June 28, 2006 – 11:20am
It’s amazing what being away for a few days can do. I have fallen in love with Melbourne, and it took an affair with Sydney to make me realize it. The weather yesterday was bleak and grey, and so I decided to take a tour of the bleak and grey parts of the city.
I started with the Queen Victoria Market, which is grungy and bustling, and the smells of fish, sausage, cheese and olives intermingle to create the most potent sense-memory of the hippy urbanite lifestyle. I had lunch there, amongst the pigeons and the vendors, unsure of which group was louder. I then made my way down to the Docklands, which would have been a disappointment (especially after seeing the Sydney Harbour the day before) had the weather been any better. But it being overcast, and with everyone I passed bundled in scarves and sweaters, it was the perfect background for this brisk fall day. The Docklands is the quickest growing development in Melbourne, and so in the far off distance I could here the sounds of steel on steel, as construction plowed through.
I then hopped a tram to Footscray, which took me through the heart of North Melbourne, arguably the “coolest” part of the city. I smiled meekly at the thin Indie Rawk boys who sat opposite me, and they smiled meekly back, and it reinforced the notion that I DO fit in. I DO belong. Footscray ended up being a perfect getaway from the rest of the city: its streets are lined with discount stores and African Cafes, and I was certainly the minority in this community.
Picture all of this whilst Hayden’s Elk Lake Serenade loops in my earphones, and it becomes clear how my infatuation of the last two weeks has turned into a deep, unconditional love!