Melbourne -- Day One (August 4, 2008)

I landed in Melbourne around 9:00 a.m., and after Customs confiscated just about all the snacks I brought with me, I grabbed a shuttle to my hotel in South Yarra. I immediately made friends with an older, Australian couple on the shuttle who were just returning from a two-month long trip abroad, including six days in Las Vegas. How anyone can spend six days in Vegas is beyond me, but they seemed to really enjoy themselves even though they don't gamble.

My new friends narrated our drive from the airport through various parts of the city, including downtown Melbourne, St. Kilda and Albert Park, the home of Australia's Grand Prix. (The gentleman seemed very excited about the race track while his wife replied, "You don't have to mention EVERYTHING.") The thing that really caught my attention was the architecture of many of the buildings. The town houses are like a cross between southern plantation homes and buildings from mining towns in the Old West, with gorgeous columns and porticos accented by elaborate, lacy ironwork. It's like nothing I've ever seen before and it is stunning.

I arrived safely at my hotel, The Hatton, a 30-room boutique hotel in South Yarra, which can best be described as the Upper West Side of Melbourne. After getting settled in my room and cleaning up, I headed out toward the Botanical Gardens. Despite warnings from colleagues about the "really, really cold" winter weather, it is about 60 degrees outside and feels like a cool, crisp fall day in Chicago -- perfect "football" weather, as I like to say.

The Botanical Gardens are quite lovely, with numerous lakes and pathways all surrounded by native flora. I am most struck by how unbelievably large the plants are -- some are 20ft-tall "bushes" that tower over people. After meandering a while through the gardens, I continued on toward the downtown, central business district, or CBD, which was bustling with activity and people.

Melbourne is the state capital of Victoria and is considered to be the sporting and cultural capital of Australia. While oftentimes compared to San Francisco, the CBD of Melbourne is fairly small and somewhat run down, much more like the downtown of a midwestern city. There is a mix of turn-of-the-century colonial architecture with newer buildings, although scaffolding and cranes throughout the downtown area speak to Melbourne's rapid growth. (My Australian "tour guides" told me that Melbourne was supposed to overtake Sydney in population within 20 years).

Much like San Francisco, Melbourne hosts a number of ethnic enclaves, including significant Chinese and Greek communities. Numerous streets make up Melbourne's scenic Chinatown, which is lined with Chinese lamps and lanterns. There is also a Greek district, which, from what I could tell, included a sweets shop and a souvenir store that rivaled any schlock-palace on The Plaka.

When I got back to my hotel, I took a long bath and then got dressed to meet up for tea with Tomas, a friend of Jen Norris and my designated evening company in Melbourne. Later, I dined on spring lamb at the award-winning restaurant, Botanical, and it was there that I discovered what was going to be a recurring theme throughout my trip -- drinking liquor here is really, really expensive. I was expecting a hefty bill for my meal but was floored by the cost of my one martini -- $19!!! (By the way, that was for a Gin martini without premium liquor.) On that note, I walked to my hotel, sober from the sucker-punch my wallet just took, and passed out happily in bed around 8:30 p.m.