On our last morning in Melbourne, Jess, Emily and I walked up to the Victoria Market to check out the acres of clothing and crap plastic junk. Then we walked to Smith St, a funky place full of small interesting shops. We visited Vegan Wares (a vegan footwear shop), and then had lunch at Las Vegan, a cool wee vegan cafe. I had a “vegan fish burger”, which turned out to be excellent.
We walked back to the apartment for a rest before heading out into the night to see the opera Turandot, put on at the Arts Centre. It was an astonishing production. The story was a ghastly little piece of nastiness, unpleasant in every respect, but the music and performances were amazing. (The dichotomy was so strong that I almost wished that there had been no surtitles so that I could appreciate the music without being brought down by the ugliness of the story.)
But for me the set was the star. Wow! It was extraordinary what they achieved, sometimes with very simple set-design tricks.
It was a terrific night, and a great way to end our holiday in Melbourne.
On the way back to the apartment we stopped to try and photograph the famous river-side towers that produce massive gas blasts every hour (for no other reason than it’s a way cool thing to do). I only had my iPhone with me, and it didn’t do a very good job in the conditions, but still, this gives you the idea:
