Saturday, October 07, 2006
Melbourne
I'm here for work.. we'll go through the formalities of exactly why later. I'll be here for at least 2 years and while I'm here I will, of course, be doing quite a bit of traveling on this side of the world. First, let's look around Melbourne..
Where are we? First, Australia is a big country - the sixth largest by land, actually - but doesn't really have very many people - 20 million. Melbourne is the second biggest city in Australia and is in the state of Victoria (see map). There are about of 3.5 million people in the Melbourne area - so it's a pretty good sized city with a good mix of people.
As you can see, Melbourne's on a bay, which is cool because I can live near the beach but the downside is that the water's very calm. So today I decided to drive down to find the ocean. I'm on the east side of the bay, just south of the city (my hotel's in South Melbourne - look at that) so I decided to take a drive along the coast down to.. well I wasn't really sure where I was going. So I just heading to a town called Portsea but instead found Rye Beach and there was exactly what I was looking for - the full ocean. If the world wasn't curved and my eyes were better I could see Antarctica - ok, ok.. Tasmania's in the way but the waves were big and people were surfing. Give me a couple of months and I'll be down here too riding the waves
The rest of the trip? Well, it was a bit uneventful except for getting lost a few times (I didn't have a map). I kept thinking, "Why don't they have any signs pointing to the city? It's the only other place for people to go." When I hit a different beach, actually in Portsea and where London Bridge is, I realized, "Maybe I did see some city signs and I was just looking at the back of 'em." And sure enough, after getting some pictures of the sun setting over London Bridge, I headed back and, sure enough, saw those "Melbourne" signs. In my defence, I knew I needed to head north, which I was doing, but I was just moving further down the peninsula.
Then on my way back, taking the highway, which kept turning into a 2-way road that had a ton of roundabouts I ran into a T in the road. What did the signs say? City to the left.. but then the other said city to the right. And, of course, I made the wrong decision but finally found my way back to the hotel.
Really, this story doesn't work without pictures but since I'm here for work and I only have my work computer, I can't download any pictures. So, I will leave you with a picture or two of Melbourne and will have to share more with you later.
Where are we? First, Australia is a big country - the sixth largest by land, actually - but doesn't really have very many people - 20 million. Melbourne is the second biggest city in Australia and is in the state of Victoria (see map). There are about of 3.5 million people in the Melbourne area - so it's a pretty good sized city with a good mix of people.
As you can see, Melbourne's on a bay, which is cool because I can live near the beach but the downside is that the water's very calm. So today I decided to drive down to find the ocean. I'm on the east side of the bay, just south of the city (my hotel's in South Melbourne - look at that) so I decided to take a drive along the coast down to.. well I wasn't really sure where I was going. So I just heading to a town called Portsea but instead found Rye Beach and there was exactly what I was looking for - the full ocean. If the world wasn't curved and my eyes were better I could see Antarctica - ok, ok.. Tasmania's in the way but the waves were big and people were surfing. Give me a couple of months and I'll be down here too riding the waves
The rest of the trip? Well, it was a bit uneventful except for getting lost a few times (I didn't have a map). I kept thinking, "Why don't they have any signs pointing to the city? It's the only other place for people to go." When I hit a different beach, actually in Portsea and where London Bridge is, I realized, "Maybe I did see some city signs and I was just looking at the back of 'em." And sure enough, after getting some pictures of the sun setting over London Bridge, I headed back and, sure enough, saw those "Melbourne" signs. In my defence, I knew I needed to head north, which I was doing, but I was just moving further down the peninsula.
Then on my way back, taking the highway, which kept turning into a 2-way road that had a ton of roundabouts I ran into a T in the road. What did the signs say? City to the left.. but then the other said city to the right. And, of course, I made the wrong decision but finally found my way back to the hotel.
Really, this story doesn't work without pictures but since I'm here for work and I only have my work computer, I can't download any pictures. So, I will leave you with a picture or two of Melbourne and will have to share more with you later.
# posted by Keith @ 10:02 PM 
