Do touristy things in my home town

seeing as I’ve left my home town.

Went there recently and went up the 90 meter tower. There is an observation level above where the competitors get off, thankfully there is an elevator. Beautiful view at night!

and saw a film.

Slackety slack, I am. Eh.

This afternoon, after my course finished, I didn’t feel like driving straight home. It was only 4pm, and my parking was paid until 7pm, so instead I walked to Federation Square. There was a huge crowd of people gathered, and after watching for a little while, I realised that they were there to watch the Bledisloe Cup (a rugby match between Australia and New Zealand).

I wandered past the crowd, and went into the Melbourne Visitor Centre. The staff were really very helpful, and with their help, I picked up a few brochures to give me some ideas.

Next, I decided to wander through the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) Australia. It was an hour before closing time, so I figured that even if I didn’t get to see everything, it’d still be a nice way to spend some time. I saw the Indigenous Art collection, the ‘Cicely and Colin Rigg Contemporary Design Award’ exhibition (which incorporates a few works involving taxidermy… ick), a photographic exhibition entitled ‘The Paris End: Photography, Fashion and Glamour’, and finally the ‘Joseph Brown Collection’, which is a permanent display.

It was lovely to meander around. The security guards are a little odd though. At one point, I thought one of them was following me… which didn’t fuss me too much, as I was carrying my notebook from the course, so I figured that perhaps it looked a little odd.

But when I went upstairs, as I was looking through another gallery, a guard came up to me and started chatting about some of the pieces. Fair enough. Until he followed me into the next gallery, and kept chatting to me. I brushed it off as him possibly being a bit bored… and as I was there on my own, I perhaps seemed a bit more approachable.

I moved on to the next gallery, and was approached by yet another guard… who pointed out an unusual feature in one of the paintings. I thought this was rather nice of him… apparently he points this out to people all the time. He kept chatting about some of the paintings, asked me when I’d last been to the gallery, and so on. Next thing, he says to me, “if you come back again, and I’m working upstairs, I can let you into the paid exhibits for a free tour.”

WTF??

What’s that supposed to mean? Could be that he was just being friendly… but it seemed rather odd to me.

The NGV Australia is definitely worth a visit, and I’d like to go back at some point to see the rest of the galleries. It’d be nice to visit the NGV International as well… it’s down the road on the opposite side.

Next time I’ll be more prepared for the very attentive security guards.

Yahoo! What fun.

... I should get cracking on this one.

I’ve done a few of the obvious ‘Melbourne things’:

• Melbourne Zoo
• Rialto Tower Observation Deck
• Football (Aussie Rules) at the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground)
• and at Telstra Dome (or whatever the heck it’s called now)
• the Moomba Festival
• Melbourne Show
• National Gallery of Victoria (the old and the new)
• Melbourne Museum (the old, not the new)
• Puffing Billy steam train
• Melbourne International Comedy Festival
• Australian Tennis Open

I’m sure there’s other stuff, but I can’t think of any more at the moment. I’ve been thinking of going to the tourist information office in the city centre for a few ideas about where to go next. But in the mean time, the couple of things that spring to mind are:

• Werribee Mansion and Open Range Zoo (Werribee’s practically been absorbed by Melbourne, so I think it counts)
• Healesville Sanctuary
• Melbourne Aquarium
• Melbourne Museum (the new one)
• Cricket (hopefully there will be some one-day matches before I go)

Time to start planning, me thinks!

Calgary Tower
Calgary Exhibition & Stampede
Canada Olympic Park including Olympic Museum
Glenbow Museum
Float or kayak or canoe the Bow and Elbow rivers
Devonian Gardens
Heritage Park
Big Rock Brewery
Inglewood Bird Sanctuary
Calgary Zoo
Nickle Art Gallery
Calaway Park
Stephen Avenue
Downtown Historical Walking Tour
Nose Hill Park
Fort Calgary
Lougheed House
Art Central
Theatre Calgary
CPO
Pumphouse Theatre
Calgary Canucks Game
Olympic Oval
Fish Creek Park & Bow Valley Ranch Visitors’ Centre
Sam Livingston Fish Hatchery
Fly Fishing on the Bow River
Spruce Meadows
Calgary’s tallest building – Petro Canada Centre 215 m / 689 ft.
Calgary Chinese Cultural Centre
Chinatown
Historic Kensington
meet all the “cows”

Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller
McKay’s Ice Cream in Cochrane
Magnetic Hill
The Big Rock
Cross Conservation Area
Kananaskis Country
Banff
Lake Louise
Jasper

I guess I’ve been here so long that it had to happen some time (I’m 26, and have lived here in Canberra most of my life). Mostly it is when we have visitors from interstate/overseas, but sometimes I just go with my family and friends.

Museums and galleries are a great thing to do on a rainy sunday afternoon, and botanic gardens, picnics by the lake, and climbing mountains are a great thing to do with a sunny sunday afternoon.

In Denver I especially enjoyed the Molly Brown House and, though the food is dreadful, Casa Bonita (gut-busting amounts of nasty Mexican food, gorillas, cowboys, cliffdivers and glow-in-the-dark necklaces – yay!!) In Oregon, Portland’s Pittock Mansion, Multnomah Falls, the touristy little beach towns and chowder and fried seafood at Mo’s. Now that I’m in Boulder, this summer it will be Celestial Seasonings (the tea company’s factory is here – can I survive “The Mint Room”?), and maybe Banjo Billy’s Tour Bus.

• it doesn’t occur to you to try it;
• you can’t be bothered, or be bothered to make the time; or
• if you’re a typical Aussie, you find it too ‘cringe-worthy’ to indulge in such activities.

I’ve kind of left my run a little late here… I mean, my plan is to be leaving here in a few months time. But there are a few key things I’d like to experience before I head off. I suppose the first thing I need to do here is start a list of things to do!