Ramble
Quest - Rundown in Melbourne.
Melbourne is one of those towns I'd heard nothing but great reviews about for many years, so it was with great surprise that I found myself not really liking the place. It is hard to completely overcome first impressions and I had some extremely negative ones in the beginning.
Staying at the Queensberry YHA turned out to be a mistake as it is a large, badly run hostel that becomes increasingly annoying. It was not unusual to encounter people like the Spanish woman in the elevator muttering: "they take your money and then they stick you -- no consideration!" Then my first several days in Melbourne were all ugly grey skies, emphasizing the natural dreariness of the town. Plus I hadn't been in a larger town for a long time and the sight of all of these forlorn looking people, almost all dressed in black, rushing off to work with robotic exressions on their faces seemed appalling. Of course you must see this in all big cities but for some reason I'm noticing it more here.
The bicycle accident may have been the clincher to foul my mood. Melbourne drivers, like their counterparts in many places, are not kind to cyclists and ignore lines defining bike lanes. Motorcyclists in particular seemed to think that the sides of the roads belonged only to them. So, while riding along on a busy street, I'm dangerously cutoff and wind up flying off. Normally, this wouldn't have been too bad as I land on the side of the road and am used to taking tumbles, having had some practice at it. However, I have the great misfortune of landing on a metal water pipe sticking out of the ground.
My leg gets hurt, bad but not super bad since I can manage the few blocks back to the hostel. Then I ignore it for a bit too long, being in something of a shock, so that when I finally take my pants off the blood has dried on to it and I wind up making it bleed a lot more than it needed to. I had a feeling that I might use up everything in my sparce medical kit during this trip. This accident took out my gauze and much else besides.
Perhaps the only good thing about the charmless and inefficient Queensbury YHA is that they have a bathtub, the first I've seen in a hostel. Here I can soak my sores away. They even have little plastic hippo, croc and turtle to play with.
Of course Melbourne isn't all that bad and eventually I find some things to like about it. The botanic gardens, although not even as good as Christchurch's, are a refuge. They have a bit of a problem with the many flying foxes, but they can be cool to watch. Scones and tea by the lake is a very civilized practice that I could get used to. The Fitzroy Gardens are also worth a look, provided you don't have any expectations about anything a sign points to. The more interesting the name sounds -- "Model Tudor village", "Fairies tree", "Temple of the Winds" -- the more likely it is to be a bust, so just head for the flower beds. People watching is great here. A bad bagpipe player follows a wedding procession, who properly seem annoyed by him but I think he was hired. Five women exercise while laughing hysterically, not genuine laughter but loudly forced shrieks of a somewhat simian nature that seem to be part of the exercise. A large group of Japanese tourists invade an insipid greenhouse and go into an orgy of photo shooting, snapping up hundreds of the most banal shots imaginable within a few minutes.
Melbourne does have the nice big city charms of some interesting architecture, cheap Asian food, and a Victorian Market where you can get good produce, particularly just before closing. Before my accident I got in a long bike ride along the Yarra River where I saw a crew boat capsize and kids playing baseball! Back in town I come across a commotion where they found a deadly Tiger snake inside a book store!
Everything is so dry and brown here, particularly glaring after New Zealand. The flies relentlously try to go up your nose. Melbourne has too much traffic. But then, I'm not in the best of moods.