My trip to Melbourne was memorable. I only wish that it wasn’t so damn far away! The flight was not bad, no delays and no lost baggage, but when I reached Holyoke at 1 am, I was ready for a long sleep in a familiar bed. It’s great to be […]
Often I compare these journeys to eating tapas. There’s a little bit here, a taste of that there, and you never really settle into a groove because it’s time to go when that finally happens. This week in Melbourne has been splendid, and I must say that Oz is as […]
In Melbourne, the arts are a seriously high priority. Whether it’s public art in city squares, or nurturing the art of new clothing designers or performers, the arts are a big part of the experience of visiting here. Even the highways coming into the city are lined with gigantic steel […]
Josh Oakes says he is raw. Raw as in new to many aspects of running a full time tour guide business here in Melbourne. We met yesterday and he took me to a beautiful part of the country, the spa-focused region of the Macedon Ranges. Here, he said, the emphasis […]
Tina Banitska paused for a moment, feeling a bit emotional when she took me through her 15-year labor of love called The Convent in Daylesford, Victoria. “Excuse me,” she said, sensing that I could tell this made her emotional. She grabbed my arm and continued, ‘I get this way sometimes, […]
Today I joined a group of about 20 wine enthusiasts for a trip to the Yarra Valley’s wine country. The van drove down winding roads through wooded hills and then onto more wide open areas with rolling hills and mountains in the distance. It was a gorgeous, sunny, fall day […]
I had an chat with a man named Murray who runs Melbourne’s Best Bicycle Tours yesterday. We sat by the Yarra river and sipped lattes and talked about how much people get paid here. Then we asked the waitress how much she made, and she wasn’t at all shy. “$18 […]
“I’m sorry.” These words are everything to Australia’s Aborigine community, and just a month ago, they were uttered by Australia’s new liberal prime minister Kevin Rudd. For more than a decade, the conservatives have ruled, and they were not about to apologize for what the white man has done to […]
Melbourne has the prosperous feel of a city on the up and up. I got this sense right after we got off the plane and stood in a line waiting for customs. As a cute blond Labrador was walked through the line, sniffing every passenger’s feet and luggage, posters up […]
I sat next to two young women on the long flight to Melbourne. One of the things they told me I should see while I was here was Australian Rules Football. So despite the jetlag, I took the tram down to Melbourne Cricket Grounds and soon I was holding a […]
Dean Torrance admitted that he did have a few regrets. This came after I asked him if he’d ever met any of the Beatles. Torrance is the Dean in Jan and Dean, the surf music band that had its heyday in the early sixties, when their songs like “Surf City” […]
Today I met a surfer named Charlos Bentley, who took me out to the big waves to teach me some techniques. “You’ll be taking some water, but don’t worry, it will be ok,” he counseled. After a few hours, I got off the board and nearly fell on the beach […]