Jessica Does Anywhere But Dallas

Now for a bit about Melbourne, because I've been posting tons of my travel pics but not much about the city that I call home.

The City of Melbourne has a couple of visitor booths where they hand out the usual touristy junk: maps of the city, postcards, brochures containing 20% useful information and 80% glossy advertisements for overpriced restaurants that local Melbournians would never be caught dead at, etc.

They also provide little booklets with six recommended self-guided walking tours throughout the city. I've decided to do all six walks and post them here with pics so y'all will have a better idea about this crazy place I decided to settle down in after uprooting my life in Texas.

The Walking Tour #1 (which I've decided to start with, shockingly enough) is called "A Walk in the Park" and takes in some of the more obvious tourist parts of the Melbourne CBD.

(By the way, in Americanese, "CBD" translates to "downtown." It stands for "Central Business District" -- where all the skyscrapers are and stuff. I live and work in the CBD. Because I'm cool. But you already knew that.)

So here we go!

1. St. Paul's Anglican Cathedral.

This cathedral is located opposite Flinders Street Station and Federation Square, the focal point of Melbourne's CBD. You can tour it any time it's open and there's not any church services going on. A free brochure tells you a little bit about the interesting things to see inside. It was built between 1851 and 1891. I mean, it's not a grand European cathedral, obviously, but it's definitely worth taking 10-15 minutes to walk around.

Inside St. Paul's Anglican cathedral:

Grand arches:

Pretty awesome organ:

Looking back toward the entrance:

The altar:

Nice flower arrangement:

Tiles on the floor:

Stained glass doors:

After walking around the cathedral, exit Swanston street and check out the statue of Matthew Flinders, the navigator who circled Australia between 1801 and 1803. He often has bird poop on his head. It's a noble life, being a statue.

Matthew Flinders statue:

Continue back to Flinders Street, turn left (east), and walk to Hosier Lane.

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2. Hosier Lane.

This is one of the best examples of laneway street art in Melbourne. Graffiti is pretty heavily tolerated throughout Melbourne, which surprises me, since I come from squeaky-clean city of Plano, Texas, where graffiti usually gets cleaned up right away.

I have mixed feelings about street art. Some of it's pretty impressive, even some of the weird stuff. But some of it's just downright ugly. And I hate it when "good" street art gets spraypainted over by someone with no creativity, which unfortunately seems to happen a lot. Hosier Lane is an example of this. It changes all the time as people spraypaint over other people's work. Sometimes good, sometimes bad.

After admiring (or cringing) at the street art down Hosier Lane, turn right on Flinders Lane. (Flinders Lane is one block north of Flinders Street. They like to make things confusing.)

According to my fancy little brochure, this was one the home of the city's rag trade. You can tell the buildings here used to be old warehouses and stuff. I never knew people actually traded rags.

Look out for the Levy and Robinson Warehouse at 129 Flinders Lane. This warehouse dates back to 1857.

Levy and Robinson Warehouse, from 1857. Minus the car. Which wasn't from 1857. Unless it was a DeLorean. Then it could be from 1857 because it could be the Back to the Future space machine. Just sayin'.

Continue along Flinders Lane all the way to Spring Street. You'll pass Milton House, a hospital from 1901.

Milton House:

At Spring Street, you'll see a large park. Cross Spring Street and enter the historic Treasury Gardens, which contain many old fig trees. Fig Newton, anyone?

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3. Treasury and Fitzroy Gardens.

Check out the monument to JFK near a peaceful little pond and stream.

Even JFK can't escape the indignity of bird poop:

Duck pond near JFK monument:

Little stream:

Waterfall:

Continue meandering through the Treasury Gardens. Turn to look behind you at the awesome skyline view.

View from Treasury Gardens:

Cross Lansdowner Street and enter Fitzroy Gardens, an extension of Treasury Gardens. Fitzroy Gardens dates back to the 1850s and was named after the Governor General of the Australian Colonies.

Follow signs to the Conservatory, which you can walk around in for free. It was built in 1930 and houses some really amazing orchids (my favorite flower).

The Conservatory:

Inside the Conservatory:

Koi pond:

Orchids:

Hanging baskets:

After leaving the Conservatory, stop by Cook's Cottage. This is the family home of explorer James Cook and is typical of English homes in the mid-1700s. It was shipped from Yorkshire, England to Melbourne and reconstructed in the Fitzroy Gardens in 1934. Why? Because these things make sense, obviously.

Cook's Cottage:

Pass by the Scarred Tree, a tree trunk that was important to the Aboriginal people who originally inhabited this land. It's been knotched and carved by many Aboriginal hands throughout the centuries.

Scarred tree:

Then turn left and wander past Sinclair's Cottage. James Sinclair, the founder of the Fitzroy Gardens, built this home in 1864. It's not that impressive, but it's located in a nice shady part of the park. Keep walking north to the Model Tutor Village.

Model Tutor Village:

There's also the and children's Fairy Tree with its many carvings of Australian animals. I think it's creepy, but to each his own.

Fairy tree:

Keep walking north past the playground and under some lovely, shady elm trees until you reach the River God fountain.

River God fountain:

Take a left and start heading west toward the cathedral spires.

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4. St Patrick's Cathedral & surroundings

Cross Lansdowne Place and revel in the splendor of St. Patrick's. This (in my opinion) is the most impressive church/cathedral/whatever in Melbourne. It's so tall I could hardly get it in my lens viewfinder to take a picture.

As you approach the cathedral, check out the lone tower toward the east, which is all that remains of the old St. Patrick's College.

St. Patrick's College tower among poplar trees:

Follow a peaceful pathway along little gurgling waterway. It's called Pilgrim Path, and it leads you straight to the cathedral door, whether you're a pilgrim or not.

Pilgrim Path:

Head inside and admire the interior of the cathedral. It was built between 1858 and 1897. There are many beautiful Gothic gargoyles inside -- one of them was added as a joke by a stonemason who was doing restoration work in the 1990s, and it supposedly resembles a not-very-well-liked state politician from that time. I want to be a stonemason so I can do shit like that.

Cathedral interior:

Exit the south end of the Cathedral and admire the spires, which were added in the 1930s. Then walk down Macarthur Street, past the Lutheran Church from 1853, and cut through the Treasury reserve building. There's a lovely little secretive walkway you can take through the government buildings here.

Beautiful purple trees amidst the Treasury buildings:

At the end, there's a group of statues representing state premiers. This area is called Treasury Place, and it provides some nice views of the government buildings, Treasury Gardens, and CBD skyscrapers.

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5. Treasury Place.

Statues of premiers:

Palm trees along Treasury Place:

View of skyscrapers from Treasury Place:

From Treasury Place, cross past Treasury Gardens and turn right on Flinders Street. The historic Lindrum Hotel is next to the old Herald newspaper building. It's important because the all-time billiards champion, Walter Lindrum, made a world break of 4137 way back in 1932. I don't know what a world break of 4137 means. But apparently it's pretty awesome in the world of billiards. The pool table is still there.

Lindrum Hotel pool table, where billiards history was made:

After passing the Lindrum Hotel and Herald buildings, turn left into Batman Avenue and head down into Birrarung Marr, a park alongside the Yarra river.

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6. Birrarung Marr.

There's always some festival or another going on, and the weekend I did this tour was no exception. I'm not sure what was going on here, but it looked pretty cool.

A Festival at Birrarung Marr:

Birrarung Marr, by the way, is an Aboriginal (Wurundjeri) phrase that means "river of mists." I didn't see any mists by the river, but such is life.

At Birrarung Marr, cross the little bridge to the Federation Bells a sound sculpture of 39 electronic bells. They're supposed to chime three times a day, but I think they're broken at the moment or being restored or something like that.

Federation Bells:

From the Federation Bells, go back down to the river and follow it back to Federation Square, the start and end point for this walking tour.

So it's a new year. OK, well, 26 days ago it was a new year. I'm already behind on my resolution to take awesome mad trips and post my awesome mad photos on my awesome mad blog. I realize this. But in fairness to me, Chinese New Year's was only a few days ago. So REALLLLLLLLY, in the Year of the Dragon, I'm not too far behind.

Anyway.

In November, I had the pleasure of racing in the Nepean Triathlon, which was a 1k swim, 30k bike, and 10k run. It took place in Penrith, the far western suburb of Sydney, located at the edge of the famous Blue Mountains.

Our race was at the regatta centre, where the Olympic athletes rowed during the 2000 Sydney Olympics. It was pretty cool to see the Olympic rings carved into the bridge over the rower's lake, the focal point for the race. Every time the course looped around, I saw the Olympic rings and was almost convinced I was actually an Olympic athlete.

That was during the swim and bike. By the time I made it to the 10k run, I was feeling sweaty and miserable and fat and out of shape and almost convinced I was actually a blue whale. Not an Olympic athlete.

Here I am, in the back...lucky number 83.

Nevertheless, it was a good solid race and afterward I met up with my friend Diana to do a trip into the Blue Mountains for some light hiking (yes, after a triathlon) and some beautiful scenery.

The Blue Mountains are a hugely popular destination for daytrippers from Sydney. While they're not mountains in the sense of majestic snow-capped peaks, they're still really gorgeous. The Blue Mountains National Park consists of gentle mountains, sandstone plateaus, and deep valleys, all covered in an endless swath eucalyptus trees that emit a slight chemical mist that turns the sun's rays faintly blue. Hence the name.

The biggest tourist draw is a rock formation known as the Three Sisters. Here's a pic I took of it:

Here I am at the Three Sisters:

There's also a ton of waterfalls, some which are enormously tall, and plenty of little hiking trails. Because our time was so short, we didn't get do do any extensive hikes, but I'm definitely planning on going back to do some long hikes to more hidden waterfalls.

Wentworth Falls:

Here I am at one of the hidden waterfalls:

Overnight, we stayed at YHA Hawkesbury Heights, a little house in the middle of nowhere. It's a good place to stay, mostly because its isolation means there's lots of wildlife about. For example, we had a good ol' time drinking cider and conducting a post-midnight hunt by flashlight for a kangaroo that we thought we heard tramping around outside. We heard him, but never saw him. Later that night, a possum (different species entirely from our gross American possum, by the way) crawled up the tree near my window and squeaked murderously at me.

Good times. Now for some pics.

A twin waterfall:

I made a friend:

Jamison Valley:

Wentworth Falls from a distance. It is 187m (614 ft) tall:

Here I am, mocking a kangaroo. He didn't appreciate it:

The Three Sisters, from a distance:

A kookaburra. And yes, he is sitting in an old gum tree. Well, maybe it's a young gum tree. I can't say for sure since I'm not really an expert on gum trees. Shocking, I know.