The Greatest Journey -- Culture with a Tang

Melbourne, as the great bastion of culture in Australia, prides itself on its cultural institutions. I decided to take Isabella to the Melbourne Museum, a very modern and informative museum just north of the CBD. As you approach the area, you are confronted by the imposing Melbourne Exhibition, a building that was once the center of Melbourne's late 19th Century world exhibition and Australia's first Parliament House. Although now it is generally empty, it still has a certain majestic grandeur and the interior is decorated with various motifs. We couldn't get in because the building was locked so we proceeded onto the museum, around back.

The Melbourne Museum with its large glass frontage is, I think, one of the best such places in the world. Its exhibits are informative, exciting and interactive. You can easily lose a whole day looking around the place and that's just what Isabella and I did. We strolled at a leisurely pace around the various halls which showed things like dinosaurs, modern fauna, spiders, an Australian forest environment, Pacific Islander kites and even preserved human organs. It was all quite exhilarating.

From the museum portion we watched a movie at the IMAX theater attached to the museum. It was a piece about dolphins and whales narrated by Darryl Hannah. Unfortunately, Isabella and I agreed that it wasn't really all the great, especially when compared to other IMAX features.

After the museum closed, Isabella and I caught a tram, another Melbourne institution, back to St. Kilda and took a walk along the waterfront. There were people out paragliding and it looked like they were having immense fun.

At night, our host took us to a bar/club where some bands were playing. Melbourne's night life, especially its music scene, is very vibrant and I think it's great to share it. The club where we eventually stopped had band playing called the Barons of Tang. They played a sort of polka-trash metal mix that I found surprisingly appealing and so did most other people there. Everyone was having a great time and there's a loud collective cheer when the set finally ended. Quite exhausted, we all made our way back to St. Kilda to rest for the night. The next day was Australia's big day, Australia Day, and we would need all our energy to get through that.