Melbourne! (Part 3)

I’m sorry I haven’t posted for two days, but while our hostel in Melbourne had free wifi, it was very slow, and I was too tired to stay up for an hour while my photos uploaded. Now that I’m in Sydney I’m back to paying for wifi, but it’s much faster. I should be able to catch up today or tomorrow and get my loyal readers back up to date on my adventures.

Sunday we went to the Maker's Market outside the International Building at the National Gallery of Victoria. There was a big celebration going on for the 150th birthday of the National Gallery of Victoria. They were giving away orange balloons, which you'll probably see in a couple of these photos.

We got delicious cupcakes at the Maker’s Market. They even had glitter on them. A part of me really wants to drop out of law school and make glitter-covered cupcakes for the rest of my life. But I’m afraid that if I made them every day I might get bored of them, and that would be a tragedy. I’m glad I can appreciate the finer things in life, like glitter covered cupcakes.

While we were at the market, we saw a rhinoceros across the street. We all did a double take, trying to be sure it wasn’t real. Sure enough, it was a man inside a giant rhino costume, but it was the best rhino costume I’ve ever seen. We tried to pose for a picture, but it kept nudging Josephine, which is why we were both laughing in this photo:  

A Street Rhino!

 Then we passed some art students who were recreating a painting of Queen Esther. I was just watching, but they pulled me out of the crowd to be in the picture, which was pretty cool! I'm a big fan of Queen Esther, since I used to have a book about her which I really liked. It was historical fiction, but it was really good and it followed the basic lines of the biblical story. Esther risked her life to save her people, which is incredibly brave.

I'm Queen Esther!

The real painting: 

We spent quite a bit of time in the museum itself, but it was very crowded because of the festivities. The collection is definitely impressive, and the building itself is really cool. 

The National Gallery of Victoria

A Calder Mobile

View through the Waterfall Window

 After the museum, we took a stroll through the Botanic Gardens. We met Simon, a friend of Terry's. From him I learned that all the native trees in Australia are evergreen. All the deciduous trees were introduced by Europeans.

Amelia and Camellias

Then we went to Simon's parents' house for dinner. I think it's pretty amazing that even though we were complete strangers to them, they invited us over because we are travelers. My idea of a bond of travelers usually only extends to taking pictures for other people, but they decided to open their home to us just  because we were in Australia visiting Terry. I think it's wonderful to find that kind of openness and friendliness in a foreign country. My time in Melbourne certainly made me appreciate the country of Australia, but having dinner at Simon's house made me appreciate the kindness of Australians.