Melbourne

I finally arrived in Australia following a marathon trip that entailed a Sunday afternoon departure from Geneva, a layover in Qatar and a Monday evening arrival in Melbourne. Adjusting for the time difference (Melbourne is eight hours ahead of Switzerland), the trip was roughly 24 hours door to door. Needless to say, I had plenty of time to fill during the flights and the majority of it was spent on sleep and movies.

For the first part of my visit I’m staying in Brighton, which is a seaside suburb about 20 minutes from central Melbourne. The hotel has a small “family-owned” feel and there are pictures in the room of what the outside of the hotel looked like during the ‘70s. Had I not known where the picture was taken, I could easily have assumed that the setting was a beachside property in Los Angeles or San Diego.










It was nearly midnight when I finally got settled in, but my body had pretty much no clue what day or time it actually was. In a way, I felt like it was still Sunday and that I had simply had a really long day. Fortunately, I was exhausted and basically crashed after a failed attempt at watching the local news.

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While my first full day in Australia was devoted to work, I nonetheless had the opportunity to get out of the hotel and see a bit of the Melbourne suburbs. I quickly learned that winter indeed exists in Australia. (For whatever reason, I never really associated Australia with anything other than sun and warm weather.) Granted, it wasn’t a New York or Switzerland winter, but it was still quite cold at times.

The suburbs I saw had a general “Southern California” feel to them. I can’t put my finger on one specific thing that made me think this; instead, it just seemed that everywhere I went had a very familiar feel. That said, I was constantly reminded of the fact that I was in an unfamiliar place by the thick Australian accents and cars being driven on the “wrong” side of the road.

All of the Australians that I met were very welcoming. In a way, it just seemed like everyone was generally happy and had a genuinely positive attitude. From what I’ve heard, Melbourne is a great place to live and I’m sure that plays a role. But there must be something else in Melbournians' (?) genes -- or perhaps the tap water -- driving such a positive atmosphere.

For dinner I went to a restaurant in the South Bank area with some colleagues. Though there were some people braving the cold and sitting outside, we opted for a table inside and still had a nice view of the Yarra River and Melbourne skyline. Here's a picture that I took before we entered the restaurant.

The dinner itself was very good, but what stood out the most was the fire “show’ that took place at the top of each hour. Basically, huge bursts of fire were sprayed in the air alongside the river and they would completely light up the entire Melbourne skyline. They also generated a significant amount of heat, which we could feel from inside the restaurant as it radiated through the windows.