We didn't sleep too well in our accommodation, owing somewhat to another resident screaming in the middle of the night. We woke up tired, and (especially me) in a poor mood. We were starting to feel fatigued by the constant moving around, walking and relatively low standard of accommodation we had been frequenting, and combined with the overcast, wet, windy and cold weather in Melbourne, we were not feeling at our best or most inspired. Nevertheless, we boarded a tram to the CBD to have a walk around and explore.
We stopped off at the Arts Precinct and headed to the National Gallery of Victoria, which was closed. We then headed to the ACCA (the Australian Centre for Contemporary Arts) or as it should really be known, the ACCB (Australian Centre for Contemporary Bullsh*t). We headed in and viewed the single exhibition, called "ourselves". There were approximately 40 television sets showing a combined video footage of 4 hours of film. Not a minute of what we saw could be considered art, or contain any semblance of artistic integrity...just pretentious b*llocks. An example, a video called "gestures", black and white close up of a woman who covered her face with her hand, then uncovered her face to reveal a smile, then covered her face, then uncovered it to show a sad face and so on...for 5 minutes. Another example, a middle aged man from Stoke sitting in a chair saying "I can hear you breathing...I can feel you watching me" and then another classic from the same Stoke man with him sitting on a stool looking at the floor recounting, very inarticulately, how he passed by "East Sterling...or was it West Sterling...yeah yeah East Sterling" in a boat that "should have been using a cloaking device"...I could continue on this vein but I won't bother, the entire exhibit amounted to drivel, with pretentious cretins swanning around talking about how this demonstrates so and so and what message is being sent...pretentious, contemporary crap. Needles to say we left, after approximately 15 minutes (we walked through the entire exhibition and were flabbergasted at the dearth of talent on display, just tv set after tv set playing drivel). None of the above helped lighten our increasingly darkening mood.
We made our way back to the CBD and headed to Federation Square, the main meeting point in the city, which was nice. You could see an old church across the square, as well as the boldly coloured Flinders St Train Station and there were a few cafes to sit and chill. I tried another pot of Aussie beer - Mountain Goat Ale, which was really nice. After our brief stop we walked around the CBD for a while, coming across a nice arcade - the block arcade - which was quite pretty, housing a number of shops including an artisan chocolatier (the prices prevented us from buying anything unfortunately). By this point we were hungry and tired so headed to Australia on Collins, a kind of shopping centre, where we picked up a pasta and pizza (very generous helping) for $9 each - bargain.
By this point I was in a foul mood and terrible company, but Nicola did her best to remain optimistic and up beat. I think I had looked forward to Melbourne for so long (I've wanted to come to and travel Mebourne since I was at least 16) that when we arrived, and were so far underwhelmed, it put me in a bad mood. I managed to quash Nicola's enthusiasm for a camper van hire along the Great Ocean Road (assisted in this by a particularly unhelpful member of STA Travel based in the Collins Street store) by complaining about the cold, the expense, the lack of job opportunities in Victoria and South Australia at present. I'm not going to lie, I was probably a bit of a douche at that point. Nicola did her best to tolerate my increasingly toxic presence until she had enough and said she didn't want to camper van at the moment...I felt guilty and tried to convince her to have another shop around for deals, but my earlier pessimism was contagious and Nicola was not feeling too keen on it now either. Instead, we came up with a new plan...fly to Brisbane. Queensland was apparently a hot bed for work at present and it was the start of summer so we could expect nice weather and hopefully explore the sights of the Sunshine and/or Gold Coast...as well as hugging a koala!!!
In a perfect example of pathetic fallacy, we left Australia on Collins in a poor mood and straight into a rainstorm...
We stopped off at the Arts Precinct and headed to the National Gallery of Victoria, which was closed. We then headed to the ACCA (the Australian Centre for Contemporary Arts) or as it should really be known, the ACCB (Australian Centre for Contemporary Bullsh*t). We headed in and viewed the single exhibition, called "ourselves". There were approximately 40 television sets showing a combined video footage of 4 hours of film. Not a minute of what we saw could be considered art, or contain any semblance of artistic integrity...just pretentious b*llocks. An example, a video called "gestures", black and white close up of a woman who covered her face with her hand, then uncovered her face to reveal a smile, then covered her face, then uncovered it to show a sad face and so on...for 5 minutes. Another example, a middle aged man from Stoke sitting in a chair saying "I can hear you breathing...I can feel you watching me" and then another classic from the same Stoke man with him sitting on a stool looking at the floor recounting, very inarticulately, how he passed by "East Sterling...or was it West Sterling...yeah yeah East Sterling" in a boat that "should have been using a cloaking device"...I could continue on this vein but I won't bother, the entire exhibit amounted to drivel, with pretentious cretins swanning around talking about how this demonstrates so and so and what message is being sent...pretentious, contemporary crap. Needles to say we left, after approximately 15 minutes (we walked through the entire exhibition and were flabbergasted at the dearth of talent on display, just tv set after tv set playing drivel). None of the above helped lighten our increasingly darkening mood.
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| Block Arcade |
By this point I was in a foul mood and terrible company, but Nicola did her best to remain optimistic and up beat. I think I had looked forward to Melbourne for so long (I've wanted to come to and travel Mebourne since I was at least 16) that when we arrived, and were so far underwhelmed, it put me in a bad mood. I managed to quash Nicola's enthusiasm for a camper van hire along the Great Ocean Road (assisted in this by a particularly unhelpful member of STA Travel based in the Collins Street store) by complaining about the cold, the expense, the lack of job opportunities in Victoria and South Australia at present. I'm not going to lie, I was probably a bit of a douche at that point. Nicola did her best to tolerate my increasingly toxic presence until she had enough and said she didn't want to camper van at the moment...I felt guilty and tried to convince her to have another shop around for deals, but my earlier pessimism was contagious and Nicola was not feeling too keen on it now either. Instead, we came up with a new plan...fly to Brisbane. Queensland was apparently a hot bed for work at present and it was the start of summer so we could expect nice weather and hopefully explore the sights of the Sunshine and/or Gold Coast...as well as hugging a koala!!!
In a perfect example of pathetic fallacy, we left Australia on Collins in a poor mood and straight into a rainstorm...
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