A few highlights since my last update:
- Jim and Micaela come to visit
- Parents came back in town
- Olympics
After spending the better part of 2 straight months together 24/7 while they "studied" in New Zealand, Jim and Micaela arrived in Melbourne last Friday evening. Bryan also had a friend - Katey - from NYC who was on a two week vacation visiting friends in Sydney and us in Melbourne. The five of us went to dinner Friday night at a great Italian restaurant on Fitzroy St, just up the block from our apartment. After taking in some delicious risotto, lasagna and wine, Bryan and I gave our guests a tour of our neighborhood and grabbed a few drinks at some bars along Acland St.
On Saturday I took Jim and Micaela on the grueling 5 minutes walk from our apartment to St. Kilda beach. The happy couple had been on a whirlwind traveling/sightseeing tour so as oppose to showing them around the city, we decided to enjoy an afternoon of sunshine, relaxation at the beach. Another source of entertainment at the beach was watching Jimbo try not to get burnt. He was mildly successful.
Bryan, Katey and a couple of the exchange students went back down to Torquay Beach for a day of surfing. After they got back that evening, we went out again in the St. Kilda area for another fun night of dinner and drinks. We finished the night at a low-key beach bar on Acland St.
On that note, I find myself spending more time on Acland St lately (which is about a 5-7 minute walk). There is about a 2 block stretch of cool restaurants/shops/bars and it has a very cool local beach vibe that always has a lot of people enjoying food or a glass of wine at one of the many outdoor cafes. Also, I'm not a huge dessert guy but for those of you that are, there are 4 insanely good bakeries and cake shops on Acland St within a block of each other. Every combination of chocolate, sweets, pies and cakes are on display in these shops. I finally caved after a late lunch late lunch last Sunday and devoured a piece of chocolate cake with mint chocolate chip cream filling. My god was it good....
Sunday was very fun, but full day. on Sunday morning, Jim, Micaela and I headed downtown and walked around the city for a bit. We visited the Australian Open complex which was very cool and came close to sneaking into Rod Laver Arena. We then walked around the Yarra River, Federation Wharf and the SouthGate area where they actually have a really nice casino. Jim and I couldn't let the opportunity to play some cheap $5 blackjack pass us by...so Jim and I sat down at a table for about an hour while Micaela did some shopping in the mall area. Good times.
The afternoon was spent heading to the beach and playing some beach volleyball with some full time b-school students who we met. Needless to say, Bryan and I were a bit rusty to start off, but we got the hang of it the last couple games. Being 6'10" and 6'4" is apparently a good thing in beach volleyball. After getting that good workout in, we went to one of the students apartments where we ordered a bunch of pizza and hung out by the pool and hot tub in their apartment complex. For the UNC folks, think of a scaled down Alta Springs with a hot tub.
We started off the last full day of their visit by watching the US take down the Canadians in hockey. None of us are big hockey fans, but if you don't think we were standing up, yelling and high-fiving after each US goal and big play...then you're kidding yourself. We were 100% locked in and yelling insults at the Canadian team through the TV. It was awesome. You get a cool since of national pride when you are watching the Olympics in a foreign country. After the victory, we went downtown, did some more sightseeing and showed Jim and Micaela Melbourne Business School. We finished up the night with an incredible dinner on Ligon St.
The dynamic duo left the next morning to explore the rest of the country.
Parents back in town
After a two week trip to the wine country in Adelaide, Ayres Rock in the outback, the rain forest near Cairns, and the relaxing beaches of Hamilton Island, my parents finished their trip to Australia in Melbourne. I met up with them on Friday night (their 33rd anniversary) for an awesome dinner at Pearl. It turned out be a 3-hour dinner filled with some tasty Chiraz wine, Delicious food and some celebratory desert.
On Saturday, we rented a car and drove 1.5 hours down to the Mornington Peninsula where we visited Willow Creek Vineyards. It was a beautiful layout and was really cool to explore outside the city of Melbourne. After a wine tasting where we learned about the history of the winery and the reason why much of the vineyard had netting over it - they have problems with kangaroos eating the grapes - we had a very nice lunch at the restaurant at the vineyard. The restaurant had floor to ceiling windows that looked over the vineyard...really something to see.
We then decided to tour around two of the beach towns in the area, Dromana and Rosebud. Both were very small, quaint towns right on the bay side of the peninsula. While on the pier at Dromana, we noticed a boat race going on down the pier at Rosebud so we headed down there to check out the action. The water in the bay everywhere (in Melbourne and down on the peninsula) is very clear and quite shallow. Down on the peninsula, you had to walk a couple hundred yards in the water to get into water above your head....or at least my head.
The last night of my parents trip to Australia was spent on Bourke St at a restaurant called Bottega which is a Australian-Italian-Mediterranean fusion restaurant. You might be asking, "what does that even mean?" and I would not have an answer for that question. There were a few things on the menu that I hadn't seen before but that's part of the fun. I ended up having some incredible Ox Cheek which i didn't even need a knife to cut.
After saying my goodbyes to my parents, who were leaving the next morning, I checked my phone to see that one of my friends was at a bar just around the corner. I joined her and about 5 others at this alley-way bar called Double Happiness (weird name I know). There are A TON of these cool little bars in alleyways all over downtown Melbourne. Every one has a ton of character and each one seems to be very unique. This particular bar had 3 levels, of which we ended up on the top level which had the "velvet rope" treatment. Apparently i was meeting up with some important types.
There are no menus, and thus no prices, but you can order whatever you want. The waiter asks the following questions:
Q: "what type of liquor do you want?"
A: "bourbon."
Q: "would you like your drinks to be sweet, sour, or neutral?"
A: "We'll go with sour."
Q: "Do you mind if we get creative with it?"
A: "Why not. Go for it."
Off he goes. Five minutes later he comes back with a concoction. It tasted kind of like a whiskey sour except had some other flavors in it that I couldn't figure out. It also had some sort of egg white fizz thing on the top. Whatever it was, it was tasty.
After ordering one more drink I decide to catch the tram home before it shuts off at 1am...thus causing me to take an expensive cab back to St Kilda. Since they were still going strong when I left, and their were not menus/prices, I left my friend a $50 bill and said "i hope i get change back but my guess drinks are $20 each so just let me know." This is a perfect time for me to restate how incredibly expensive drinks are here....its nuts. You can't get a mixed drink for less than $12, and most places they are $16 (and not healthy pours). Beers are generally around $6-7. Not sustainable pricing...at least not for a grad student using a depreciating US dollar.
Olympics
Thank god one of the 6 channels we get here is the one that shows the Olympics. Its on in the morning when I wake up and at night when I get home. They obviously show the Australians when they are competing but actually provided a great deal of American coverage as well.
I am updating the blog shortly after we just lost the Gold medal game in OT but it was incredibly exciting. Bryan and were still a bit groggy watching it (we actually thought it started at 9am here, turns out it started at 7:30am) since we didn't wake up until the 3rd period was starting. When the US scored the equalizer with 20 seconds remaining, Bryan and were running around our apartment yelling and high-fiving. It was awesome. I definitely get a extra sense of national pride watching this stuff abroad.
Sorry for the long blog and the lack of pics. I'll update this post with good pics once my parents get home and upload their photos from their camera. Also, if Jim is reading this, post your pics fool.
Booked my 5 day trip to the south island of New Zealand last night. Heading out in 3 weeks. I've heard nothing but great things from everyone whose been there so can't wait for that trip.
Cheers,
Paul
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