Back to Australia today, to Melbourne. I'd been totally looking forward to coming here, but I'll be honest, after the space and quiet of New Zealand, it felt a bit of a shock. It was colder, for one. It was a cloudy, dusky time of day, and the greyness and noise was amplified by the fact we were staying near the train station, in a room in a hostel who's high, concrete walls were painted the pale green of a prison cell (or how I imagine prison cells to look). Well. My dissatisfaction with my situation was yet still heightened by the thought that I hadn't done my run that day, as I was still feeling that wierd drained apathetic feeling you get with a cold. Run Every Day almost met it's end, but managed to hold on by a thread, as we pulled ourselves out into the gathering gloom and hustle and bustle. The first few minutes of the run were along the North Bank, through the promisingly named Batman Park, and some distinctly East London like grity areas. All of a sudden though, something shifted and things brightened, we crossed a bridge to the South Bank and views of the city lighting up appeared, countless bridges, trees lit with fairy lights, and restaurants and bars by the river started buzzing. We ran a bit further and came to a section of boat houses with canoes and oars propped outside, with the silhouette of the Olympic stadium in the background. It was all rather nice really.
I decided I did like Melbourne, after all. After a long day at work, when the weather is rubbish, I don't look at my best either, so its probably unfair to judge a city based on a first impression at that time.
I thought about it for a while, and also decided that the River Yarra running through Melbourne, is much like following the River Thames through London, but it just all happens quite quickly, in a couple of miles rather than 20 or so. You've got the docklands on the edge, and the warehouses that are undergoing a lot of regeneration (like a lot of East London), a bit of a grimy bit (which cleverly was the part I chose to stay in), then there's the city bit with all the high rise buildings and neon lights, then in the central bit it's all obviously done up nicely with restaurants and bars by the river and interesting buildings and bridges, then a bit further up there's the boat houses and rowing (like in Putney) and lots of trees and it feels like the Thames towards Richmond. Yes, it all feels quite familiar.
Day 46: Melbourne
The next day, we ran in the other direction towards to the docklands and Yarra Edge. It wasn't my finest run, I felt really unwell, and then Andrew did, so in the end we had to have a coffee break to recover. That worked though, so then we did a little more. It was nice and sunny, and Melbourne looked all sparkly in the sunshine. In the afternoon, we walked back down the River to the 'Pop-Up Globe' to see Othello. So there's another similarly, at least for a while, Melbourne has a Globe on its banks. I also felt I could mention this here on Time On Your Feet, as we went as groundlings, and watched the performance stood up on the floor bit by the stage, which I think is the Shakespearean version of the cheap seats. Basically it was an extra 2.5 hours of time on your feet, and also way more interactive them an being sat in seats further back - great fun!
Day 47: Melbourne
A blast of interval training in Batman Park to start the day. Enjoyed a shorter and punchier workout, which was a nice start to a nice day with drive to Phillip Island...to see koala bears!!!!
And then later on to see the Little Penguin colony! I've become totally addicted to penguins on this trip. This was much like the colony we visited in New Zealand, but much much bigger. The night we visited over 1100 Little Penguins came home. The weather was atrocious, but sitting on the beach and watching them waddle up it together, made it feel like a warm homely place, kind of. There are lots of boardwalks up in the dunes you can walk along without disturbing the penguins, and watch them go back to their burrows. It's their breeding season right now, and my, they make a noise trying to show off to each other. You can't take photos here either, so as not to frighten the penguins, so I've stolen another photo from their website, which shows how cute they are...
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