JC Travels -The Blog

Week 567 – Leaving Melbourne – (Part 2 of 2) Last Weeks

jcantrel

1 year ago

In our last couple of weeks we visited some interesting places in Melbourne

Went to the coolest street in the world (according to TimeOut magazine) – it was far from it. Not even top 5 coolest in Melbourne. Need to investigate criteria.
Halloween in Port Melbourne – really just starting to be a tradition in Melbourne
Was invited to an opera benefit – Sharon was happy for us to dress up
The new pier in St. Kilda opened up – after being under construction the entire time we lived in Melbourne

Old pier in St. Kilda

New Pier in St. Kilda – opened right before I left in mid-December

Penguin Viewing Closed

Night at the Opera

Impressive venue – it wasn’t a full opera but performances as part of a fund raiser

Halloween in Port Melbourne – note the “Keep America Great Hat” on Jason/Freddie doll

In my last couple weeks, enjoyed the build up to the holidays and Christmas and was lucky to combine one of the holiday parties with my “leaving drinks” so I could see everyone before I left – pictures from the final week.

Weekend Regatta in the Bay

Slight aurora that we could see with about a 20 minute drive away from the city lights

Aurora alert on another night – but too much light pollution

Kite boarder losing it

Post pickleball lunch – note the footwear – two ankle braces and nurse shoes

Last night in highrise on almost the longest day of the year in mid-December – most of the time the sunset behind the building

Statute of Captian Cook replaced – will get cut down on again on Australia day later in January.

Christmas lights

State library of Victoria

The F1 store moved to the arcade – with Danny Ric opening for them

Old Shot Tower (to make bullets) – built mall around it and now a shoe store for a famous Australian brand

Partial view of CBD from Rialto Tower

Christmas lights

Rooftop bars, especially secret ones, are very popular in Melbourne and are often in office buildings or sketchy older buildings – below is a video of the walk down the stairs.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t share the Australian’s view of the US election – they were very engaged and looked at it like a scripted reality show – I kept reminding them that this was real. Many people watched news everyday – watched podcasts and were pretty knowledgeable on the situation. I was asked more than once “Why are there 2 old guys – what can you do about it? Surely you know someone who would be better” and many questions in a similar vein. After Biden dropped out and Trump had some legal challenges, most people assumed it would be a pretty straight forward Harris win. So at 11am local time in Melbourne on Nov 6 (which was 8pm US east coast time Nov 5) about 30 people were gathered around the TV in the lunch room which had a live Australian broadcast team from the US. This was about the time it was becoming apparent that Trump was in the lead. All but 2 were shocked and horrified – the 2 were split between a true Trump believer (and life dream to go to a rally) and an anti-US person who said this ends the US domination of the world order and this was long overdue.

We are in process of starting our next adventure – we are returning to Australia but moving across the country to Perth for another assignment for a bit. We are looking forward to hot days instead of more shoveling snow in Maryland!

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