Melbourne, Australia -Week 1 (Marvellous Melbourne)

Hello Family and Friends,

After a 17 hour flight, we have returned to the English speaking world. We took what is called the loneliest flight because very few planes fly the most southern route near Antarctica. Brett made sure to get us seats on the left side of the plane so that we might have the opportunity to see Antarctica if at all possible.

This is a photo from the plane window. We believe that these are ice flows off the coast of Antarctica. Probably the closest we will ever get in our life to visiting the most remote continent.

So yes, Australia speaks English even though it is a little more British English and let me tell you, God knew what he was doing at the tower of babble when he confused languages. Being able to speak a common language makes a difference. Already Australia feels better. We get in the Uber from the airport to our hotel and Brett is asking the driver all sorts of questions about how he likes Melbourne and the best neighborhoods. I turn to Brett and tell him that I like it much better when he can speak the language. Because now he doesn't expect me to translate everything for him. You see Brett is the type of guy who needs all the details. My Spanish is good enough to get the generalities of things but not the details. So being in a country where I get what's generally going on and Brett doesn't get what's going on at all was limiting.

We arrived to Australia at 6 in the morning. I was determined to keep us up until nightfall. I had heard on a podcast that the best way to change time zones and avoid jetlag is to get lots of sun and stay busy until night time of the new time zone even if you are tired. We couldn't check into our hotel yet, but we did drop off our bags and then headed to breakfast. Breakfast was delicious and the service was top notch. Being called "darling" in an Australian accent makes you feel very special. Our server was actually from Cartagena, Colombia and had move to Melbourne for school. She had very positive things to say about Melbourne. In fact everyone we have met here loves Melbourne. At the end of our meal, no tip. There wasn't even an opportunity to leave a tip! They just pay servers to serve and the service was great!

We then went to find a daycare for Atlas. We are going with a private daycare on account of not being able to get into a public daycare for two weeks. Daycare is the most expensive we have seen, even more so than in the states. Brett calculated that you would need to have a job making $65K per year with no other expenses in order to break even. Fortunately for Melbourne residents, the government subsidizes childcare. It looks like families can get three free days of childcare per week and other days subsidized from sixty to eighty percent.

After eating and finding a daycare we were able to check into our hotel. After freshening up we headed to find some groceries. This adventure did not last very long as Melbourne had an usually hot day of 111F. So we quickly returned to our hotel and the safety of air conditioning. I was still determined to stay awake for the entire day and busied myself with organizing and unpacking our luggage. I figured if I could make it to 5pm dinner, we could eat and then go to sleep. I made it to about 4:40PM and decided it's almost dinner time, I'll just lay in bed for a second. Well 20 minutes later when Brett tried to wake me for dinner I just couldn't. At about midnight I woke up and asked Brett if he had put Atlas to bed. Brett said that Atlas had put himself to bed. Went into check on Atlas and he was under the covers with his blanket, bear and pacifier. He was sound asleep. At about three in the morning, Atlas woke up and so did the rest of us. We were hungry and our bodies were done sleeping regardless of the sun still being very much asleep.

That was our first twenty four hours in Australia and the next day was just as exciting. We just so happen to be in Australia during the Australian Open. One of the four grand slams of tennis. Brett nor I know anything about tennis, but if you're in Melbourne during the Australian open, you go to the match.

Brett and I at the Australia open about 30 minutes before the women's quarter finals start.

Tennis is the most polite sport I have ever experienced. While the players are volleying, the stadium is completely silent. And if you leave the stadium you have to wait until the match is over to come back in. Even cheering is done politely. Someone chants "Let's go players name" and then the crown responds with two rapid in sync claps. And if the crowd is too rowdy when the line judge calls time between sets he just says "thank you" and the stadium goes quiet. I mean the line judge is too polite to tell the crowd to be quiet so he just assumes their compliance and says thank you.

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This is the two American women in the quarter finals in a volley. Notice how the crowd is silent until a point is made.

So much respect for tennis players. It is a long game of outlasting your opponent. I believe by this time in the tournament these athletes have been playing intense games of tennis for 11 straight days. And there are fans who come for the entire open and watch tennis all day. I don't think I could do it since I don't keep up with tennis or know the players. Let me explain how clueless Brett and I are about tennis. We were watching one of the men's' quarterfinal matches. Before this match started the stadium began to really fill up and there was a significant increase in security. The players came out and everyone is standing up with their phones out getting photos of the players. I'm thinking, "oh this is the difference between male and female athlete popularity and this is why the tickets for the men's final is 3x that of the price of the ticket for the women's final." While the players warm each other up, the announcer is reading their stats. One of the guys they announce has won the Australian Open ten times. Now, those of you who know anything about tennis already know who this guy is. I had no idea I was in the presence of greatness. It wasn't until I called my dad and told him that we went to the Australian open and watched some guy who had one the open 10x play and he said, "Danielle, that is Novak Djokovic, the best tennis player in the world", Google agrees, because when I search, "best male tennis player in the world", his name came up.

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Novak is on the far side of the court in the green. He is playing a French athlete.

I wouldn't say that the sport is as exciting to watch as basketball or soccer, but it definitely isn't boring like baseball.

Later that week. we booked a foodie tour at the Queen Victoria Market. This was the first open air market in Melbourne. The queen gave the land to the city to be used as a solely as a market indefinitely. She believed that all great cities have great markets. We started our tour with a plate of fresh fruit. Every morning the vender curates fruits that are in season and what he thinks will be good for families that day. The strawberries were the best that I have ever tasted.

There are strawberries, two different types of plums, midnight grapes, cherries, mangos and pear.

We then went into what I'm going to call the giant size freezer. Every morning fresh meat and seafood is brought in and hung in rows outside of the vendors stall. They drop the whole area to 39 degrees Fahrenheit and the vendors fillet the meat right there.

You can see the hooks where the meat is hung outside of the stalls.

This vender still had some of the carcases hanging.

One of the vendors specialized in salami. His stall was a family business that he fought taking over, but once his father fell sick he took over the family business.

One of the vendors explaining his curated salami selection.

I asked our tour guide if she had ever known a stall to go out of business. She said she has never known a stall to go out of business. However there have been stalls that sell their license because they are ready to retire, or move to a larger location.

While on our foodie tour we got to try some kangaroo. It was actually very tender and delicious. It did have a bit of a mealy texture. In Australia they consider kangaroo a pest. They actually have a program to hunt and bury kangaroo. They aren't that common to eat because people can't get over their cuteness. Our tour guide told us they are actually a really high quality and lean protein and should really be eaten more. Even more interestingly there is no known disease they can carry and pass on to humans.

We tasted the Red Wine and Garlic Kangaroo.

One of the vendors holding a kangaroo tail.

One of the more famous vendors is a doughnut shop that has been making the exact same doughnut for the last 75 years. I feel as if they could offer a filling other than their rasberry jam without too much difficulty. But they have been serving one doughnut and are located in other markets in Melbourne.

Serving the same donut for over 75 years.

The Queen Victoria Market doesn't only have food vendors. We saw one stall where you could create your own leather belt, we bought a hand painted post card and I had to content myself with just looking at all the bags made in Australia.

After visiting the Queen Victoria Market, I was convinced that I needed to live within walking distance of this market as there could be no better place to buy food. But then we went to the Prahran Market which is located directly across the street from our hotel.

Prahran Market is not as big as Queen Victoria Market, but still has excellent shopping.

Visiting the Prahran Market almost convinced me that I could actually cook a meal. You could go to the market and buy some already marinated chicken skewers that you just throw on the grill, fresh pasta and some vegetables and you have a full meal. It wouldn't be to hard to eat healthy and delicious using the market as your shopping center.

A sign on the floor of Prahran Market showing how far it is from the rest of the world.

Now you guys knows that Brett and I must explore the shopping malls within the first week of arriving to any country. There is a mall named Melbourne Central Shopping Center. It has five levels of shopping and spans multiple city blocks. When we arrived, I told Brett that if he wanted to walk the entire mall, we were going have to walk faster than a casual stroll.

The center of the the Melbourne Central Shopping Center.

We also rode the tram to the South Yarra docklands.

Brett and Atlas on one of the old school looking trams. Atlas hung in there without a nap.

We saw the Melbourne star. It is a ferris wheel located at the docklands. It wasn't operational or we would have taken a spin.

The ferris wheel is named the Melbourne star due to the structure inside looking like a star.

We also got to see the Flinders Street Station while transferring on the tram. It is a train station that is an iconic landmark of Melbourne.

Flinders Street Station is an iconic train station in Melbourne.

We finished our first week in Australia at a concert church service on Sunday afternoon.

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It wasn't actually a concert, it was church, or maybe both?

We went to the 3:30PM service, which we found out was typically when the college kids attend. I told Brett that I think he was the oldest person at the service. I then sent a video to my little brother who works at a church in Florida and asked him if his Methodist church would be interested in adding a mosh pit and hip-hop dancers to their Sunday worship. We met this lovely Colombian lady, Mariah, at church. She told us that there is a large community of Colombians in Melbourne. Maybe Atlas and I can keep up our Spanish.

After one week in Australia, we are loving it! The food is fantastic! We were eating at a Northern Thai restaurant and I said to Brett that I am so happy that their are so many good food options in Melbourne. The tram is a solid public transportation option, the markets make me almost want to try cooking at home and every area we have visited is so walkable. We've even visited the Esplanade at St Kilda's beach.

Enjoying a windy walk along the Esplanade.

The area where we are staying, Prahran, has some serious hipster vibes, but we are loving it. It's not right in the heart of the city, but easy access by the tram and still has all the necessities like restaurants, daycare, gym, massages, nail salon, market and grocery store. There really is no city like Melbourne in the states. It's got the weather of San Francisco, the transportation of Seattle, art and food scene of New York and the population of Boston.