Mmmm… cupcakes.

Wait, I should back up a little bit.

Two nights ago we arrived in Melbourne from Perth. Before we left for our 4pm flight, we squeezed in some surfing at Scarborough beach with Mike and Cara. Lisa, a local we had met through the Ride’s, had offered the night before to take us and teach us. We rented a few boards (longboards and foam boards) and went down to the water, which apparently was good for surfing. Whit, Mike, and Cara all did well and managed to get up a few times. I was not so lucky, and struggled most of the time to keep my bathing suit from coming off and got knocked around pretty hard. It’s hard to complain though, since it was not a bad way to spend the morning before getting on an airplane.

We headed back to the Ride’s to shower and eat a quick lunch before going to the airport. Our flight wound up being about 30 minutes late taking off, so we got in later than scheduled. The airline we took was kind of like Southwest, so it didn’t take us in to the main airport. Rather, we were about 50 minutes from Central Melbourne by bus. Our plan was to take the bus to the train station, then take a cab to where we were staying out in Camberwell, a suburb in east Melbourne. Everything went smoothly, it just took awhile. By the time we found the Luscombe’s house (family friends of Whit), it was 1am, but we had the time difference working in our advantage.

The next day we woke up late (time difference not working in our advantage), and chatted with Joy. Then she dropped us at the train station so we could explore the city. Melbourne has great public transit, which made our whole day much easier.

We were both excited to be in a city again, and the pace of Melbourne was a perfect switch from where we were coming from. When we got off the train we headed to lunch at a vegetarian Indian place that we had read about in our travel book called Crossways. The food was really good, especially since we hadn’t eaten a full meal since we left Perth!

Our next destination was Queen Victoria Market, about a half-mile walk. We walked up Hardware Lane, and browsed around where all the outdoor gear shops are. Once we made it to the market, it was closed, but we saw a sign saying that that evening was the first Night Market of the season. So, we hopped on a tram and went down to St. Paul’s Cathedral. This is a really nice old church that was built in 1891, and had lots of nice wood, intricate tiling, and stained glass.

Right across the street is Federation Square, quite the contrast architecturally from what’s around it. It was pretty busy there, so we walked right beyond it to an open-air photography exhibit on the banks of the Yarra River. The exhibit, “Earth from Above” is an amazing series of aerial photographs of distinct environmental scenes that illustrate the toll that mankind is taking on the earth. They were all photographed by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. Of all the things we saw, this is where we spent the most of our time. Each photograph was about 5 feet high by 6 feet wide, shot in great clear color, and had a well-written summary of what it was and what the impact was - it was all very captivating. If you have time to browse the web, definitely check out the exhibit’s webpage (although the small size of the photographs online probably won’t do them justice).

After we finished at the exhibit, it was time to head back up to the market. Instead of taking the main streets, we walked through a few old arcades - which were filled with tiny old shops and cafes. We saw about 3 of them, each with really old, detailed tilework and antique signage - very cool.

All day, the weather was gorgeous - sunny and clear, but a breeze keeping it from getting hot. The Night Market was just starting up when we got there - a long row of food vendors was open, as well as some arts, crafts, and clothing vendors.

We walked around the whole place, ate a little food, listened to some live music, and indulged in a $4AUD cupcake (that’s about $3USD). Yup, four bucks for a peppermint mud cupcake sold at the frilliest booth in the whole place. It may have spoiled our dinner, but it definitely made our day!

love, claire & whit