The alleyways are the heart of Melbourne’s culture: they are the hubs of street art, cafes, restaurants and exploration
Cafes come in all shapes and sizes here, but they always have a personality. Here’s one which just does coffee — nothing else.
Nick and I, enjoying our creative endeavors and conversations. I had just tried coffee for the first time in my life, and had identified it immediately (or at least, its effects) with the awakeness of flow — being in the zone. Its taste however, is much more acquired than immediate.
Exploration of the city — Hosier Lane, Melbourne’s most significant concentration of street art.
The State Library of Melbourne, whose internal architecture rivals none. Natural lighting, art, books galore and exhibitions, right next to Melbourne Central station.
Queen Victoria Markets — full of people looking to score a cheap buy, but the main attraction is the food and cultural items.
Another street lane in the heart of Melbourne, with artists freely tagging as they please. Not the same degree of sophistication behind the art, but is nonetheless a work of skill.
This is where Melbourne gets its hipster reputation from — I, myself, love it; depends on the person.
Melbourne Central station.
More and more of Melbourne’s eccentric alleys.
Melbourne architecture spans many different styles.
Art inside of a pub toilet @ The Vineyard (St Kilda). Made me laugh a lot — notably this was only found in the male toilet (I had a friend check for me).
A midnight gig at The Vineyard — unexpectedly awesome, these guys started off with the theme to Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and went to Cat Dog. I loved it, as you can probably tell from the video.
Most of this stencil art I only stumbled upon because I was aimlessly wandering through seemingly secluded alleys. In this particular alley I saw many people walking in and out of an unmarked door, which I later found to be a little apartment which had been converted into a café.
This image really says it all for me — in action shot of a wedding photo in Hosier Lane.
Some of my favourite, more abstract stencil art.
This is so small but makes me laugh so hard — one of the most glorious juxtapositions in street art
Melbourne’s street art central
The Dude Abides.
A lot of the pieces I saw were very political — there was a great disdain towards all manner of popular institutions —prisons, climate change denial, materialism, capitalism/banks.
Escaping work and smoking blunts — gotta love it.
Absolutely beautiful large-scale street art, classical style.
Some more cultural references — 1984 and Tony Abbott on the left.
A business independently continuing the message of the Real Australians Say Welcome campaign (in the CBD), originally a one-man project by Peter Drew http://www.pozible.com/project/183878
Some nice shots of the Melbourne River in wintertime.
The weather here is cold. It’s a tolerable winter.
Alec and Marie, my fellow travellers, leading each other to who knows where.
We had a fun time in our night adventures :)
And learnt some important lessons about drinking.
The Gypsies playing lovely sounds at the Queen Victoria markets.
At this point, I’ll mention the most enjoyable experience of this trip — I was listening to this Gypsy band, which I absolutely adored, when I noticed this elderly Greek woman, who clearly had dementia or some difficulty. She got up and started dancing at one point, which is when I realised this music must’ve been important to her. Later on, I realised this myself, when the front-man on guitar decided they would do some dancing — they asked for volunteers, and about 7 of us strangers came together and we were taught to dance to the music. I have no idea what this was called, no recording of it or the music, only the memory of walking in a circle left-right-left-right-clap-clap, then coming in with the hands and out again, and having the most fun time of my life.
Left: Gypsy band. Right: Traditional Spanish food.
Just after the Gypsies left, they gave the elderly woman these flowers and I caught just the moment afterwards. It’s a beautiful photo.
Another place at Queen Victoria Markets, this time inside.
There are so many things you see on the streets of Melbourne it’s not funny — here’s art imprinted on records.And so many more street performers. These were the only guys I recorded, but I saw many more musicians, magicians, and visual artists.
And after I wrote that, I found this gem. The title says it all.
Outside Flinders St station, the heart of all CBD public transport. Trams everywhere — the CBD is dominated by them. They are a very reliable and rapid mode of transport, and completely free in the inner CBD. Thanks to Melbourne’s grid layout, this makes getting places very fast.
Beautiful full-scale artwork depicting Melbourne city at the SLV.
Culture and street art: always in motion
Amongst many posters for gigs, facetious street art pops up like this. In this city, people shape their surroundings, not advertisers.
And just random passerbys leaving their message on this wall, using leaves. If this isn’t hipster, I don’t know what is. :P
Café work is the best.
Especially in this beautiful city.
I took a cycle one day through the Royal Botanic Gardens — well worth it, beautiful.
St Kilda — the location of the skydiving centre — ‘I don’t know about you, but these planes look fishy’
I posted the left photo on Facebook and got a ton of likes, unexpectedly, with comments like AMAZING or you’re crazy. I don’t really see skydiving as that dangerous, nor particularly scary, it was actually quite safe. Up until that part where we jumped out of the plane, it was like your regular domestic flight, except the professionals were fucking hilarious, an effect of being completely crazy and doing this 12 times a day. The first 15 seconds of freefall was amazing, it was definitely like nothing I’d experienced before (as you can see by the plethora of emotions expressed on my face). After we parachuted, it was relatively mediocre, but still nice views. There’s the summary.
I spent some time alone after skydiving, by the water, just doing some writing of that Bitcoin article and contemplating life.
After this, I discovered my favourite piece of street art, ever.
Last night in Melbourne, eating the tastiest Japanese noodle soup of my entire life.
Last note
I fell in love with Melbourne, and I can’t be bothered to finish this sentence, because that’s all that needs to be said.
