Eureka Tower and Queen Vistoria Market

As promised from Thursday's blog, entitled "I finally got a digital camera".




Friday evening I walked around the city at night taking some pictures. Melbourne is lit up in many different ways and colors. It's a very beautiful city at night. So here are some of those pictures.


This first picture is of the spire towering over the art museum. This is just 1 block from the company apartment and cycles through colors and display patterns. It has a blanket of lights that canopies over the building itself before rising several 100 feet into the air. As with most museums there are some standard exhibits and rotating special features. On Sundays the covered walkway around the museum host a hand made crafts fair. Much like Saturday Market in Portland. I found this little shopping gem on Sunday morning while out on a exploring adventure. It looks like a great place to get some fabulous gifts for the coming holiday season.


The next photo is of one of the 3 Ferris wheels in town. This is the middle sized one and is visible from the many bridges crossing the Yarra river. It too has an array of colors and patterns to light up the night. My favorite is this pinwheel like pattern that crosses the rainbow of colors as it shoots out from the center. The shot I have posted captures a beautiful reflection in the river.












The next picture is of this mural projected onto the side of a stainless steel building in Federation Square. (The Pioneer square of Melbourne) This is the first time I noticed it. So I don't know if the image changes or not. The lights you can see illuminated at different angles are scrolling text messages promoting different things happening in the square. It kind of draws you into reading them. I found myself tilting my head at weird angles to try and read them better. There's also a large movie screen in Fed's Square that is always on, as far as I can tell. It was showing the Olympics for a while but now always seems to be showing "Footy". A sport that is a cross between soccer and rugby. I'm still trying to figure out the rules. But the HOT men in skimpy (NO padding) outfits keep distracting me.







In the last blog I posted a picture of the building housing Flinders Train Station. Here it is at night from a different angle.


On Saturday I looked a some more apartments in the morning. Then needed to pick up some groceries and took the tram up to Queen Victoria Market. I have mentioned this place before and it was the perfect opportunity to get some pictures to show you my shopping experience.


The first photo is of the produce area. it's probably at least an acre in size. With everything you can think of , passion fruit and broccoli, to somethings I don't know the names. There's a lot of the sames things from multiple vendors. I'm finding it's helpful to walk around first and check out the prices. I found red peppers for $6 each at one booth and $4 each at another. It's also my preference to go to the stands that allow me to pick the actual items. If it's a booth that is crammed in and you can't reach the item you want. The vendors end of handing you a crappy item that is on it's way out just to move the goods.




Then there's a indoor deli section. This part has lots of of choices on things I have never seen. Like a marinated figs stuffed with marscapone cheese or chili marinated smoke mussels and more varieties of dip, hummus, and stuffed olives than you can sample in a life time. I have been picking up small bit of as many things as I can, just to try every thing. The chili smoked mussels aren't that bad. I bought one of the figs but haven't tried it yet. Again here there's a variety in quality too. The chili marinated kalmata olives I got last week are better than the ones I got this week. But I'll be damned if I can remember which booth I got it at! There's also bread and pastry bakers here and some hot food vendors selling meet pies and more things I couldn't name, but I keep trying the booths with big lines. I figure the local must know something I don't and I have yet to be disappointed.




Now I've moved on to the fresh seafood area. I haven't bought anything from this section yet. But plan to once I have my own space and can try out some new recipes. As you can imagine seafood is expensive and I just don't want to spend the money when I'm just cooking for myself and there are so many other things to try. But I have included a couple pictures so you get the idea. First is some GIANT lobsters that go for $60 a kilo (2.2 pounds), Or whole fish. I'm not so butch that I want my dinner staring back at me. Let's not forget the raw squid either.

Last but certainly not least of the Queen Victoria Market is the meat section. This area, like all the others, is full of vendors trying to sell you their goods and promoting them over the person selling the same thing 10' away. I have posted a video instead, because pictures just won't do it justice. Now this is at the end of the market day (about 2pm, they open at sunrise) and there's only about 30% of the people here that are shopping in the morning. I've learned to come later. Prices get cheaper to move goods before closing and there are just fewer people to have to maneuver around.

Saturday evening I went out and met some new friends at a bar called "The Sircut" It was some special event commemorating the gay liberation movement here in Australia. Back in the 70's the police raided a gay bar arresting its patrons. This solidified the community and started most of the civil right movements here today, much like Stonewall did for the movement in the states. So anyway this bar charged a $30 cover to get in and it was supposed to be some special who ha event. I did meet with some new friends from the Melbourne Rainbow band and had a good time. but it certainly wasn't anything different then last weekend and not worth paying the cover to just get in the bar. Lesson learn, skip that event next year.

Sunday morning I slept in and then went over to the famed Eureka tower to capture the view of Melbourne. The first shot is looking east toward the area that houses all of the large sports areas. The big oval in the middle is the Melbourne Cricket Grounds. A stadium that seats 100,000 fans. You can get a good idea on how large the city is. In the fore ground of the picture is one of the many parks. It contains several statues and monuments to Australia's political figures and it's war heroes. It also has the Royal Botanical Gardens. The circumference of the park is more than 4 kilometers. I know because there is a walking trail around it that I did today. Things are just starting to sprout here. Some of the trees have buds and the early ones are starting to flower. I'm looking forward to spring and watching the foliage come to life.

I have a few more pictures but I've taken so long type up this blog that my digital camera's battery just died and I don't have the power cable with me so. They'll have to wait. Besides it's now 6pm on Sunday evening. I'm going to go up stairs make some dinner and watch a movie. Tomorrow is Monday and even though it's a national holiday in the states. It's not one here and I have to work. Take care all my friends! I'll type something new some time soon.