As much as we all love the very affordable `no frills´domestic airlines, problems begin to arise when the airline decides to cancel your flight for no apparent reason. This combined with the schools holidays made for a long wait at Melbourne airport. However, a few hours of wondering aimlessly around duty-free with no intention of buying anything and a short flight later i arrived in Sydney and caught a train to Newtown where i would be staying. I stayed with a group of students at STUCCO, the only student co-operative in Australia. It was set up by a group of students and opened in 1991, set in an old glass-making factory with an open courtyard in the middle surrounded by the units (individual flats of between 4-5 people). There are currently a total of 38 students living there at the moment. I was staying in the spare room in flat 6 with Amy, Owen, Lou and Mark. My arrival coincided with the Sydney
Fringe Festival and so after dumping my bags and quickly changed I went with Amy and Lou to an event that their friend Jess had arranged. The mystery bus tour was a series of nights where you meet at a certain place and get taken to a secret even, so its sort of luck a lucky dip because you don´t know where you will end up. This night the bus took us to a quirky/warehouse-esque bar/club where a band were playing. It was sort of Eastern European hippy gyspy music, but rather entertaining and fun for random dancing! The next night was spent enjoying a gig in the courtyard of Stucco, by the Barons of Tang (
http://www.myspace.com/thebaronsoftang) who describe themselves as Gypsy Deathcore.
This led to more jigging around dancing and flayling of arms. The night continued at The Hatch, another warehouse residence where much time was spent getting down to some grimey dubstep and other melodic tunes. Evidently, much of the next day was spent sleeping! My last night in the company of the Stucco kids was spent staying in, chilling out and making pies. Amy made a hearty vegetable pie (which you can see her attacking) and i made my signature pumpkin pie, delish. Unfortunately our final attempt of watching Harry Potter without falling asleep ( Amy and i had been trying for some days now) failed in favour of much needed sleep.
For my first day in Santiago, after a long sleep recovering from severe jet lag and general exhaustion, Carmen booked me onto a bicyle tour with the aptly names La Bicicleta Verde. The title of the tour that i did was Parks and Politics and was a great introduction to the politcal history of Chile. I arrived expecting there to be a group of other cycle loving tourists but it turned out i would be peddling solo with my own personal tour guide! I felt quite lucky to have my very own private tour and made the most of it by asking lots of questions. We cycled around, stopping off at important sites including La Moneda (seat of the President), The National Library, Santa Lucia hill and Barrio Paris-London to name but a few. One thing that i found particulary interesting was a small library called Cafe Literario set within both Parque Bustamante and Forestal.
These had been originally set up to improve the publics access to reading materials which due to high taxes were very expensive to buy. Nowadays they function as a great spot to come and read and have coffee in a nice park setting. We finshed the tour by having a nice coffee at a little spot close to La Mondeda and chatted more about Chilean life and culture.
doing the well known and popular walk up to the lighthouse, where you geta great view across the bays and watch the surfers. As soon as the sungoes down people gather around the rocks on the beach and play music and have a bit of a jam session as the sun sets.
The river-side cycle path that leads from Rich's place into the city, a pretty nice ride to do into work if you were working there. The river tracks also get packed at lunchtime and after hours when the fit people of Melbourne are out and about jogging keeping themselves buff and beautiful! There are also often people especially schools and uni students rowing in the river. It was great to be able to borrow a bike from the Gannon household and explore the city, trying my hardest not to get stuck in any tram lines. One day we met up
for lunch and cycled over to Abbotsford Convent where we went for a delicious meal at a not-for-profit veggie restaurant aptly named Lentil As Anything, where you fill up a plate from the buffet and then pay a donation. An array of aubergine curry, dahl, veggie stew, potato fritters, salads, rice and more was on offer. After satisfying our taste-buds we took to our bikes and cycled along the Yarra River and then up a popular cycling track to get a good view across the city. While cycling Rich explained that the strange toast slash muesli slash yeasty smell i was experiencing was coming from the Carlton brewery which was close by.
Having heard so much about Melbourne I was so excited to arrive and see it all for myself. I stayed with Dickie and his two housemates Steph and Louisa in Richmond, a short cycle ride - along the river - away from the city. What amazes me about Melbourne is the abundance of cool shops, cafes, bars and restaurants spread across different suburbs. I was spoilt by a plethora of cafe culture spots, vintage boutiques and quirky bars spilling out amongst graffiti clad streets. It was nice to be shown around by locals and get a really honest Melbourne experience...how nice to finally be free from the constraints of a lonely planet guide and fo
llowing ones nose. I also conveniently arrived in time for Melbourne fashion week and a group of us went to see one of the student shows where one of Rich's friends was showing his finalpieces. We then spent the rest of the evening bar hopping around. We actually bar hopped around on quite a few evenings, a great way to see what the nightlife had to offer and experience many favourite haunts of the trendy Melbournites.
