Things I love about Melbourne

I thought I would start writing posts regarding things I love about certain areas...just to give a better insight into our experiences. So here goes...

1) My two loves, fashion and food, are equally celebrated and revered...sometimes even together! I mentioned before how open-minded Melburnians are when it comes to fashion. I think it comes from the variety of cultures that culminate in this wonderful city. They have such a casual approach to getting dressed...not in the sense of the clothes themselves being casual, but in they way they are worn and put together. It looks like they woke up 10 min before they had to leave, opened their closet and this non-trendy-but-amazingly-fabulous outfit fell onto their generally well-sculpted bodies (sorry for all the dashes). And they never fuss or mess with their hair or clothes when they're out and about. Everything has a perfect fit and looks like it goes together so well. I love it and hope I can learn from it while I'm here!

2) Suzuki Night Market in Melbourne!!: Even though Steven and I were only able to attend one (they close down at the end of summer), I really enjoyed this totally Melbourne experience. We met up with an MBS (Melbourne Bus School) student, Bhavani, and her partner, Robert. (ps. they call boy/girlfriends "partners" over here) It's a wonderful, truly Melbourne experience. There are tons of food stalls with vendors selling everything from curries to Mexican dishes. Yes, the quesadilla cart was very busy. There are live performances. This night happened to be a Flamenco/Spanish night with dancers and live music. It was so much fun!

(photo from qvm.com.au)

3) The shortening of words and adding "-ie(s)" or "y" on the end. This is really an Aussie thing in general. A few examples...

football (rugby).....footy

Brisbane.....Brisie

sick days.....sickies

Biker gang....gang of Bikies

best friends....besties

postman....postie

This can be very helpful when you're trying to fit in with the Australians. I can be in conversation with some of them and just start shortening and adding to words and seem like I've lived here all my life. For example:

Aussie: "Ay mate. It's a bloody hot out today."

Me: "That's fair dinkum. I had to wring out my clothesies in the sinkie after my walkabout. No worries though because I had another pair of knickies in my dressie."

Now this conversation would never actually take place because a non-Australian can never use slang like a local. They'll just sound silly. The best you can hope for is to have some idea of where the conversation is headed. And that's goodie for me!

Tasmaniacs

It takes about an hour to get to Tasmania from the mainland. We flew in early in the morning and arrived in Hobart ready to start our tour of the east coast. Our first stop was Freycinet National Park. This trip was a mix of camping and staying in small, self-sufficient cabins...a very inexpensive way to travel and not too bad, except when it's windy. And it was! It was a lot colder in Tassie than I thought. I think the weather seems to be off and on. Sometimes rainy, sometimes sunny. But always very pretty! We did a 2.5 hour walk in the park, up to Wineglass Bay. And man did we earn that view! Over 600 steps to the lookout...

The Travelin' Fools taking a breather

Another beach-goer...

We also checked out Honeymoon Bay...

Then we headed north to St. Helens where we checked out the Bay of Fires area. Unfortunately it was a drizzly, cold day so we didn't get great pictures of the Bay of Fires itself. But we did get to see Binnalong Bay....

....before we headed south again to see the Tasman Peninsula...