August 21 Friday Leaving Foster, we decided we would drive through the Mornington Penninsula on our way to Melbourne. Cape Schanck ended up being the only place of note, with a nice lighthouse and some pretty coastal views. The whole peninsula is a wine growing region, but coming from wine country this did not really excite me. Once we made it to Melbourne we had the surprise of the first four hostels we checked with being full. This is winter and we had been told by many that most people head north to warmer weather, so we did not expect rooms to be a problem. Well we found three places in a two block radius that had rooms and after checking with all three chose the Melbourne International Backpackers. We checked in for a week and Jon found a place where he can park his car without getting a pile of tickets. We walked down Elizabeth St to Federation Square and then back up along Standon St. to get a quick view of the city just before sunset. I got some computer time to find the nearest SDA church and was at first surprised that I was at least 4 km from each of the nearest three. But when I checked the individual websites for those three, one was having their meetings for the next three weeks at the University of Melbourne (as part of an outreach program) and that was only 5 minutes walk from my hostel. I went and walked around some more in the evening and while it is much colder than the other parts of Australia I have been in, it seems to be a much livelier city than any other place. And just driving in, the architectural specimens here blow Canberra away.

August 22 Sabbath: I had my free hostel breakfast (it is called brekky here) of cereal and bread with jam. I also finally ate a sample of vegemite and I can say that to me it is vile. I finished the slice of bread I had it on, but had another bowl of cereal and a piece of bread with orange jam to get rid of the taste. I walked up to where my directions said the Gateway church group was meeting and it took a few minutes to locate the correct building. Then there was no one there. I went all the way to the third floor and finally ran into a lecturer just getting ready for an engineering class. He did not know anything about it, but said that most likely they would be using one of the two lecture halls on the first floor. I went back down, picked a seat where I could watch the door and read my Bible while waiting. About 20 minutes later a group of Asian young people came in in suits and began setting up two folding tables. I went over and confirmed I was in the right place (just really early). I spoke with a number of them, including a Thai, who will be in Thailand about the time Gabe and I will be. He is a literature evangelist and said he could help us with connections in Thailand. They were all curious about how I found about the meetings on the University campus. For the next three weeks one of the young doctors from the group is presenting a series of lectures produced by Mark Finley's ministry. Last night was the first meeting, there will be two today and another on Sunday, then they resume next weekend. I joined into a small adult sabbath school class and then the presentation for the main service came. He spoke on why if there is a good God, we have so much pain and suffering in the world. Afterwards there was a potluck with simple sandwiches and soup. This is a really friendly group of people and most of them are quite young. They invited me back for the evening meeting (and more free food) so I went home for a short nap. The evening meeting was on the topic of how history confirms His story. The presentations are simple, but I think they are necessarily so, since it is aimed at people who probably have little or no Christian background. There is a strong Chinese presence here and they offer a Mandarin translation through personal radios to anyone attending. The food after the meeting was light snacks and good fresh fruit. I met a lot of people again this evening.

About 9:30 I headed down to a place called the Roxanne where Protoculture from South Africa was the live performer. I really like his music. Josh gave me his second album as a gift and seeing him live was a treat. Very smooth music.

August 23 Sunday Since I only got back to the hostel at 6am, I slept until noon. When Jon came back to the room he told me he had gone to see the streets where the prime time 'soap' Neighbors' is filmed. It apparently has a huge following in the UK and Australia and so it was something special for him. We went for a walk across the Yarra river to where the inside sets and main studios were. We talked to the receptionist, but only people on the official paying tour can visit any of the sets and it has to be a non filming day. So we returned circuitously through the Botanical Gardens and along the river, the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, and several other places until we got back to Federation Square. Jon returned to the hostel and I went to the Australian Center for Contemporary Art. It was an interesting museum and I enjoyed it. They have a special exhibition of all of Salvador Dali's work, but I did not want to pay the hefty entrance fee for that part of the museum.

August 24 Monday was a quiet day

August 25 Tuesday Today I determined to explore the city on foot outside the CBD and it turned into a very interesting day. It was cold and there were threatening clouds, but it did not rain until just before I returned to the hostel and the sun actually came out on several occasions to my great approval. It felt wonderful when it was out. I started by going slightly north and west and exploring the gargantuan Victoria Markets, which is a maze of stalls and shops selling everything imaginable. The prices were higher than I have gotten used to at farmers markets here and that probably has to do with the cold weather meaning most of the produce is coming from other parts of the country. There are many vendors selling Aboriginal style art, but most of it is really a product of China. That leaves me somewhat torn. If you like a piece of art for its own sake it is probably worth getting and I have seen several pieces I really like, but know are not 'authentic'. All the pieces that are authentic are horrendously expensive. It is kind of a moot point because I do not have money budgeted for buying artwork on this trip and I already have a few souvenirs anyway. After the markets, I walked down King St. to where there is an Aboriginal gallery and museum. The museum was rather small, but it was interesting to talk to a couple of the people there about the aforementioned art issue. I meandered through the Docklands neighborhood and found a rather interesting art piece that I took a video of the wind interacting with. Then it was across one of the many pedestrian bridges over the Yarra river and a zigzagging path to the beach on the Port Phillip section of the city. I also had a short stop in the Gas Works Park which is a community art space with ceramics/painting/theatre/etc. Kind of like Nimbus Arts in the Napa Valley. It being winter the beach was deserted, save a few brave souls with their dogs. I walked all the way down to St. Kilda along the water front. The large ferries which go to Tasmania were docked at the piers. In St Kilda is Luna Park, a small amusement park with a couple rollercoasters, merry go rounds, and carnival type games, which I am certain is a popular spot in the summer. The signs outside said they are open on some winter days, but it is weather dependent and the weather had not looked good enough for today to be one of them. I then followed the aptly named Chapel Street, which turns into Church Street on the other side of the Yarra. They are aptly named because at one point there were five churches side by side on a single block. I spent a lot of time throughout the day backtracking and zigzagging down alleyways and train tracks photographing graffiti, murals, and other interesting things. I walked through trendy East Melbourne and the Fitzroy Gardens which hold the home of Captain Cook's parents, brought over stone by stone from England and a similar home of the care taker of the gardens for nearly fifty years. Just before I made it back to the hostel a light rain began to fall. Googlemaps put my walk at 25km by its quickest route, but with all my extra back and forth, I am sure I did several more kms than that. Later in the evening I had some good Pad Thai for dinner.