Melbourne: Book Sales and State Library

It turned out to be a book day in Melbourne, and thankfully we anticipated buying some books on the trip, so we were able to take advantage of it. We happened to see on an academic organization’s social media post that there was a used book sale by the Royal Historical Society of Melbourne happening just a few blocks from our apartment, so we couldn’t resist (though books are so heavy!). We found a couple good ones, then went to the Book Grocer clearance book store we had seen earlier in the week to find some $6 brand-new books. What a deal! I had to carry the latter ones around the rest of the day, but they were worth it. Despite some of the dire predictions a few years back, I don’t think books are ever going to go away, even with digital. You just can’t browse digital in the same way, and lots of us prefer hard copies.

Yay book sale!

Next was the State Library where there was a protest going on in front about letting in more refugees/closing the offshore processing centers. You aren’t going to find that kind of agitation too often in Christchurch (or New Zealand for that matter). We went through the exhibits on the history of books and some old ones from their collections. I had no idea there were so many copies of Alice in Wonderland in so many languages! There was also an exhibit on the more traditional history of Melbourne’s founding. Pretty much the history of men doing things. The library has a beautiful, uniquely shaped reading room.

miniature books were popular at one point

stained glass Shakespeare

We then stopped into a three-story game store and tested out the Wii U and reminisced at the little display on the history of Nintendo game consoles. Technology can sure do a good job at making you feel dated.

From there we walked to get some of the doughnuts from Doughnut Time, even though they were such tourist prices ($6 for regular and more for the filled ones!). They market themselves though with all of the colorful candy and toppings. We lazed out on dinner for our last night and just got fast food.

pizza, Mr. Burger's chicken ranch burger

chocolate doughnut with cookie dough, gluten-free mint doughnut

Melbourne: Chinese Museum and Parliament House

Little did we know, our planned trip to visit the Treasury Museum in Melbourne had to be thrown out because Olympic gold medal winner Jared Tallent was having a ceremony out in front of the building (due to a Russian drug scandal whereby the original gold medal winner was disqualified) and it was closed. 

So we went to the Chinese Museum earlier than planned, and it turned out to be quite cool. I have found that I am much more interested in Chinese history and culture now that I have Chinese friends, and this museum had several large dragons used in parades and ceremonies – one wrapped around the building and is the largest processional dragon in the world! It also had a lot of cultural history stuff like clothing, weddings, food, and immigration.

traditional toys

Thought this was interesting: Westerners have been scarfing down
their meals for a long time and being bitter that other cultures don't!

Learning about traditional Chinese weddings

traditional Chinese wedding jacket and skirt

Foot binding shoes

We walked around Federation Square and briefly visited Hosier Lane, a famous street art laneway. There were even two guys graffiti-ing while we were there. Again, more of a hipster vibe than we were really concerned with, but it was interesting to see an acceptance of this art right in the heart of the city. We walked down a restaurant laneway (Melbourne is famous for these) and couldn’t help but notice the lavishly decorated donuts at a shop and store that away for future reference. 

We took a tour of the Parliament House building and learned a little about the state government and got to sit in the chairs of elected officials. Fun fact: the walls have real gold leaf – they spared no expense in the making of this building! 

Sergeant-at-arms gets to carry a big stick

Apparently Queen Victoria was not happy about this statue because
it showed off too much skin, so it was transported to Australia.

We ended up going to a mall that had a huge tower in it and eating at a food court that was artsy in its own way. Birds had gotten in and were hanging out in the light fixtures waiting for scraps. Dessert was at a place we had enjoyed in Brisbane: Chocolateria San Churro. I got a salted caramel cheesecake slice, which was very rich, and D got a big sundae with mint ice cream and four little churros. The city was really buzzing on a Friday night.

salted caramel cheesecake

sundae with churros and marshmallows