Never enough to read
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008I’ve only been to Melbourne once before and that was many years ago for a dirty weekend so I didn’t really have much in the way of expectations or, in deed, any clear idea of what I was going to do when I got there. I remembered that it was a city replete with sidewalk dining, every café, restaurant, coffee shop and fast food place having its little sets of table and chairs outside and there were usually people sitting there eating and drinking and watching the world go by in what I imagine is a very European way. In fact it may have been the large European influence, the influx of Greeks and Italians after WW2, which gave the city its feel for eating outside. Whatever the reason it was something that I remembered and it was something I wanted to do. I also wanted to continue the search I began in
The ship docked a little way from the city CBD and we had been told that there would be a shuttle bus running from the ship to the nearest tram station and from there we could get a tram into town. I waited for the mass of initial passengers getting off and being herded to their tour buses and then made my way across the gangway and into the terminal building. I’ve been impressed by the buildings in Auckland, Sydney and Melbourne after having spent so long visiting ports in the Caribbean where it’s just a matter of walking down the gangway onto a concrete pier and you’re there. These other cities obviously have a professional way of dealing with cruise ships that I had never really considered before taking this job. It feels more like getting off a plane than anything else and gives you a sense of having arrived somewhere rather than just being dumped. I’m going to have to take a drive to
Outside the building was a sign saying shuttle bus stop so I joined the growing queue and started looking through the maps and brochures I’d grabbed on my way out. There was plenty of activity as passengers boarded tour buses and the queue for the shuttle grew longer as I read. I managed to overhear one couple walking past saying “he said the tram stop was only a couple of minutes away†and they headed off in the same direction as the buses. With no sign of the shuttle I decided to follow them and true to his word it was only a two minute walk out of the port area itself to a tram stop and a waiting tram. There were already a few people who had bypassed the shuttle and were climbing into the tram but I’d been looking at my map and making a few calculations. It seemed to only be a distance of about 3 or 4 km’s to the heart of the city and where I wanted to go so I bought a coke from a small shop, shouldered my pack a little more comfortably and headed off.
It was a pleasant walk, the temperature being warm but with a cool breeze enough to stop me from working up a sweat. The path followed the tram line and I could see the high-rise office buildings in the distance. At first I walked through a suburban setting, neatly kept homes and gardens obviously struggling with a lack of water. As I got closer to the city I found it getting a little more industrial and the traffic was picking up but even at ten o’clock in the morning it still lacked the frenetic pace and congestion that lingers in most cities after rush hour is finished. I don’t know how much of that has to do with
The first place I came to, and it’s hard to miss, was the Crown Casino. To say that it’s a casino is probably doing it a bit of an injustice since it is a complex with shopping, accommodation and entertainment. Call it a
From there I just walked the city. I picked up a few things that I needed, more magazines (you can never have enough things to read), some blank cds and a book. I wandered aimlessly around just looking in shops. I priced a camera lens I want (too much), gazed covetously at new motorbikes lined up outside 4 motorbike shops in a row. I ate a mushroom and chicken dish cooked in a small earthenware pot at a restaurant in the
Maybe I’ll do better in