Cliff Down Under: Easter in Melbourne

G'day

I hope your Easters were all good. Mine was a mixed bag of fun and a bit boring, all with a backdrop of beautiful blue skies and temperatures in the low 20s - not bad for the equivalent of late October, northern-hemisphere-weather-wise.

The fun bits all involved getting out and about (more below), eating some excellent pizza, and moving to my new place in North Melbourne. I'm now in a self-contained flat on the ground floor of a three-storey house in a quiet lane just a ten-minute walk from the city centre. The bathroom's a bit grim (think bare lightbulbs and a toilet placed so close to the shower cubicle that you need to sit slightly sideways when using it) but otherwise it's noice enough - good thing as it's home for my last six months here. And on a day full of new things, I also had my second-ever coffee (the first was in 1985 at an intensive German day course where I had a cup of instant - strange the things you remember). Coffee is a Melbourne obsession and even though I don't actually like the smell of it, I thought I should give it a go as part of my Melbourne Experience (after building up to it over my first six months). Unfortunately, even with the addition of a sugar or two it wasn't my, er, cup of tea and I won't be rushing to order another latte any time soon.

And what about the boring bits? Well, traipsing round town buying bits and pieces for the new place was rather dull, plus most people I know were busy so I didn't really see anyone for half of the long weekend, but I did make a daytrip out to Williamstown, now a suburb of Melbourne but originally the new town's port in the 1830s before the Yarra river was deepened and ships were able to come all the way into the city. There's quite a bit to see and do, including some lovely old houses and some nice park and beach walks, but the most amazing thing to happen there (at least to me) was that I was unable to finish the portion of chips I ordered. In my defence, Australian chip shops work in a slightly strange way in that they cook each order fresh (no fish or chips sitting around) so have a minimum chip portion size to justify them heating up the oil, and that portion is pretty big (usually for 2-3 people). Still, portion size has never stopped me finishing a bag of chippy lovelies before, so I'm not sure what happened. I think I'll put it down to an off-day and hope that it doesn't happen again.

And now the moment you've all been waiting for - the photos!

Fitzroy Town Hall - built at the height of Marvellous Melbourne's 19th-century boom (a weekend or so before Easter I did a walk around Fitzroy and East Melbourne)