Monday, September 07, 2009

7 days in melbourne, part 1

it's been a long day. the last thing i want to do is recap how i was freaked out by how much my lecturers use the phrase "when you are a houseman...", a phrase they have barely uttered in the past 18 months but seem to have rediscovered its use recently.

so i'm going to employ denial, a very useful friend, and focus instead on blogging about my recent trip to melbourne. since it'll take forever to edit and upload all the photographs i took, i have decided to choose one photo from each of the 7 days i was there and post them up here, repeating the process with each blog post.

howzzat?

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day 1 - hosier lane


as mentioned in my previous posts, one of the things i was most looking forward to in melbourne was visiting the graffiti-ed alleyways in the city. the laneway commissions actually contracted artists to adopt the walls as their canvas in a lovely attempt at turning vandalism into art.

i spent a great deal of time at hosier lane on my first day. it's one of the most impressive alleys i've seen during my stay there, second only to the one i accidentally stumbled upon on brunswick street the day before i left...but i'll leave that photograph to another day. =)

day 2 - state library


i am a nerd. there, i said it. i love books, i love libraries, and it was great to finally be able to spend some time - 2 hours to be exact - in the state library of victoria, along swanston street.

the above is a picture of one of their reading rooms. i kid you not. those are books stacked up on bookshelves 3 stories high, accessible only via spiral staircases located at each corner of the room. it's breathtaking. to a nerd like me, anyway.

the permanent exhibits there are amazing as well. definitely worth a visit if you find yourself in melbourne.

day 3 - st. kilda


of all days to visit st. kilda, i chose to go on the windiest day of the week!

after having a nauseatingly rich breakfast of corn fritters, bacon and chutney at mart 130 earlier in the morning (more on that later), i took a long walk to the beach and was almost literally blown away.

st. kilda sleeps during the week, refuelling before the chaos that is sunday. i managed to catch luna park in the middle of a nap.

day 4 - royal exhibition building


day 5 - national gallery of victoria


i am not an art student, but i will never forget the first time i saw salvador dali's "the persistence of memory". i was confused, amazed, a little outraged, but mostly taken aback by how a painting could evoke such emotions.

that painting did not feature in this exhibition, but it was still a very extensive collection and it further strengthened my belief that all artists are a little not right in their heads, leading to the kind of suffering that can produce excellent work.

day 6 - shrine of remembrance


war memorials make me cry. i don't know of any family members who have fought in a war and i don't know anyone who's died in the line of duty, but war memorials make me cry.

it was difficult not to be moved by the plaque above. it comes from a portion of scripture in john 15:13 - "greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" - and it not only reminds me of the many men and women who have died around the world in defence of the freedom of their fellow man, but also the person who first said those words and lived, died, them out.

day 7 - victorian houses


i didn't do much other than shop and walk around with a couple of friends. on our way to a camera shop, i noticed these houses posing for a shot and simply couldn't resist taking a picture of them.

my friend commented that they looked very "malacca-esque" so i decided to amp up the contrast and saturation, just to give them an enhanced look.

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that's it for the first of my melbourne '09 posts. next one will come up whenever i don't feel like studying/sleeping. good grief this semester is killing me!

lishun at 10:47 PM

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