Melbour-ed

(Federation Square Light Installment in Melbourne, Australia: Michael Lowe)

To me, Melbourne is a lot like London. Cars drive on the left, there's a brown, dirty river flowing through it with several bridges and weird-looking, colorful bills are exchanged for goods instead of bland, green, dirty paper. The wind whips through the city, probably a byproduct of being right on a harbor and people walk around in scarves and mittens.

Much like London, cloud cover and an overall gray facade create a gloomy, cold atmosphere, but when the sun begins to peak around the cloud, the sunlight brightens up the entire city flooding the angular high-rises with gold.

The actual town area is only about eight blocks squared and, unlike London, I have yet to really find something that piques my interest. Although, to be fair I just got off a 15 hour flight and am friggin tired and cold. The museums do seem sparse and spread out, rather than concentrated in one area and, although a true metropolitan area, feels quite slower and less densely populated than any other big city I have been in. It's also funny because all of the areas they call "Gardens" are actually just big plots of grass with a few trees.

(Fountain at the end of Carlton "Gardens": ML)

However, despite a first humdrum day, I already managed to stumble upon a Environmental Rally at the Victorian State Library and tons of free stuff. Perhaps the city just needs a little prodding to share its secrets.

(Environmental rally and lots of spirited people at Victoria State Library: ML)

Apparently THIS GUY was speaking while I was there.

Oh, one more crazy thing. Sometimes, cars have to go into the far left lane to make a right turn. WTF is that? Crazy Aussies....

Michael is in Australia for one month on assignment for TravelAge West magazine.