Boardwalk at St. Kilda Beach, about 3pm on a Thursday. Hoppin'!
Fooling around at St. Kilda Pier.
That's downtown Melbourne in the background.
Ahhh...
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Running Around Town, Melbourne Edition
Just another beautiful sunny day here in Melbourne, so I thought I'd go for a run and take some snaps. A guy could get used to this.
Boardwalk at St. Kilda Beach, about 3pm on a Thursday. Hoppin'!
Fooling around at St. Kilda Pier.
That's downtown Melbourne in the background.
Ahhh...
Boardwalk at St. Kilda Beach, about 3pm on a Thursday. Hoppin'!
Fooling around at St. Kilda Pier.
That's downtown Melbourne in the background.
Ahhh...
Friday, January 8, 2010
Melbourne and the Housing Search
January 2nd, I step off the plane in Melbourne International Airport into a new city, a new country, a new decade. I don't know a soul here. I buy a local SIM for my mobile, a bus ticket downtown, and I'm on my way. Whee!
Downtown Melbourne, the Yarra River.
It's late and shuttles aren't running anymore, so I walk to North Melbourne where I have lined up a hostel for my first few nights in town.
Housing
Finding housing is the most time-consuming part of nomading, and after traveling for 9 months, this is the best strategy I've found so far: find a place to crash for a few nights (hostel, home-stay, whatever) and use the time to find something better. Lining an apartment up in advance is pointless; until you see it in person, you don't know what you're getting. And couch-surfing is great, but more than a few weeks of that is exhausting. So I checked Gumtree and after a few false starts, I hit on a wonderful flat in St Kilda with roof access, a beach view (if you squint), and a 2 minute walk to this:
Beach in St. Kilda, and a hundred or so insane kite-surfers.
I'm happy with the flat, but it took a lot of hot-dogging around town to find it. I'm still looking for a better way. I tried to go to a local real estate agent to help me find a short-term rental. Alas, when I arrived, everybody was still on their New Year's holiday, so that experiment will have to wait. I've also considering hiring a personal assistant in India to help me line up places -- don't laugh, that 4-hour workweek guy suggests doing just that -- but then I'm back to lining up places sight unseen, not a recipe for housing bliss. So what's the answer? As in the words of Tevye from Fiddler On The Roof, "I'll tell you! [pause] I don't know."
Melbourne
But Melbourne! I love it here. There are dozens of different neighborhoods and hundreds of coffee shops and bars and live music venues and quirky alternative book stores, and beautiful, friendly people, and lots of sun. I spend much of my work days in the State Library of Victoria, where it's quiet and cool and the Internet is slow but free.
Chess Room in the State Library of Victoria.
My evenings are spent either exploring Melbourne's nightlife solo or meeting up with couch-surfers for drinks and live music. My weekend? A free concert in a park and then a Belgian beer garden with some new friends, and some coffee, a book, and a patch of shade at a street cafe in Carlton. Not too bad, eh?
"Coffee is my life.""
Downtown Melbourne, the Yarra River.
It's late and shuttles aren't running anymore, so I walk to North Melbourne where I have lined up a hostel for my first few nights in town.
Housing
Finding housing is the most time-consuming part of nomading, and after traveling for 9 months, this is the best strategy I've found so far: find a place to crash for a few nights (hostel, home-stay, whatever) and use the time to find something better. Lining an apartment up in advance is pointless; until you see it in person, you don't know what you're getting. And couch-surfing is great, but more than a few weeks of that is exhausting. So I checked Gumtree and after a few false starts, I hit on a wonderful flat in St Kilda with roof access, a beach view (if you squint), and a 2 minute walk to this:
Beach in St. Kilda, and a hundred or so insane kite-surfers.
I'm happy with the flat, but it took a lot of hot-dogging around town to find it. I'm still looking for a better way. I tried to go to a local real estate agent to help me find a short-term rental. Alas, when I arrived, everybody was still on their New Year's holiday, so that experiment will have to wait. I've also considering hiring a personal assistant in India to help me line up places -- don't laugh, that 4-hour workweek guy suggests doing just that -- but then I'm back to lining up places sight unseen, not a recipe for housing bliss. So what's the answer? As in the words of Tevye from Fiddler On The Roof, "I'll tell you! [pause] I don't know."
Melbourne
But Melbourne! I love it here. There are dozens of different neighborhoods and hundreds of coffee shops and bars and live music venues and quirky alternative book stores, and beautiful, friendly people, and lots of sun. I spend much of my work days in the State Library of Victoria, where it's quiet and cool and the Internet is slow but free.
Chess Room in the State Library of Victoria.
My evenings are spent either exploring Melbourne's nightlife solo or meeting up with couch-surfers for drinks and live music. My weekend? A free concert in a park and then a Belgian beer garden with some new friends, and some coffee, a book, and a patch of shade at a street cafe in Carlton. Not too bad, eh?
"Coffee is my life.""
Monday, January 4, 2010
Shambhala, Golden Bay, the New Year, and Old Resolutions
Last year, I resolved to "live in a bigger world." As resolutions go, it was a bit of a cheat since I had pretty much already committed to my nomadic lifestyle. Regardless, it's a good resolution; I'm happy with it, it fits well, and I'm sticking with it.
So in that spirit of openness, I allowed myself to be talked into spending New Year's Eve with my Kiwi friends C and A at a hippie backpacker eco-resort called Shambhala in Golden Bay on New Zealand's South Island.
C and A in the Tea House at Shambhala, overlooking the ocean.
Shambhala has everything you might expect from a hippie backpacker eco-resort: solar power, rainwater collection, composting toilets, one totally imperturbable proprietor named John, one very hairy yoga instructor named B.J., and some of the nicest let's-get-away-from-it-all world travelers I've met anywhere who spent their days sitting in the sun reading, collecting mussels from the beach for dinner, playing guitar on the grass and singing silly songs, and generally having a good time.
A heading down to the beach to poke her toes in tide pools.
Just a short drive from Shambhala is Pupu Springs, where a whole river bubbles up out of the ground. It's the purest natural fresh water on Earth and a site sacred to the native Māori people. Looking down into the spring is like peering into a vast cathedral through bluegreenyellow stained-glass windows.
Pupu Springs in Golden Bay, New Zealand
Just a 20 minute walk from Shambhala is the Mussel Inn, a brewery and pub tucked amongst the wild growth of Golden Bay. A glowworm walkway through the woods gets you there. At night, the glowing worms form strange constellations that twinkle as the wind blows through the fern trees. The Mussel Inn was the site of our group's New Year's Eve celebration. Live music, fresh air, exotic beers brewed on-site -- definitely a proper way for this nomad to ring in a new year of travel and adventure. I almost didn't miss my usual NYE celebration in Seattle with all my old friends. Almost.
The gang at the Mussel Inn for New Year's Eve 2010.
And then it was 2010. From Golden Bay, to Nelson, to Wellington and then on to Melbourne, Australia, where I now sit recollecting in a coffee shop. But that's a whole other story...
So in that spirit of openness, I allowed myself to be talked into spending New Year's Eve with my Kiwi friends C and A at a hippie backpacker eco-resort called Shambhala in Golden Bay on New Zealand's South Island.
C and A in the Tea House at Shambhala, overlooking the ocean.
Shambhala has everything you might expect from a hippie backpacker eco-resort: solar power, rainwater collection, composting toilets, one totally imperturbable proprietor named John, one very hairy yoga instructor named B.J., and some of the nicest let's-get-away-from-it-all world travelers I've met anywhere who spent their days sitting in the sun reading, collecting mussels from the beach for dinner, playing guitar on the grass and singing silly songs, and generally having a good time.
A heading down to the beach to poke her toes in tide pools.
Just a short drive from Shambhala is Pupu Springs, where a whole river bubbles up out of the ground. It's the purest natural fresh water on Earth and a site sacred to the native Māori people. Looking down into the spring is like peering into a vast cathedral through bluegreenyellow stained-glass windows.
Pupu Springs in Golden Bay, New Zealand
Just a 20 minute walk from Shambhala is the Mussel Inn, a brewery and pub tucked amongst the wild growth of Golden Bay. A glowworm walkway through the woods gets you there. At night, the glowing worms form strange constellations that twinkle as the wind blows through the fern trees. The Mussel Inn was the site of our group's New Year's Eve celebration. Live music, fresh air, exotic beers brewed on-site -- definitely a proper way for this nomad to ring in a new year of travel and adventure. I almost didn't miss my usual NYE celebration in Seattle with all my old friends. Almost.
The gang at the Mussel Inn for New Year's Eve 2010.
And then it was 2010. From Golden Bay, to Nelson, to Wellington and then on to Melbourne, Australia, where I now sit recollecting in a coffee shop. But that's a whole other story...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
