Harold and the Purple Crayon

I worked really hard all weekend so that I could just take Monday and go spend the day in the city doing whatever I wanted to do, to finally start doing some of the "Melburnian" things that I've wanted to do since I got here, but never quite got around to doing. So I got my camera, a bottle of water, and a map, and set out. I started out in Flinders Street station, the hub around which the city spins. It is a bright gold building, and could be considered rather garish if it weren't so lovably full of character. Right across the street I went on a photo spree in St. Paul's Cathedral (obviously not THE St. Paul's, but a fairly good southern hemisphere substitute). They have beautiful stained glass windows, like all respectable cathedrals, and I also got the chance to go around this little passageway and find that the quilty thing that I had stared at the time I was there for an Evensong service was not actually the front of the church! The front is being restored, but I got to have a peek at it and it is actually a beautiful marble mosaic. It strikes me though, that they would care so much about the beauty of their church that they would make this elaborate quilt-like facade to hang just while the restoration is being done. Evangelicals need to get back on the wagon in terms of art and worship spaces. Also, there was this group of school kids visiting the cathedral, and they would go around and take notes, they would kneel on the kneelers provided in front of whatever feature they wanted to take notes on. It was a striking image, a line of school girls with ponytails and bright blue coats all kneeling in a church for purposes that had nothing to do with prayer and reverence, but just academia. I think that might be why I found it so noteworthy, but then I'm still not sure.

Around St. Paul's you can find the statue of explorer Matthew Flinders, and in a separate monument, the statues of explorers Burke and Wills. It is ironic that these are the men who are given statues, since if you know anything about Australian history, their expeditions were all failures to one degree or another. Then again, if you know anything about Australian culture, you will realize that they have this tendency to make heroes out of their losers. And then, there is something oddly appropriate about good old Matty Flinders standing there year in and year out with bird crap all over his head...

After that I passed the Melbourne Town Hall (which I have walked past about a million times without ever realizing what it is) and the Melbourne Unity Building, which is an Art Deco monstrosity and looks like a skyscraper made from a golden lampshade, and went up Collins Street. Collins street is one of the ritziest addresses in Melbourne, and all the Swells were out in full force that day, pushing past me, jabbering into their cell phones, in their neatly pressed Italian suits and slicked back hair, all of it screaming "LOOK AT HOW IMPORTANT I AM!" I felt rather small and in-the-way as I strolled along, taking pictures of all the glorious Victorian facades I had admired for so long.

I continued on my walk up to Spring Street, where I saw the Treasury buildings and on to Parliament. I read that there was a riot which lead to a siege of the parliament building in the not too distant past, and if you look on the front of the building you can still see the gun slits that they made to allow those who were defending the building to shoot people without ever leaving the safety of its confines. And I looked and sure enough, there they were. History right there in front of me. I went on past the gaudy edifice of the Princess Theater, all fake gold leaf and hot pink signs advertising their production of Dirty Dancing, and on to the ornate arches of Chinatown.

Those of you who have recieved a card from me recently probably know that Chinatown is a place fraught with peril, but fortunately in the daylight it manages to behave itself rather well. I stopped at the Korean lunch box and ordered myself some noodles and...other stuff for lunch. I have no idea what the other stuff was, I just pointed to what looked appetizing and they dished it up (camel's hump,anyone?). But I made out like a bandit, the food was so cheap and good and I got to sit under a beautiful red laquered Chinese arch and eat it out in the open air with chopsticks. I then peeked into the Chinese museum and moved on from there to check out some of the shops. To be honest, they are mostly kind of kitchy, with statues of golden Buddhas and those lucky kitties with one paw raised (now they even have ones that wave that paw at you mechanically for hours on end) and junky jewelery, but if you look around, you can still find some beautiful treasures, and it's the hunt that I have always found most satisfying. The strangest place I visited was this place that looked like a candy shop, but instead of candy they had tons of different dried fruits, like prunes and plums and cherries and mandarins and lychees and mangos and ginger. Then, in another set of cases, they have a ton of dried fish products, including cuttlefish (which is like squid). The whole area smelled like the flake fishfood you would buy at a pet shop. The weirdest part was definitely the little bags of snacks that they were selling that definitely had a picture of a cartoon cuttlefish on it, to make it more appealing for the kids. Now eat your squid, honey...

It was also in Chinatown that I found this random little side alley that has all these signs down at the one end. They look like parking signs, but instead of actual parking sign content they have mottos like, "There is no forwards, there is no backwards;" "I have examined myself;" and "The best kind of man would be like water." I'm pretty sure they were Taoist sayings because of the content, but I'm not at all sure how they got to be there, since there weren't really any buildings in the alley besides restaurants.

Well, I did a little more poking around in some of the arcade shops, I found a wonderful art supply store and an amazing store which sold journals and albums and address books from Italy, but for a standard size, leather bound notebook it costs, drumroll please, $120 (gasp of horror!!!). But they were amazing beautiful and well made, and it was fun to look at them. It's actually pretty hard to find nice, not to expensive blank books in Melbourne, so if anyone feels inclined to buy me gifts... *wink, wink*

But it was a wonderful day, I went all over the city, I took a million pictures, I walked myself ragged and I just thought I would like to share the events of day with you, my dear friends. Thank you for your kind attention.