't widely known as great donut makers. Is it just because donuts are popular in Canada? Like obesity? Is obesity part of the... um... well... hm. Maybe donuts are part of the Canadian experience after all. And here's an Aussie donut truck.

You can't even talk to these workers without them getting their sausages in your face, although they get mad if you put it in such terms.

This is the quantity of butter that can be made from the fat of three adult harp seals or one Paula Deen cookbook. One harp seal of unsalted please. I'm trying to keep healthy.

Toy booth.

I wish I had these toys growing up. Cardboard robot ankylosaurus with flame spikes facing off against robot aircraft carrier apatosaurus?

WITH A COMPLEMENT OF DETACHABLE PTEROSAUR AIRCRAFT!!!! i need to sit down... i think i'm going to pass out. 

Unfortunately most places in the market weren't quite open so early in the morning. We ended up getting a quick breakfast and going out exploring some more. Melbourne in general is very much like Toronto, except somehow better. The weather's always nice, they have bike lanes everywhere, their subway system has more than our 2 lines... and they have no shortage of places to shop and eat.

Found this "buger" in a Chinese bakery. Where. Else. Really good Chinese food around this town, and lots of it.

They have streetcars just like us except theirs looks like it came from the set of a dystopian Robocop Detroit, instead of ours which look like big red Toronto Twinkie Commision snack cakes.

The Victoria Royal Mint, which is run by a golden lion and his prancing stallion bestie. I don't think anybody thought that idea through before they implemented it.

Army surplus store. Bet you can't guess what department I'm in.

Have to protect the franchise.

Melbourne's Chinatown.

Flinders St Station. The transit stations in Melbourne are much more impressive than in Toronto

Southern Cross Station. Couldn't build this back home. I'm sure it would violate some bylaw about being too open to polar bear infestation or something.

Melbourne Central underground

Late night shoyuramen

Melbourne - A Yarra River runs through it.

Under the bridge downtown, I could not get enough

Black swan.

Slowly coming over to investigate.

I don't think he's going to change into Natalie Portman unless we feed him.

Sandridge Bridge - former rail bridge converted to pedestrian and cyclist traffic with statues representing the types of immigrants who used to cross the bridge.

Figureheads on the north bank.

Aspiring to be a figurehead? Lean in

Beware of prosercution

Looking for the Korean with the coolest name ever? Right this way.

Cricket in Batman Park

This is a condo for pigeons. Every now and then some minimum wage parks smployee gets to climb into the pigeon condo and steal their eggs and replace them with fake eggs. It's their way of humanely controlling the pigeon population, at least the pigeon population stupid enough to lay eggs there.

It's an interesting approach, but I prefer the Spanish solution.

Sure it's got a view but the maintenance fees are ridiculous.

Safety, Australian style. You can picture how at home somebody somewhere would write to the Toronto Star about how offended they were by these posters and demand an apology and restitution etc. Canadians can be really uptight.

Meeting up with relatives in Melbourne! Got a chance to meet and catch up with Nai Nai's brother's family.

Melbourne courthouse. I'm not sure if it's municipal or not but I saw a guy with a judging cape on. No wig though. In this case, the vedict is: disappointing.

So we're almost done our 6 months here in Australia, and both of us are looking forward to coming home. Kind of counting down the days until we can sleep in our old bed and see all the crazy happenings that went on while we were gone. New park at the harbourfront, new streetcars, new jobs and new weddings to attend. It's less than 30 days now before we leave. I don't think we'll be getting up to any new trips at this point until we leave for Cairns/Sydney/NZ but if we do we'll upload some photos.

And because there's nowhere else to stick 'em, here are a bunch of unrelated pictures.

I found this paddle cactus behind my clinic.

It's a type that grows prickly pear, but I couldn't see any.

Any closer and I would have fallen in.

Our apartment walkway