Lorne, Australia

Lorne is a little town on the Great Ocean Road, Australia's most scenic highway. I was there last month for a weekend getaway and am heading back this weekend to do a bit more hiking. The hostel there is great, with wild cockatoos and parrots hanging out everywhere and kookaburras driving you insane at 6 every morning. Anyway, here are some pics.

View from Teddy's lookout:


Beautiful flowers along the hiking trail, an old timber tramline:


Waves coming in beside the Lorne fishing pier:


Another view from Teddy's lookout, back toward the mountains:


A cockatoo on a trash can. You know, the usual.


Me on the Tramway trail:


Wildflowers along the beach:


Wild parrot-y critter, randomly hanging out at the hostel:


Crazy-ass flowers:


View from the Lorne pier:


A cockatoo taking a stroll on the hostel picnic table:


The hostel:


Me under a Kangaroo Crossing sign:


Teddy's lookout, and a dude who is presumably not Teddy:


Along the coast:


Me on the tramway trail:


Balcony at the hostel:


River valley at the end of the tramway trail:


View below Teddy's lookout:


Another parrot/bird/beast/thing:


Pictures from the tramway trail:

St Kilda, Australia

G'day! First of all, for those of you who have emailed, I'm really sorry but it has been a crazy couple of months and I may have missed replying to a few. I'm here in Australia now, been here for about 2 months. I am now officially among the gainfully employed -- I work as a contract tech writer in the CBD. (That's fancy-Aussie-abbreviationness for "downtown.") And I've been living in St. Kilda.

St. Kilda's a suburb of Melbourne, Australia's second-largest city with around 4 million people. St. Kilda's on the beach, so it's popular with beach-goers, young families, backpackers, trendy types, and prostitutes. Yes. I forgot to add that St. Kilda's used to have a pretty rough reputation apparently and there are still some reflections of that, although there are a lot of nice restaurants and stuff in the area -- hence the trendy peeps, especially those who tram it in on the weekend.

St. Kilda is known for Fitzroy and Acland, two streets with some cool shops and cafes and pubs. Acland is known for its cake shops (I think we'd call them "pastry shops" because they're not cakes the way Americans think of cakes. Which is Texas-sized and dripping with triple layers of lard, of course.)

Fitzroy is a little longer and is closer to Albert Park and has two different 7-11 convenience stores like 3 doors apart. 7-11s are EVERYWHERE in this city, it's unreal. Hmm, let's use an old-style SAT analogy to try and explain it:

7-11s : Melbourne :: Dairy Queen : Rural Texas

St. Kilda is also known for its long pier, which makes for a nice stroll out onto the bay and affords a nice view of the Melbourne skyline. It's especially cool because at the end of the pier are some rocks where a colony of tiny little penguins live. They're super adorable and they make funny cooing sounds from the rocks at night. WHY they chose St. Kilda to live, I have no idea. I guess they thought it was slightly edgy and hipster-ish to live near a bunch of ladies of the night.

So here are some pictures of my hood.

The beach:


Row of palm trees:


The George Hotel:


Boats and such:


Cake shop window, Acland street:


Catani Gardens, flowers and pavilion:


St Kilda Sea Baths, as seen from the pier:


The pier:


Coastal path, and the shadow of your oh-so-charming photographer:


Enjoying a sunny day:


Historic Luna Park with its scary clown entrance:


The Esplanade Hotel and its cool bar/club/live music venue, the Espy:


A view of the bay and the boats:


Acland Street, with its sidewalk cafes and pubs:


Pavilion at Catani Gardens:


Sand dunes:


Pier with odd little smidgeon of rainbow in the sky:


More cake shop window temptations:


Rocks where the St Kilda penguins live:


Historic tower along the promenade:


Fitzroy street:


Pretty day at the beach:


Different house styles behind Catani gardens: