Week Thirteen

Melbourne Arts Centre

Flinders Street Station

Federation Wharf

Me on the steps of the WWI Monument

Hey again, guys! Welcome to Week Thirteen here at JayceDownUnder! I'm pleased to announce that there will be only three posts for the remainder of the term. Once again, you'll find this week's post to be a particularly interesting one, as I will be detailing my recent trip to Australia's second city: Melbourne,Victoria.

Melbourne is, as I have stated earlier, the second largest city in Australia (after Sydney) and is in many ways considered to be the country's cultural capitol. And after arriving there last Friday, it was not difficult to see why. One of the first things I noticed about Melbourne was the fact that it seemed to be planned out much more nicely than Sydney. There is a free tram that encircles the city and the streets are (slightly) less crowded. But I think one of the main things that separated Melbourne from Sydney was the overall artsy feeling of the place. There were numerous buildings with fascinating architectural qualities (including the Melbourne Arts Centre and Flinders Street Station pictured above).

Throughout the entire city there were also numerous art installations, I would just be walking down the street and there would be some sort of unusual sculpture there. There will be more photographic evidence of these things in the weeks to come, and of course they can already be found in their entirety on my Facebook page. The bottom picture of myself is not as interesting as some of my other photos, but I recently realized that I probably haven't included as many pics of myself as I should.

Anyways, a large portion of my trip involved simply walking around the streets of Melbourne. The weather was beautiful on Saturday (when I did the bulk of my adventuring) and the weather here in Wagga is beginning to get beautiful as well. I'd have to say the thing I most enjoyed during my visit to Melbourne was the National Gallery of Victoria. Having visited the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney I had an idea of what to expect when visitng the NGV. However, these expectations were completely surpassed within my first fifteen minutes at the museum. The European collection at the NGV, which spanned from the Middle Ages all the way up to the mid-Twentieth centruy, was far more extensive than I thought it would be. And, much to my surprise and amazement, Rembrandt and Picasso originals were included in this collection.

I'd have to say that my favorite piece at the NGV was a painting called Queen Esther by the English painter Edwin Long. In addition to that, I also immensely enjoyed a Pieta (a sculpture of Mary holding the crucified body of Jesus) that was made in the 13th century in Germany. After I was done at the NGV, I paid a visit to the beautiful Fitzroy Botanic Gardens and then to the Australian Center for the Moving Image (ACMI), a museum about Australian film and television.

Overall, I really enjoyed my trip to Melbourne. In fact, I'd have to say it was probably my favorite city in all of Australia and probably one of the most beautiful cities I've ever visited. My trip to Melbourne, was of course, my last little excursion here in Australia. As I only have a little over three weeks left, I'm going to be very busy with essays and preparing for finals, for which I thankfully have two full weeks of prep time. Nevertheless, I'm beginning to get a bit antsy to get back home. Fortunately, I don't have very many days left to get through! See you next week!