Last day - A quick tour, another group dinner
Trip Start
Mar 30, 2011
1
10
Trip End
Apr 12, 2011
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Monday, April 11, 2011
After getting lost around 3 times, I finally found the place and took my seat at the far end of the table away from Hugo and Tony, who had joined us. It was a bunch of actors from the convention as well as one of the cartoonists, Greg, who is responsible for drawing the Spawn comic.
Dinner was good. Lots of fish you've never heard of. At least that we North Americans have never heard of. Gar fish, Barramundi (I actually have had it before), Moreton Bay Bug (a crayfish), and Rock Flathead. I had the fish and chips. It's not that I"m not adventurous but the entire time I've been here I've been craving fish and chips. Something about being a British colony. Hugo had the gar which looks like a huge sardine with a very pointy needle-nose.
There was much wine (which of course I had no part of ) and a few desserts. Some folks left early - throwing down a few bills on the table a and then the last 9 of us got the bill. 30 minutes later, the total was announced. $145.00. each. I got a concession for not drinking - $70.00. Gotta love big groups.
Monday, our last day here, we were escorted by Tony around the city. He's an old friend of ours who used to live in Fort Greene but moved back to Australia around 7-8 years ago. After a quick coffee and tea in the cafe downstairs where we ran into some of our fellow conventioneers and traded emails and last minute goodbyes, we were off with Tony for a whirl-wind tour of Melbourne.
Melbourne is fairly large and comprises many little suburbs with great names like Richmond, Toovac, Firzroy and South Yarra. Tony lives in South Yarra which is just around 10 minutes from our hotel in South Wharf. Tony's place is the back house in a duplex. It's unlike an American duplex in that both houses are 2 stories - but one is in front and one is in back - really it's more like having 2 townhouses on one lot. The neighborhood is lovely with its own Main street which feels very much like an English High street. Tony lives with Peter Alexander by the way who runs a series of shops throughout Australia that sell high end sleepwear - also called Peter Alexander . Once we knew this, we started seeing the shops everywhere. We packed Tony's 2 dogs into his car and then went round to pick up a third dog from Peter's mum who lives just around the corner, and went to the local dog park for a quick walk and then returned the whole brook and set off for our drive around the city and Port Philip bay.
I had been told that we needed to see Fitzroy which is a funky, artsy area - young - sort of like Williamsburg meets Larchmont Village only without the yummy mummies. Oh, yummy mummies are like our American soccer moms only with an Australian twist. Fitzroy was great but I really love Carlton - which is filled with old worker's cottages that were rescued form the "tear-down" frenzy in the late 60s and 70s and lovingly restored. They are very similar to the row houses we saw in Sydney but with a touch more of the elaborate filigree on the balconies and a little larger.
We drove back through St. Kilda's - a very nice area with bars and restaurants and a little amusement park called Luna Park - named after the park in Sydney (I'm guessing). On to the very expensive suburb of Brighton where we alighted and tramped around a little park. Not much to see really. The view of the water is unremarkable - a few huge freighters , the glimpse of a far away smokestack and a view of the skyscrapers of downtown Melbourne. As Tony pointed out, everyone wants to live here and they pay millions to be on the water but to look at what.
We finished up by going to a few other suburbs whose names are now all blending together in my brain and then went back to Tony's for a little tea.
Our last meal was again a group meal but this time very controlled - just 5 of us. We took the tram along Flinder's Street and got out at Swantson St. where we met Jim and Kyle (of the band Kirby ) and Shane - who writes the Transformer comics and teaches swing dance all around the world. On a side note, one of the things that has been so refreshing about this experience is the chance to meet people who I would ordinarily not encounter - I know can say that I have friends in the comic book community.
We ate dinner at a crowded Italian place ($25.00 per person - whew!) and then walked to a local bar that features swing dance and seating in railroad compartment like cars with doors that close for privacy. ( we left them open).
And that was it. It started raining - not big surprise. We took a cab home, said goodnight to our new friends and headed upstairs to pack.
thanks for indulging us and reading. Till the next time.
Denis & Hugo
