Almost outta Oz
May 6, 2007
Today I’m sad. I’m still in Melbourne and don’t feel remotely ready to leave. I have, however, resolved that I am going to most likely be feeling this way repeadely throughout the duration of this trip. There is simply not enough time.
I have been having an all-round fantastic time here. There’s something about going back to where you were before that creates a sense of place, and that added to the delight of meeting up with old friends (some unexpectedly) is just the best possible best possible.
As I already noted, Melbourne is a cool city. I’ve been sticking to my old hangout (the equivalent of Mile End in Montreal or the Annex in Toronto), eating at the same old joints, hanging out in the same great bars, and doing my fair share of chilling out and reading (due to the rain clouds that seem to be following me around Australia). I had a great Melbournian graffiti mission in the city a few days ago, which took me around all sorts of nifty little laneways, photographing the walls (and even happening upon some art in process). This weekend had me partying and drinking a whole lot with friends from Melbourne as well as an unexpected meeting with an old friend from high school who turned out to be living here at the moment too.
Melbourne is extraordinarily (and borderline hilariously) emo. It seems like something in the world has aligned and made all young people dye their hair black and swooshed across their eyes. The number of tight-jean-wearing, long-haired and depressed-looking scenesters is breath-taking. It even inspired me to buy a striped shirt and some kick-ass thunderbolt earrings just to fit in (although unfortunately my somewhat blonde hair and bubbly demeanour excludes me from really fitting into this subcultural grouping). That said, it is a whole lot like Canada in a whole lot of ways, and as much as I really enjoy being here to visit, staying with a Montrealer and continually talking about how great Montreal and Canada is, I’m starting to get pretty excited for life when I get back later in the summer.
