Day 3 in Melbourne we headed out for a walking tour the city. Probably should have done it day one because we came across a lot of things we would have liked to dedicate more time to- but hindsight is 20/20. Guess I’ll just have to go back!
The tour was lead by a young guy named Dave and it was pretty hip for a walking tour. He took us through history and architecture- the usual walking tour content- but also took us to see Melbourne street art, some rock clubs and Melbourne’s coffee culture. It was pretty cool. Some of the street art was amazing and included some Banksy.
Some interesting architectural history: this building (pictured below) is the tallest building in Melbourne and has a viewing deck at the top. More importantly though, the building was designed to recognize Melbourne’s laborers- the blue and white represents the labor unions flag, while the gold represents the prosperity that’s a result of their work and the red is the blood of their labor. The great irony, of course, is that no laborer would ever be able to afford to live in this building.
Another, kind of hilarious, bit of info about Melbourne: they have these art projects all over the city that rely on mechanics in one way or another… that seldom actually work. The top picture shows these bells that are supposed to play music periodically throughout the day- Dave said some days they work, most days they don’t. The bottom picture is a large project representing all of the different nations where folks have migrated from- the big silver sculptures are supposed to move across the bridge apparently, but tend to get stuck.
Anyway, Melbourne was fun and I’d definitely like to spend some more time there. Probably not going to happen for quite awhile though!
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