Just Another Day in 'Marvellous Melbourne'

In 1880 Melburnians began referring to their beloved city as 'Marvellous Melbourne.' The city was founded in 1835, so it only took them 45 years to come up with the nickname-I have my doubts on how clever these early inhabitants were. Honestly, taking nearly half a century to apply an alliterated adjective to their name? Well, I guess you can argue that in 1880 the city was actually marvelous-it was a city funded by the 1851 gold rush (incidentally just weeks after Victoria separated to form its own state separate from New South Wales; you call that good timing), it had become a place of lavish hotels, victorian buildings, stately theatres, and luscious gardens. At that time it was actually the second largest city in the British empire behind London-pretty impressive stuff. Unfortunately all that high living came to a halt when they suffered a huge depression in the '90s (the old school 1890s, not the Saved by the Bell '90s). Don't worry, they have more than recovered and I reckon the city is at its most marvelous today.

This week Melbourne, once again, showed me how marvelous it is. Chris started his job as a sales rep for World Series Paintball (reference my last blog) so I had a lot of solitary time on my hands being gainfully unemployed. To counteract any depression resulting from my apparent unemployability, I decided to release some good feely endorphins the old fashioned way-running. Now lets just say I am, ahem, slightly out of shape. Without a gym membership at my fingertips, I have been less than enthusiastic to participate in physical exercise as it is rather inconvenient. Unfortunately, I have been freaking out (again) lately about getting old, and after subscribing to a 40 and over email newsletter about healthy living I am quite worried about my heart health and have been inspired to engage in cardio vascular activity at least three days a week. (Note to self-reading literature targeted for a demographic two times may age MIGHT contribute to me feeling older) Luckily, my marvelous Melbourne is a city of gardens, and there is a particularly lovely running track mere minutes from my hostel. Now I have horribly sore thighs, calves, hips, sides, and toes, but my endorphins are raging. So begins my love/hate relationship with the daily run.

After my vigorous morning exercise, I return to the hostel breathing in an asthma attack fashion, beat red in the face, and soaking in cold sweat. After a stretch and a quick shower, I appear almost normal again except the redness in my face generally persists a good couple of hours. Now comes the fun part-sightseeing! After highlighting every free activity in my Lonely Planet Guide, I was ready to further my Melburnian enlightenment. It took me two days to take in all the National Gallery of Victoria had to offer. I particularly enjoyed the Persuasion: Fashion in the Age of Jane Austen. And I discovered I enjoy paintings much more than sculpture or designware. It takes me ages to go through the galleries because I have to stop and read every description of all the paintings. The first day I went I took one of our bunkmates, and I'm not sure Irish guy John was too impressed with my neanderthall pace of the place. Needless to say, I took a solitary trip the second time. There's actually a really great Dali temporary exhibit called Liquid Desire on at the moment. I say 'really great' from what I've heard, not first hand experience, as the entrance to that costs $23. I appreciate art, but I'm afraid my wallet can't afford to do the same at the moment.

I also went to the City Museum housed in the old Treasury Building. It wasn't free, but at $8 even my measly budget could take the hit. The Old Treasury is a beautiful building that was designed by a 19 year old kid from Liverpool which I thought was very impressive. At 19 my biggest achivement was making it to class on time. It used to be where a lot of government malarkey took place, and it still holds official business there today, but it is most famous for housing all that wonderful, sought after gold of the late 1800s in its expansive vaults. It's a nice little museum depicting Melbourne's history with the bonus of a victorian era theatre exhibit. This is also where the marriage registrar office is, so there's always lots of brides in front of the building fighting over prime picture real estate.

Finally this week, I also made it to the Queen Victoria Market-a couple of times actually. Whilst browsing through the stalls I also managed to pick up a bit of casual employment. Hoorah! I'll be selling these tribal looking hair comb things, and I start tomorrow. It's only a few hours a week, but at least I'll have a little cash flow. After congragulating myself on my employment venture, I celebrated by buying a $5 dress. I'm not sure how much wear I'll get from it, but I really like the bottom bit. Plus, there were only two left, and one of them was damaged, so the guy threw that one in for free. I'm thinking of cutting off the bottom fabric from one and fashioning it into a scarf. We'll see how crafty I can be.

Oh one last thing! On our way home from the market today, Chris and I came across a band called Bonjah playing on the street. They are actually Kiwi (from New Zealand), but they've been in Melbourne for the past three years. Their sound is really funky/folky/soulful sounding-to my untrained ear anyway. They were selling their debut album Until Dawn, so Chris bought a copy and had the whole band sign it in case they get famous. You can check them out at www.myspace.com/bonjahband. We sat on the steps of the Old General Post Office building, pulled out some treats we bought at the market, and enjoyed a little live music. Now how Marvellous is that?