Last Day in Melbourne
Because I only had today to see the city I
actually got up early to walk around the town, catch an IMAX movie at the
Melbourne museum, and still make it back in time for my 1pm check out.
Because I only had today to see the city I
actually got up early to walk around the town, catch an IMAX movie at the
Melbourne museum, and still make it back in time for my 1pm check out.
(Ruins from an old building torn down in Melbourne outside the Melbourne Museum)
I arrived at the Melbourne Museum to catch an IMAX movie called "Australia: Land Before Time" or something close to that. The problem was that I was on the assumption that the IMAX held the same schedule from day to day. Turns out on Monday, the 10am movie is actually Galapagos 3D. Of the movies there, this was not the worst one, and seeing that if I went and saw this one I practically got a second one for free. I was a little dubious of 3D technology but I have to say it worked pretty well. There were a few times where you felt like you were really there, and then there were sometimes the 3D prevented you from seeing the screen clearly. Overall it was a great 45 minutes movie on the Galapagos Island, and if I were there I am sure I would have appreciated more, however I was in Australia so what I really wanted to see was the movie about Australia that was showing at 4pm.
I walked by the old Melbourne jail, and the quickly by the Queen Victoria Market, and then headed back to the hotel to check out. I decided to stop for lunch later, so I made it back to the hotel with time to spare. My plan at this point was to check out leave my bags at the hotel where I would meet the shuttle to the airport later that afternoon. I called Steve Weisberg and asked if he wanted to meet for dinner before I left for town.
After I left the hotel I went through the mental check list of where I wanted to go before I left town. I had seem most of the highlights except for the south bank of the river, and St. Patrick cathedral. The south side of the river was a modern area where companies like IBM had thier city head quarters. The river was lined with cafe's and small food courts.
I stopped and had a japanese lunch, and then headed back across the river to find St Patrick's Cathedral. St Patrick's was your typical large roman catholic catherdral. It inside was beautiful, and the stained glass over the entrance was magnificant. However, once you have seen one fancy Catholic catherdral, you pretty much get an idea on what this one would look like.
From St. Patrick's I made my way back to the Melbourne Museum. I had about an hour and a half before the Australia movie began, so I decided to go into the actual museum. The Melbourne Museum is a natural history museum with a large part devoted to the aboriginal history. I started out in the natural history side where they had a blue whale skeleton on display. This whale washed ashore alone the coast of Victoria about ten years ago, but they were never able to find out what killed him.
I also was able to see my first kangaroo in Australia... yes it was stuffed but it was still a kangaroo. They also had on display the now extinct Tasmanian Tiger, which was hunted to extinction within the last 100 years.
After looking at all the dead animals I wandered into the Aboriginal art section. This area was more focused on the history or the White vs. Aboriginal culture. The best way to describe it to an american is more like out treatment of the Native American that anyone else. For a good amount of time, white settlers looked at the aborigines as animals and would hunt them the same way they would a dingo. When modern attitudes changed that the whites who believed they were helping the aboriginal people, would take one out of every three children away from their parents and move them to the cities where they were raised in orphanages.
By they time I had made my way through half of the aboriginal section I had to leave to go catch the IMAX movie on Australia. As it turned out this movie was not at 3D movie, which I was happy to find out. The movie covered primarily the geological history of country, and then focused primarily on the diverse and strange wildlife. When you really stop and think about it, this country has quite a collection. For one, the kangaroo. The kangaroo has become a familiar mascot for Australia, but if you stop and think about this creature it really is unlike anything else. At full bore hopping along the countryside the kangaroo uses less energy than when is barely hoping at all. When watching it at full throttle you realize that it is in fact a very graceful animal. And then there is the Koala Bear, which is not a bear at all, its actually more related to the kangaroo than to any bears. As adorable as it is, the claws it has could slice a man to pieces, that is if they were ever awake long enough to worry about anything. The Koala has made lounging into a way of life. It eats then sleeps and then pretty much calls it a day. The Koala has huge source of food do to the fact that the trees it eats are poisonous to just about every other creature in the country. And finally the king of strange would be the platypus. When first sent back to england by the explorers it was take as a joke. In fact for quite some time no one believed it was an actual animal. It lays eggs like a reptile, its cold blooded, its has fur and milks its young, and has a beak like a bird. But just to make things a little more interesting it has sensors on the bill that detect electronic pulses more like a fish or shark. In fact its so well prepared for looking for food underwater it does it with its eyes closed. Of course there are plenty of other things that make Australia amazing, it has the oldest mountains on earth, it has the oldest exciting organism in the world, it has insects that have been assumed to been extinct seen and then disappear to only be seen again once in the last thirty years. The country is roughly the size of the contiguous United States, and 90% of its population lives within 90 miles of the ocean. Of course everyone has heard about how dry and desolate the outback is, but did you know that until recently in the geological life if the country the center of the country was an ocean. Its no wonder that after finding shells in the ground many people lost their lives in the outback looking for the inland see, sadly they were a few hundred thousand years too late.
However about once every ten years rains come in and fill up Lake Ayer (not the right spelling I know) which was once the sea floor in the center of Australia. The movie document such an occurrence, and it showed just how alive the dry desolate outback can become with rain. Fish all but magically appear in river beds that have been dry for over a year, birds including seagulls and pelican fly hundreds of miles inland to fly the same sky their ancestors flew hundreds of thousands of years ago. Dingo, crocks, kangaroos, reptiles, and so on all come to feast of the explosion of flora and fauna. And then as quickly as it arrived it is gone within a month or so. It was truly amazing an amazing site even it was on a screen. I would love to come back and see it in person some day.
Once the movie ended I was left with only 30 minutes to get back to the hotel. I thought I would catch a cab but as I started walking and noticing the quick time I was making I decided to do it all on foot. I arrived at the hotel with about 10 minutes to spare, and made it to the airport shuttle on time. In fact two people who decided to grab the shuttle with me were on an earlier flight to Perth. When I said that was where I was headed they told me that they lived in perth. I spent the next few minutes pestering them about places to stay, and squeezing them for information. Sadly I had forgotten most of it within 10 minutes.
My flight was not until 9:30 that night but due to the shuttles being booked solid and remember that Steve was staying at the airport I thought it would be a nice opportunity to see him again. So I went and checked in, got my exit row, and headed over to the Hilton where Steve was staying. We had another great time, caught up on the issues of the day, talked Mac vs. PC, and had a great dinner before I set off for Perth.
The flight boarded on time, and if it were not for Qantas giving one group trouble for exceeding their weight limit we would have left on time. Turns out that the folk I was sitting next to were part of the group that had exceeded the limit. In fact Qantas made them repack their bag down on the tarmac. This wasn't a puddle jumped this was a 737-800. They had to put on yellow vests, go to the back of the aircraft and repack their luggage. You could tell that they had some choice words for the crew, because when the flight attendant came to ask about whether we could handle the responsibility of the exit row, the flight attendant actually tested the girl who had apparently given some attitude. I mean really tested her, like "and the time not to open the escape door is?" I wanted to respond, "when we are smoothly flying at 30,000 feet" but jokes like that just don't go over like they used to.
Turns out this group was going around Australia preaching the tourist appeal of Darwin, the northern most city in Australia. I was apprehensive to tell them that I actually cut their fair city out of my itinerary. When they found this out, they fell right into my trap, and next thing you know I had someone to talk to for the four our flight. Actually the flight went really fast, and before no time I arrived in Perth, caught the shuttle and was at my hotel by midnight.
The hotel clerk was very nice and when I showed my excitement that they had high speed internet access in the hotel rooms he gave me the first night free. Not having internet access in my hotel room in some time actually didn't get to bed that night until 2am, which was 4am where I just left.
(Ruins from an old building torn down in Melbourne outside the Melbourne Museum)
I arrived at the Melbourne Museum to catch an IMAX movie called "Australia: Land Before Time" or something close to that. The problem was that I was on the assumption that the IMAX held the same schedule from day to day. Turns out on Monday, the 10am movie is actually Galapagos 3D. Of the movies there, this was not the worst one, and seeing that if I went and saw this one I practically got a second one for free. I was a little dubious of 3D technology but I have to say it worked pretty well. There were a few times where you felt like you were really there, and then there were sometimes the 3D prevented you from seeing the screen clearly. Overall it was a great 45 minutes movie on the Galapagos Island, and if I were there I am sure I would have appreciated more, however I was in Australia so what I really wanted to see was the movie about Australia that was showing at 4pm.
I walked by the old Melbourne jail, and the quickly by the Queen Victoria Market, and then headed back to the hotel to check out. I decided to stop for lunch later, so I made it back to the hotel with time to spare. My plan at this point was to check out leave my bags at the hotel where I would meet the shuttle to the airport later that afternoon. I called Steve Weisberg and asked if he wanted to meet for dinner before I left for town.
After I left the hotel I went through the mental check list of where I wanted to go before I left town. I had seem most of the highlights except for the south bank of the river, and St. Patrick cathedral. The south side of the river was a modern area where companies like IBM had thier city head quarters. The river was lined with cafe's and small food courts.
I stopped and had a japanese lunch, and then headed back across the river to find St Patrick's Cathedral. St Patrick's was your typical large roman catholic catherdral. It inside was beautiful, and the stained glass over the entrance was magnificant. However, once you have seen one fancy Catholic catherdral, you pretty much get an idea on what this one would look like.
From St. Patrick's I made my way back to the Melbourne Museum. I had about an hour and a half before the Australia movie began, so I decided to go into the actual museum. The Melbourne Museum is a natural history museum with a large part devoted to the aboriginal history. I started out in the natural history side where they had a blue whale skeleton on display. This whale washed ashore alone the coast of Victoria about ten years ago, but they were never able to find out what killed him.
I also was able to see my first kangaroo in Australia... yes it was stuffed but it was still a kangaroo. They also had on display the now extinct Tasmanian Tiger, which was hunted to extinction within the last 100 years.
After looking at all the dead animals I wandered into the Aboriginal art section. This area was more focused on the history or the White vs. Aboriginal culture. The best way to describe it to an american is more like out treatment of the Native American that anyone else. For a good amount of time, white settlers looked at the aborigines as animals and would hunt them the same way they would a dingo. When modern attitudes changed that the whites who believed they were helping the aboriginal people, would take one out of every three children away from their parents and move them to the cities where they were raised in orphanages.
By they time I had made my way through half of the aboriginal section I had to leave to go catch the IMAX movie on Australia. As it turned out this movie was not at 3D movie, which I was happy to find out. The movie covered primarily the geological history of country, and then focused primarily on the diverse and strange wildlife. When you really stop and think about it, this country has quite a collection. For one, the kangaroo. The kangaroo has become a familiar mascot for Australia, but if you stop and think about this creature it really is unlike anything else. At full bore hopping along the countryside the kangaroo uses less energy than when is barely hoping at all. When watching it at full throttle you realize that it is in fact a very graceful animal. And then there is the Koala Bear, which is not a bear at all, its actually more related to the kangaroo than to any bears. As adorable as it is, the claws it has could slice a man to pieces, that is if they were ever awake long enough to worry about anything. The Koala has made lounging into a way of life. It eats then sleeps and then pretty much calls it a day. The Koala has huge source of food do to the fact that the trees it eats are poisonous to just about every other creature in the country. And finally the king of strange would be the platypus. When first sent back to england by the explorers it was take as a joke. In fact for quite some time no one believed it was an actual animal. It lays eggs like a reptile, its cold blooded, its has fur and milks its young, and has a beak like a bird. But just to make things a little more interesting it has sensors on the bill that detect electronic pulses more like a fish or shark. In fact its so well prepared for looking for food underwater it does it with its eyes closed. Of course there are plenty of other things that make Australia amazing, it has the oldest mountains on earth, it has the oldest exciting organism in the world, it has insects that have been assumed to been extinct seen and then disappear to only be seen again once in the last thirty years. The country is roughly the size of the contiguous United States, and 90% of its population lives within 90 miles of the ocean. Of course everyone has heard about how dry and desolate the outback is, but did you know that until recently in the geological life if the country the center of the country was an ocean. Its no wonder that after finding shells in the ground many people lost their lives in the outback looking for the inland see, sadly they were a few hundred thousand years too late.
However about once every ten years rains come in and fill up Lake Ayer (not the right spelling I know) which was once the sea floor in the center of Australia. The movie document such an occurrence, and it showed just how alive the dry desolate outback can become with rain. Fish all but magically appear in river beds that have been dry for over a year, birds including seagulls and pelican fly hundreds of miles inland to fly the same sky their ancestors flew hundreds of thousands of years ago. Dingo, crocks, kangaroos, reptiles, and so on all come to feast of the explosion of flora and fauna. And then as quickly as it arrived it is gone within a month or so. It was truly amazing an amazing site even it was on a screen. I would love to come back and see it in person some day.
Once the movie ended I was left with only 30 minutes to get back to the hotel. I thought I would catch a cab but as I started walking and noticing the quick time I was making I decided to do it all on foot. I arrived at the hotel with about 10 minutes to spare, and made it to the airport shuttle on time. In fact two people who decided to grab the shuttle with me were on an earlier flight to Perth. When I said that was where I was headed they told me that they lived in perth. I spent the next few minutes pestering them about places to stay, and squeezing them for information. Sadly I had forgotten most of it within 10 minutes.
My flight was not until 9:30 that night but due to the shuttles being booked solid and remember that Steve was staying at the airport I thought it would be a nice opportunity to see him again. So I went and checked in, got my exit row, and headed over to the Hilton where Steve was staying. We had another great time, caught up on the issues of the day, talked Mac vs. PC, and had a great dinner before I set off for Perth.
The flight boarded on time, and if it were not for Qantas giving one group trouble for exceeding their weight limit we would have left on time. Turns out that the folk I was sitting next to were part of the group that had exceeded the limit. In fact Qantas made them repack their bag down on the tarmac. This wasn't a puddle jumped this was a 737-800. They had to put on yellow vests, go to the back of the aircraft and repack their luggage. You could tell that they had some choice words for the crew, because when the flight attendant came to ask about whether we could handle the responsibility of the exit row, the flight attendant actually tested the girl who had apparently given some attitude. I mean really tested her, like "and the time not to open the escape door is?" I wanted to respond, "when we are smoothly flying at 30,000 feet" but jokes like that just don't go over like they used to.
Turns out this group was going around Australia preaching the tourist appeal of Darwin, the northern most city in Australia. I was apprehensive to tell them that I actually cut their fair city out of my itinerary. When they found this out, they fell right into my trap, and next thing you know I had someone to talk to for the four our flight. Actually the flight went really fast, and before no time I arrived in Perth, caught the shuttle and was at my hotel by midnight.
The hotel clerk was very nice and when I showed my excitement that they had high speed internet access in the hotel rooms he gave me the first night free. Not having internet access in my hotel room in some time actually didn't get to bed that night until 2am, which was 4am where I just left.
Posted: Fri - September 5, 2003 at 12:16 AM
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Published On: Aug 01, 2004 11:37 PM
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Published On: Aug 01, 2004 11:37 PM