Melbourne
From Perth we flew back east to Melbourne. We had recently discovered that our friend Vanessa had moved to Melbourne, so we couldn’t wait to meet up with her, and we ended up spending the majority of our last few days in Australia with her.
We stayed at the Pensione Melbourne, which was inexpensive, centrally located and had the most efficient itty-bitty bathroom we’ve ever seen. The walls were paper thin, but the staff was super helpful and awesome. It had an in-room fridge, as with all the other rooms, which was perfect for chilling the bottle of Intermiel mead we’d brought with us from Montreal. We drank it with Vanessa on our last night in Australia, on the hotel’s lovely rooftop deck, after it was graciously opened by the hotel bartender (who had no idea what mead was, and who was professionally obligated to not even taste a little sip… booo!).
Photo #2 in the series of photographs we like to call “Crikey! Australia’s Dangerous!”
One of a series of 5 clever, evocative sculptures, styled like ship figureheads, by Bruce Armstrong and Geoffrey Bartlett called “Constellation”.
We ate ate here, mostly based on the name alone.
The fries were pretty great, and served in cones, which makes them doubly delicious. Not as delicious? The burgers, which were sorta flabby and tasted weird… we later discovered that they’re vegetarian. Yup, totally meatless. It was close enough in flavor and texture that we didn’t figure it out, so if you’re vegan or vegetarian and feel like having a realistic burger (not a slab of beans and seeds), you should check it out. As for me, I’ll stick actual animal flesh, thanks.
Some beautiful pavement chalk art, in various stages of fading away.
I photographed these sculptures mostly for my dad. They’re an interesting mix of marble and ceramic, and are placed along the Yarra riverfront (along with a lot of other amazing public art).
On our 2nd day in Melbourne we were joined by Vanessa for a trip to the Melbourne Aquarium. This is the only venue in Australia where you can see sub-Antarctic penguins, like this guy.
In front of the penguin tank.
