Melbourne: The Departed

This morning we woke up to a cold dreary morning with dark clouds hanging above. I stepped out of our room into the open-air hallway and watched my breath appear in front of me. It was 6:30 in the morning local time and the city was already awake and bustling.

The men’s bathroom in our hostel consists of two rooms; one very large room with about 8 side by side shower units made of plastic, and another smaller room with two toilets and a large metal trough that worked as a urinal. Windows lined the wall above the toilet, some of the panes missing glass.  Melissa came back from her showers each morning complaining of the same less-than-desirable surroundings, and ever suspicious of the holes drilled in each shower around pelvic level. And that there was never any soap to use after going to the restroom (yet she seemed to be the only one who noticed!).

Walking around Melbourne was an absolute culture shock. Traveling from Klamath Falls to Utah to Los Angeles to Melbourne was a whirlwind of change and nothing really prepared me for Melbourne. People are everywhere and the Asian influence is massive here. Most of the men, local or other wise, walk around in suites and are primped as much as possible. The skinny jeans trend has not skipped Australia by any means either.  I don’t think I am ever going to understand that trend.

One of the most shocking things has been the prices! Everything is expensive and I mean everything; water bottles to jeans to food. It seems that everything is about double the price as the states.

Ok, so far it seems like Melissa and I might be bashing Melbourne but in reality the city is an amazing collection of cultures meshed together; old buildings nestled in between massive modern sky scrappers. An example could be seen on the RMIT campus. What’s left of the original colonial prison (or gaol as they call it here) sits right on the university campus. In fact, Melissa and I watched a group of students kicking a soccer ball around inside the historical structure’s courtyard. Seeing the kids kicking the ball against a historical buildings wall seemed almost insulting. Melbourne is a massive combination of unique sites, amazing buildings, interesting people and fantastic food.