Melbourne is also a very bike friendly city, automatically increasing its hipster population. Before we left the house that morning, Drew made sure his mustache was thoroughly combed, made his hair as "swoopy" as possible, and wore the thickest framed glasses he had. Not only do they have bike lanes, but they also have rent-a-bikes, which was exactly what we did. There was an initial $5 fee, but as long as your rides were shorter than 30 min there was no additional charge. So, we covered the whole city on bicycle, going from site to site in 30 min intervals. It was a lovely way to spend the day. Drew and I have decided it is one of our favorite ways to see a new city. However, we also realize how impossible that would be in some SE Asian cities, such as Kuala Lumpur.
First order of the day was breakfast at coffee shop #1, St. Ali. It looked like the inside of a garage converted into coffee house. Plywood, metal tracking, and extend-a-wire lighting.
Drew making a hipster pose while our hipster waitress shimmies in the background. She was actually just walking past, but a picture never lies :)
Our Melbourne experience got off to a good start with this to-die-for breakfast.
Melbourne is known for street art. This wall was outside the breakfast joint. Dumpsters, street art, and bicycles.
After breakfast, we rode our bikes to the University of Melbourne. Talk about a gorgeous campus. I've never seen so many beautiful buildings on one campus.
Next we rode through a charming neighborhood by the college and discovered coffee shop #2, Market Lane Coffee. Melbourne is actually known for serving some of the best coffee in the world, so, of course, we were going to get our fill, as Hong Kong coffee is so horrendous.
Melbourne is chock-full of lovely gardens and parks. They also nailed the large-tree-lined-avenue concept. One garden had a statue to the gardener who designed the park 200 years ago. Could you imagine being that gardener planting those trees, knowing in 200 years from now, it will look like this? Could you imagine the slack he probably got? Why did you space these skinny little saplings so far apart? The lane looks almost bare! In 200 years, you will see what I see in my mind today.
Melbourne also did a really great job preserving old, historic buildings. You could really feel the history there, and it gave the city a familiar charm.
This building is actually the city library. Why is the library lawn so packed you ask? I have no idea.
Coffee shop stops #3, #4, #5. By the end, Drew and I had a severe case of the jitters, but we got our coffee fix for the foreseeable future. A legit drip!
You know it's hipsterville when the wall decor is a fixie.
Coffee shop #4's ceiling was entirely covered in chairs. Seemed Mary Poppin-esque to me...
Coffee shop #5 had a giant bowling pin. I think Drew actually beat me in the frowny-face competition! Inconceivable!
We were checking out a dinner recommendation, which turned out to be a dive bar in the back of an alleyway by, again, dumpsters. My face shows I was slightly uncomfortable about it all, but I'm sure it would have been delicious.
One of the parks we walked through had the home of Captain James Cook, as in the Pocahontas guy. According to John Green's Crash Course in World History on Youtube, a series which I highly recommend to everyone, Captain Cook was a heck of a discoverer in the Pacific. He essentially put Australia on the map. His house was in England, but they moved it here and reassembled everything, brick by brick. Oh, the things we do for history.
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