Library and Zoo trips

I hope you guys don't think all we are doing is stressing about life choices. Sure, that sometimes happens. But we are also making sure to get out and see Melbourne, particularly on weekends. And so far Melbourne has proved to be a very cool city.

This Saturday, Justin was off to a disc golf social while I headed into the CBD to check out the Melbourne State library. This is pretty predicable behaviour for me, because I love libraries. The state library is essentially the main Melbourne library. Its not just a tourist attraction for library-inclined people like me. I swear its on lots of lists of Melbourne tourist destinations. As it turns out, its more of a half-library, half-art gallery, which I loved. There was a ton to see there, including a modern reading room, a fringe festival art instillation, some art from Australian artists, a display of Ned Kelly's armour, and The Dome.

The dome a circular room that is 4 stories taller than the rest of the library. In the very center of the room, there is a very old wooden circular desk. There are eight long wooden desks going from the center to the edges of the room, like spokes. Its a working library, so you can actually work at the desks, there are lamps, plugs and chairs all long the 'spokes'. Along the walls there are balconies so you can climb to the top of the dome. And they have more art and old book exhibits in the balconies. The dome itself is covered in windows, so despite all the dark heavy wood furnishings, its an incredibly light space. It was so impressive! I'm definitely going to head to the dome to work when I'm feeling unmotivated. And if any of you come visit us in Melbourne, I guarantee that the library is going to be one of the first places I will try to take you. It does not disappoint - even Justin thought it was really cool.

On Sunday, Justin & I went to the zoo. Zoos in other a countries can sometimes be a mixed bag. Depending on where you are, you might just end up seeing a bunch of things that are strange to the place you are in but common to you. Luckily this is not the case in Melbourne. Obviously we had some clear priorities, so instead of going through the different paths in order, we immediately headed to the 'Australian bush' path.

Yes, we finally got to see Kangaroos. It was a pretty hot day, so they were mostly hanging out in the shade, eating grass. You could tell even from afar that they are reallyl muscular. We also saw koalas (not nearly as friendly looking as you would expect), wombats (surprisingly fuzzy and adorable), kookaburras (bigger than we thought), dingos (cuter than expected, kinda like a giant corgi), a cassowary (terrifying. Its a freaking dinosaur), and a platypus. High points included watching two elephants play together in their pool, a butterfly from the butterfly house landing on Justin's mohawk, and everything about the platypus. Its not an animal, but another high point was watching an old Greek couple drink hot coffee from a thermos they brought in 32 degree weather. That was wild.

Another non-animal high point was the bamboo. The different paths you could follow took you to the animals, but had lots of plants and greenery along the way. There were parts that felt very tropical, with lots of palm trees and big banana leaves. Then there were other sections that were all bamboo. Aside from small potted plants, neither of us had ever seen bamboo before. Its really tall and stands straight upright. Its the same thickness at the bottom and the top, so we aren't sure how it stays so vertical. Even though the individual pieces are super tough, they are thin enough that the stalks move around in the wind. When the wind blows, the tops clack together to create this hollow knocking sound. It was surprisingly cool to stand in the bamboo with it rustling and clacking above our heads.

Other fun observations from this week:

- There are eucalyptus trees everywhere. I didn't realize this would be a thing, but they smell like eucalyptus. What I really didn't expect was how strong smelling they are. It isn't uncommon to get clear whiffs of lemony-citronelley eucalyptus when you are just walking around. Its shocking how strong the smell is

- I kept on seeing middle aged guys on bicycles, decked out from head to toe in reflective yellow, with bike paniers and a safety flag. I just assumed Melbournians were really into cycling and cycling gear. It wasn't until Thursday of last week that I realized they are postal workers delivering mail!

- The wildlife here is crazy loud. Between the birds and the cicadas, there was at least one night we had to close our sliding door because there was so much wildlife noise going on outside. And it all sounds so tropical.

- Apparently Melbournians are really into sports. There are at least 2 holidays for Victoria (the state Melbourne is in) that are completely about sports. I think one is for football and one is for the derby. I am unclear on whether 'derby' is horses or cars.

- Justin is strangely obsessed with the vans here. He wants to get one of those flat front ones. No idea where that came from, but he is convinced a van is the right choice for us.

- The grocery store we keep going to has some kind of promo on where you get tiny packages of lego-esque toys with each purchase. Because its a grocery store, its all vaguely agricultural themed. So far we have a cow, 4 stalks of wheat, 2 kookaburras, a water trough, 2 farmers, a loaf of bread, 2 bags of wheat, a box of carrots, 3 jars of honey, 2 solar panels and 2 drones. We are getting quite attached to our little farm.