The Flavors of Melbourne

Why are there always police outside my hostel? I walked out this morning in time to see the cops loading two drunk guys into the back of the paddy wagon. One of them was covered head to toe in sharpie tags and the back of his shirt said "Santa is my mate." I guess cheifing is an international pastime.

I went to the Queen Victoria Markets today. The markets are open everyday except Monday and Wednesday and are an awesome place to get just about anything. They're outdoors and are separated by sections like fruits, vegetables, meats, deli, clothing, misc, etc. The meat section is almost a little shocking to walk through. I don't even know how many hundreds of animals are diced up and laid out in the display windows but looking everywhere and seeing red didn't necessarily make me hungry. There are many farmers there and most of them have the same thing, which means the prices have to be low and the quality has to be good or they won't do any business. The most impressive area is the deli. There are lots of bakeries and sandwich/smoothie shops of international origin where you can get something to eat right then but there are also tons of really good sandwich meat and fancy cheese shops all right next to each other. There's a French shop run by a French lady and she has imported French cheeses, wine, whatever you want, etc. Right next to her is an Italian shop with the same, an Aussie shop, a Turkish shop.. Even though Australia is so far away from all these places, the shop owners import all these goods and have to knock down the prices to compete with their neighbors. It's freakin' awesome. I had some really good Australian Brie earlier in the week and now I'm hooked. I bought another half wheel today and am going to share with the Germans.

I took an interesting picture today of a unique looking church in the foreground and cranes building a parking garage in the background. There are many buildings here with different style architecture. There is a Victorian style cathedral across from the major train station and the library I'm in has Greek columns in front and the triangular roof thing going on. I would name more styles if I actually knew what they were but let's just say they all look different and they all look cool. Contrasted with the old style buildings are lots of modern style buildings. Melbourne is still growing at a very fast pace and there are cranes all over, constructing the newest and the best. Despite all the construction, it's not too noisy and it doesn't really interfere with traffic or peoples' lives. I think the efficient public transit system is to thank for that.. shuttling people away to their destinations and keeping the streets from being clogged with cars.