Melbourne

Well, the weather did not improve. By the time we got out, it was wet and freezing. All the signs to crawl back under the blanket and wait for the clouds to give up and let the sun light through. Eventually however, we convinced ourselves out on the street.

I was excited after I had spotted a Pretzel shop yesterday close to our hotel and decided that it would be the perfect spot for breakfast. When I had a look at their shop window though I was slightly disappointed. So Melbourne also isn't quite perfect yet.

My somewhat subconscious belief that I'm not in Australia anymore manifested itself funnily today when I saw a shop with 'Australia' in the name and had a thought train around the lines of: 'Hey, something Australian! Wait… I am in Australia.'

The tram sounds also don't get old, with the individual trams being of rather varying ages. It appears these trams don't die easy. Though it's interesting to note that there are plenty of points where tram lines intersect but at most of these points there is actually no possibility for the trams to turn onto the intersecting tracks.
I also somewhat note that whenever something with big metal rimmed wheels turns up in my travels, it equally turns up in my blog. So let's balance a little and talk about buses! I saw exactly one, and it was a tourist bus. Maybe too many tourists got too confused by the concept of non-bus public transport that they provide a bus to their rescue.

As the day progressed, the clouds got more tired and about an hour before sunset, the blue sky also got to make an appearance. A very welcome change. And one thing I could nicely enjoy with the new found sun light was the colour scheme of the city. If you look at some of the newer apartment blocks in the bay area you'll notice that some of them have shiny windows reflecting dark blue or vivid purple. Both being colours I thoroughly approve off. Other apartment blocks are simply covered in all colours provided by the rainbow making actually the entire city quite colourful.

The transition from light to night was enjoyed from the 88th floor of the Eureka building, which gave a surprisingly clear view after the rain had come and gone. Though the thing which also surprised me about the city line was the fact that, with only one exception, none of the skyscrapers had any red beacons to mark their outlines. Certainly quite a difference after travelling in something like Japan where every building is absolutely covered in these beacons and even the Tokyo tower was painted in orange and white to be nice to the aviation guys.

Certainly would be nice to have a look at a few other things in Melbourne but tomorrow morning we head back on the long international drive home. Melbourne was certainly a very interesting contrast to what I usually regards as Australia. Maybe the city can give me some sweet dreams before I leave her, and I doubt this will have been the last time I see her.