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    Photos from Australia

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    Adelaide is famous for its Mediterranean climate, which is celebrated here by the Mediterranean Garden.: by flyted, Views[693]
         		 Another nice canopy of trees through the Botanic Garden.: by flyted, Views[349]
         		 This looks like a pathway winding through the Garden, but it is in fact a dried up creek bed; probably hasn't seen any action in a while.: by flyted, Views[338]
         		 The Palm House, one of the focal points of the Botanic Garden in Adelaide.: by flyted, Views[500]
         		 by flyted, Views[319]
     
    The scintillating story of what happens after hours on the lilies, apparently akin to “a nightclub for scarab beetles.”: by flyted, Views[455]
         		 The waterlily pond, in winter.: by flyted, Views[559]
         		 At the Adelaide Botanic Garden, the award-winning Amazon Waterlily Pavilion, made almost entirely out of glass, and housing one of the world's largest lilies, the Victoria Amazonica.: by flyted, Views[641]
         		 Adelaide is best appreciated by map, which really gives you a sense of what this city is all about. It was laid out starting in the late 1830's by William Light, the city's first Surveyor-General. The locals call it “Light's Vision,” which is still the general term for the city's distinctive look. He envisioned two urban sections, one north (North Adelaide) and one south of the River Torrens (Adelaide City), with the entire area surrounded and immersed by parkland. There are 29 designated parks surrounding the city, divided by roads or natural features, covering about 7.6 square kilometres. Adelaide truly feels like an island in a sea of parks, which is both a wonderful blessing in that it is one of the greenest cities in the world (and very far-sighted for the 1830's), but it also leaves the city feeling cut off and isolated from its suburbs, plus a lot of water is needed to keep the parks from drying up.: by flyted, Views[631]
         		 Rundle Road, leading to Rundle Mall in the city. This street was at the top-end of the F1 circuit, the cars would fly around the far corner, head in my direction and then cut right where the painted lines are, onto the back straight.: by flyted, Views[1216]
     
    The pit straight and paddock area of the circuit, half of which sits in the former Victoria Park Racecourse.: by flyted, Views[981]
         		 The crews were just finishing taking down the last of the temporary grandstand from the V8 race in March. The track maintains the same layout as the original F1 circuit, and it all happened right here. The pit straight and paddock area is the white building at the far-right.: by flyted, Views[649]
         		 From 1985 to 1995 Adelaide hosted the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix, before it moved to Melbourne. The track was made up mostly of city streets on the east side of the CBD and parkland. Although F1 left town, the track still exists and is used every March for the wildly popular Aussie V8 series, which locals would say is far more exciting (they may have a point there). I was in Adelaide about three weeks after the V8 race, and traces of rubber were plentiful around the route of the track. The distinctive blue, yellow and red curbing though, which was famous during the F1 days, still exists and is a permanent fixture on certain corners.: by flyted, Views[2053]
         		 Inside the Adelaide Arcade; every city has to have one of these too.: by flyted, Views[419]
         		 Adelaide Arcade & fountain, off of Rundle Mall.: by flyted, Views[603]
     
    Rundle Mall, the pedestrian-only shopping street of Adelaide, and opened in 1976 as the first pedestrian mall in Australia. Now they are ubiquitous in every city.: by flyted, Views[1629]
         		 The fountain in the middle of Victoria Square represents the three rivers that supply Adelaide with water: the Torrens, Onkaparinga and Murray Rivers. Beyond the fountain is King William Street, the main north-south route through the city, and the widest main street of any Australian capital city. King William IV was monarch at the time of Adelaide's founding in 1836, and the city was named after his wife, Queen Adelaide.: by flyted, Views[1711]
         		 The Aboriginal Flag was first flown here in 1971, and is now permanently displayed here next to the Australian flag (in most places in Australia it is only flown intermittently).: by flyted, Views[1537]
         		 Victoria Square, in the heart of Adelaide. The city is laid out in a very distinctive one-square-mile grid, with Victoria Square in the exact middle.: by flyted, Views[569]
         		 Later in 1901 the Australian National Flag was flown for the first time above the dome of the Exhibition Building. This was where the Victoria State Parliament met from 1901 to 1927, when the Federal government moved to Canberra and the State officials got their old building back. The Exhibition Building also hosted many indoor events during the 1956 Summer Olympics.: by flyted, Views[1735]
     
    A typical busy laneway scene in Melbourne. The laneways are basically little alleyways built perpendicular to the main cross streets. Melbourne's city blocks are huge, and are divided in half already by the “little” streets, which are not quite laneways, they allow for traffic, but are not as big as main streets. So there is Collins Street and Little Collins St, Bourke St. and Little Bourke St., and so on. Then the laneways join each of those streets together in a random, twisting, haphazard and thoroughly adventuresome manner.: by flyted, Views[975]
         		 Melbourne is famous for its “laneways,” as we will see: they often have interesting names, including AC/DC Lane, Dame Edna Place, and here we have Niagara Lane.: by flyted, Views[511]
         		 The sun sets over fabulous Melbourne and the Grampian Hills, way off in the distance.: by flyted, Views[563]
         		 The Royal Botanic Gardens from above, one of the pride and joys of Melbournians. It is 36 hectares of landscaped, sculpted gardens, the first in Australia and often recognised as the finest. The building in the middle is Government House, home of the Governor (aka Lieutenant-Governor) of Victoria. The Shrine of Remembrance is on the right-hand edge of the park. A bit further back on the right is Fawkner Park, also very nice; I stayed for a week at a hostel in between the Shrine and Fawkner Park.: by flyted, Views[617]
         		 The light turns red, which means green for a hook turn, and away they go – darting across the huge intersection to the far left-hand lane. As you can see, the opposite light is now green, so these cars are directly perpendicular to the line of traffic going straight through. In most cities there would be furious honking of horns, but in Melbourne they know, green does not mean go, not for a few seconds at least...: by flyted, Views[1554]
     
    Most intersections have a white box conveniently painted on the road, to show where to park yourself while waiting to turn. As you can see, this van is about as far over and as far away as it can get from where it wants to go, with cars going straight ahead driving past it on its right, and it will have to cross the entire intersection to make its right turn.: by flyted, Views[365]
         		 One cannot spend time in Melbourne without learning about hook turns. Watch how it's done in the next series of photos. Hook turns allow for the trams to have right-of-way on the main streets, and are not held up by cars waiting in the middle of an intersection to make a right-hand turn. First, notice the sign at the top, hanging over the street. A car turning right must hug the far left side of the street, letting through-traffic and trams go past on their right.: by flyted, Views[515]
         		 More laneway scenes. Most of the businesses in lanes are cafes and restaurants that cater to the business crowd; it gets pretty quiet on evenings and weekends.: by flyted, Views[374]
         		 Cafe culture is wonderful in Melbourne. This city has some of the best coffee in the world. Locals would not accept anything less. There is no Tim Horton's here, you must order a latte, cappuccino, or the like, and it is all freshly roasted, freshly ground coffee. Even 7-Elevens have self-serve barista machines with a container on top holding fresh beans that are ground for each customer. Of course, the best cafes are in the lanes, which always offer a canopy for the next brief rain shower.: by flyted, Views[1434]
         		 Speaking of Dame Edna...: by flyted, Views[433]
     
    The Royal Arcade's highlight, statues of the mythological figures Gog and Magog, who strike their bells on the hour.: by flyted, Views[662]
         		 The Royal Arcade, a heritage indoor shopping lane in central Melbourne, built in 1869.: by flyted, Views[794]
         		 Looking down Bourke Street towards the Bourke Street Mall, 12:30 on a Wednesday afternoon, another busy, buzzing day in Melbourne.: by flyted, Views[444]
         		 Hardware Lane features some great Italian restaurants and entrances to a couple basement bars.: by flyted, Views[1215]
         		 The W's clatter and clunk along the track, making strange whirring sounds, with interiors not much changed from the days they entered service, in the 1930's and 40's. But they really are one of the icons of Melbourne. : by flyted, Views[372]
     
    One of the classic “W-class” trams on its only regular route, running from north Richmond to St. Kilda, a relatively quieter route that suits the W's top speed: 40 km/h. These guys are constantly under threat of being taken out of service, and there are only about 50 of them left out of a fleet of 500 trams. But they have their fans, who have managed to block them being mothballed completely.: by flyted, Views[565]
         		 A few blocks over; Smith Street, the heart of Collingwood, a bit more eclectic and alternative than some of the trendier suburbs. I bought my WWOOF book at an organic cafe & market store here.: by flyted, Views[391]
         		 Brunswick Street in Fitzroy, one of the inner suburbs just past the CBD. The neighbourhood is full of lots of interesting shops and restaurants.: by flyted, Views[1588]
         		 The Melbourne Museum on the right, just behind the Royal Exhibition Building. Another biggie: it is the largest museum in the Southern Hemisphere, founded in 1854 but the modern building here only opened in 2000. Currently, King Tut and his golden crown are visiting, his only stop in Australia. : by flyted, Views[979]
         		 Probably the most famous event to take place here was the official opening of the first Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, on the 9th of May, 1901, in what was the largest building in Australia at the time. The future King George V opened Parliament on behalf of his father, King Edward VII.: by flyted, Views[442]
     
    The Royal Exhibition Building was designed by the same architect as the State Library nearby, and the dome was inspired by the Duomo in Florence. The building fell into disrepair and was almost demolished in the 1950's, but was gradually restored, and only gained its Royal designation in 1984, surprisingly.: by flyted, Views[564]
         		 The canopy of trees in Carlton Gardens, leading up to the south entrance of the Royal Exhibition Building. The Gardens are included with the building's World Heritage Site designation.: by flyted, Views[1258]
         		 The stunning Royal Exhibition Building, built in 1880 and one of Melbourne's foremost landmarks ever since. It is one of the world's last great 19th century exhibition buildings, inspired by the Crystal Palace of 1851 in London, which burned down in 1936. This building gives you a sense of what the Crystal Palace and other huge exhibition halls would have been like. The Royal Exhibition Building has survived though and in 2004 became the first building in Australia to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site. : by flyted, Views[1690]
         		 Back on the roof of the YHA, a typical day in Melbourne: they don't joke about 4 seasons in one day for nothing. Most days comprise clear blue sky followed 10 minutes later by black clouds, and then back to sun, and back to rain, and so on. The clouds will often hover over just one small section of the city. You can't even see the Eureka Tower in this, it would normally be in the background centre-right but is completely obscured by clouds. 2 minutes later, it was back.: by flyted, Views[516]
         		 I made certain to get up to the top in time for sunset, which did not disappoint. This is looking west, where the Yarra River empties into Port Phillip Bay. Geelong would be way out to the west, further along the bay.: by flyted, Views[361]
     
    Along with free binoculars, the observation deck also offers a free kaleidoscope viewer, so this is what it looks like inside, with a view of the Botanic Gardens and Government House.: by flyted, Views[385]
         		 I still got a picture anyway from the edge of the window looking straight down, and saved $20.: by flyted, Views[240]
         		 The Edge, popping back into the building. Fortunately it didn't get stuck in a moment it couldn't get out of, at least not while I was there.: by flyted, Views[289]
         		 Eureka Tower's “extra” attraction, “The Edge,” which is a glass cube that rolls out from inside the building to hang in the air, almost 1,000 feet above the street. Then the floor switches from opaque to clear glass, similar to the Skyway cable car in the Blue Mountains. This ride though costs an extra $20.: by flyted, Views[1095]
         		 The view south across Port Phillip Bay towards the Mornington Peninsula and Sorrento, where I was a couple weeks earlier on the way to Queenscliff and the Great Ocean Road. St. Kilda is the group of the buildings at the edge of the bay, and Albert Park with its lake is in the middle, home of the Australian Grand Prix (around the lake).: by flyted, Views[532]
     
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