Melbourne - Part III

I began Saturday by walking from my hotel in South Yarra towards central Melbourne. I walked along St. Kilda Road (one of the main arteries heading into the city) and came upon a park with an interesting building that turned out to be the WWII Shrine of Remembrance.

By pure chance I came across a nearby stop for the official Melbourne tourist shuttle, which in addition to providing a quick ride into the core of the city also allowed for a full 1.5 hour tour of the city's main sights. The shuttle is free of charge and you are able to hop on / off at any point. Given that I had time on my side, I decided to take the full tour figuring that it would provide a very nice introduction to the city before I went off to explore it on my own.

The tour did just that and the highlights were Federation Square, Melbourne Cricket Grounds, the Carlton Gardens, Lygon Street (Italian Area), Queen Victoria Market, Docklands Stadium, Victoria Harbor and Southbank – the majority of which I would return to for a proper visit.

My first stop after getting off the shuttle was Federation Square, which is in the heart of Melbourne just north of the Yarra River and adjacent to the Flanders Street station.











Here’s a local that I met who’s training for his new job as an Australian Customs Officer. He takes his job very seriously...










Across the street from the square is St. Paul’s cathedral, which was very nice.



















I then walked along the Yarra River for a while and took pictures. The tall building below with the gold coloring at the top is aptly named the Eureka Tower and has an observation deck that reportedly is the highest viewing platform in the Southern Hemisphere. The observation deck has a retractable "cube" with a clear floor that allows you to look straight down (88 floors) when it is extended.



















In addition to the free shuttle, there is also a Melbourne City Circle tram that offers free transportation around the perimeter of the city center. This allowed me to get to all the sights that I wanted to see rather easily, including St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the Parliament House and Carlton Gardens.




















The street performers in the picture below were very entertaining and played some traditional South American music that was very nice. You can see from the picture that they were having a great time and the crowd was definitely enjoying the performance as well.

After the early sunset, I walked along the Yarra some more in order to get some evening shots of the Melbourne skyline.

Melbourne - Part II

For the most part, the balance of my week was uneventful and spent mostly on work. On Wednesday, a rough storm hit and brought plenty of wind and rain. While the inclement weather drove most people to remain inside, there were some who took advantage of it – a brave group of kite surfers fought through the cold and seemed to be having the time of their lives darting around the rough seas at the mercy of the powerful winds.

The weather on Thursday was much better and allowed for some nice pictures during a break for lunch.










The hotel was separated from the beach by a busy street with no crosswalks (or at least none nearby) so I resorted to jaywalking. Under normal circumstances this wouldn’t be much of an issue, but given the seemingly high speed limit and opposite (drive on the left…) driving rules it actually proved a bit problematic. Even though I knew where I needed to look before crossing, my conditioned behavior kept taking over and I’d routinely look in the opposite direction than I should be.

On Thursday night I changed hotels to be closer to central Melbourne since I planned to explore the city over the weekend before departing for Switzerland on Sunday night. I had booked the hotel online and it was interesting to say the least. I guess that it could be best described as a funky retro motel conversion. Here’s a pictures from my room, whose wallpaper could be appreciated by any rock and roll fan.

When I arrived there was a girl pleading for the gentleman at the reception desk to let her check in without providing a credit card for potential damages / incidentals. After hearing that it was against hotel policy to do so, she made huge scene and begged for special treatment. She talked about how many times she had stayed there before, how she knew the owners, how she didn’t want to provide her card because she had been a victim of fraud once before, etc., etc. It ended up being a very bizarre situation and I felt bad for the poor guy who had to deal with her.

***

On Friday I ended up working all day and my plan to explore the city unfortunately fell through. I was able to attend an Australian Rules Football game on Friday night, though, which was a lot of fun. It was a match between the North Melbourne Kangaroos and the Carlton Blues (both professional teams from Melbourne) at Etihad (Docklands) Stadium and I bought a general admission ticket for the upper deck (where I had been told the true fans sit).










By chance, I picked the North Melbourne side of the stadium to sit on and thus found myself supporting the Kangaroos. In theory, I could have rooted for the other team – as the brave gentleman a couple of spots away from me did – but I preferred to leave the game without experiencing serious bodily harm.

When the teams came onto the field before the match started, they were each greeted by their own team song that more or less resembled a college fight song. I’m not sure exactly how to describe them other than they sounded like something that a barbershop quartet might sing. Regardless, the fans loved them and sang along at the top of their lungs.

Once the match began, the name “Australian Rules Football” appeared to be a bit of a misnomer, as I wasn’t able to pick up on any specific rules whatsoever. The whole game felt more like a chaotic interaction between two teams in which pretty much anything goes and occasionally a penalty is called. That said, as the game progressed I think that I was able to pick up on some of the nuances.



















Overall, the match was very exciting with a lot of scoring and little downtime. And the best part was that the fans went absolutely nuts the whole time (even groups of women that had gone to the match on their own). I also liked how even though it was a very violent and physical game, the players seemed to shake it off after each play and not hold any personal grudges. The rough play was just part of the game and nothing more.










Ultimately, North Melbourne prevailed so I was able to celebrate amongst the Kangaroo fans once the final whistle blew. It was funny to hear the opposing fans go back and forth with eachother as they headed to the exits, and it reminded me a lot of American sports fans.

As a final thought, I don’t think that I can put into words exactly how big ARF is in Melbourne. It is the capital of the sport and home to nine of Australia’s 16 professional teams. Effectively, different neighborhoods within Melbourne have their own teams and provide enough support to routinely fill 50k+ stadiums. Amidst a secular country like Australia, ARF seems to be Melbourne’s religion.

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.

***

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.

Champéry

Given the beautiful weather, Emilie and I decided to head up to the mountains for a hike today. The Swiss town of Champéry – which is near the French border (south of the eastern edge of Lake Geneva) – served as our starting point.

When we arrived it was difficult to find a parking spot. It turned out that there was a large mountain bike race – apparently Champéry is the mecca for mountain biking in Switzerland. While walking to the trails we saw a number of bikers and they were pretty impressive. How they go so fast on the trails with such little brake control is beyond me. It’s also worth mentioning that the riders I saw – men, women and even little kids – had the biggest thighs I’ve ever seen. It kind of reminded me of Popeye’s forearms in that they almost didn’t look real.

As can be seen from the pictures below, it was easy to find motivation for the hike. Both the weather and the scenery were incredible. Nice place to have a house, right?










The beautiful views continued throughout the first half of the hike. The great weather ended up backfiring on us a bit, though, as it was incredibly hot and there wasn't a lot of shade on the trail up the mountain. And some of the inclines were a bit severe, but allowed for a good workout at least.



















For lunch we found a nice spot by a stream and set up camp. Emilie had prepared some sandwiches and it was nice to take a break to get off our feet for a while. Here are some pictures…



















The return hike was nice as well, with plenty of beautiful views.




























We also got to see a number of the local alpine residents.










Here's a shot of a random bench on the trail. I've also seen similar ones on other hikes, and It's kind of nice to have them scattered along the way in case you want to take a break.

The one negative of the hike was that I somehow lost my sunglasses. I have no clue how this happened and I realized fairly quickly that they were missing, but there was no use backtracking.

After the hike we stopped by Les Bains de Lavey, which is a thermal wellness bath and spa on the way home. It was a very nice way to end the day and relax the muscles. I didn’t take my camera inside, but here’s a picture that I found on the internet.

Ça va ? Ouais, ça va.

If you only learn two words in French, take my advice and go with “ça va”. While it literally means “it goes” or “it’s going”, I’ve come to realize that it can be used in countless situations and the simple modification of the tone of your voice is enough to change the entire meaning of the phrase.

If you’re feeling good…“ça va”. If you’re just feeling okay…“ça va”. If you’re not really feeling good…“ça va”. If you’re mad “ça va”. To change the meaning, just change your tone and your expression.

Over the course of today alone, I used “ça va” to respond that (1) I was doing well, (2) I wasn’t hungry, (3) my workload was manageable, (4) the weather was okay, (5) my lunch tasted good and (6) I had enough room on a crowded bus.

And it serves as both a question and a statement…

Person 1: “Ça va ?"
Person 2: “Ça va. Et toi ?”
Person 1: “Ça va.”

I can’t tell you how many times I hear this exchange every day at work or on the street. Sure there are different iterations as well as additional words spliced in here and there, but it’s amazing how many conversations revolve around such a simple little phrase. If you just learn “ça va”, you’ll be able to cover a lot of bases.

One year

Today marks the one year anniversary of my move to Switzerland. I don’t remember exactly what my expectations were prior to my arrival, but as a whole I think that they’ve definitely been exceeded.

From a quality of life perspective, Lausanne definitely lives up to the high marks that I had always heard about generally for Switzerland. There’s a nice balance between work and “life” and though it’s a bit quiet relative to the hustle and bustle of America’s (and many of Europe’s) largest cities, it’s something that’s easy to get used to and now I very much appreciate.

On the travel front, I’ve been able to see a lot more than I expected and I really hope that this continues during my second year. While the recent travel for work has been a factor, the biggest driver of all my travel has definitely been Emilie as I would have never gone on so many great trips tout seul. I also owe a debt of gratitude to her mom and sister as well, as they've allowed me to tag along on some great trips -- namely Barcelona, Copenhagen, Nice / Menton.

My first year was good in terms of visitors as well, with Erin coming for three weeks last July and my friends Garrett and Paige visiting last September. I even got to spend Thanksgiving in Paris with the Ryans, which served as a nice reprise of our annual family trips to Yosemite over Thanksgiving when I was younger. Hopefully the next year will bring some additional guests to Lausanne.

On the language front, I feel like I’m making ongoing progress with my French but I’ve still got a marathon ahead of me before I achieve fluency. Hopefully, I’ll have a breakthrough sooner than later in terms of everything coming together, but we’ll see. The biggest hurdle is the fact that I speak English every day at work. Fortunately, Emilie (and her family for that matter) has definitely helped me considerably and served as a de facto French instructor at times.

And for obvious reasons beyond travel and informal French lessons, my first year would not have been the same without Emilie. Given that we met only two months after my arrival, it's safe to say that my first year would have actually been completely different in her absence. As written before, I'm not one for getting overly personal in a (theoretically) public forum, but I can nonetheless say that I'm very thankful for deciding to tag along with some others on a random Friday night that by pure chance led to our introduction.