A Melbourne Tale...Coffee, Sunburns & VEGEMITE

When we last left my "Australian Excellent Adventure" I was sleeping; however, I didn't stay asleep forever...nope, my first morning in Melbourne I was up at 5:15am...ready to go. While I waited for the sun to rise I made some nice Australian tea and watched the Australian Today Show--allegedly the Oscar Awards were occurring in Los Angeles and all the Australian morning buzz was about Cate Blanchett and her potential Oscar wins...you know I never checked again to see if she won?

Anyhoo, once the sun was up...I was out the door in search of coffee & breakie (aka breakfast in Australian). What I found--Australia doesn't really do "Coffee" it's more about the "Espresso." This concept is fine by me, since I have 4 espresso shots in my soy latte each morning. I stopped by a Starbuck's (the only one in Melbourne) and politely asked the barista where I could go (other than Starbuck's) to get a good coffee. I gingerly explained that I acquired the Starbuck's jolt regularly in the US, and I would prefer more of a Melbournian coffee spot. After a lovely conversation, not only about coffee hot spots but also about the FREE tourist tram that runs around the city, I headed to one of the suggested places, DeGraves Street.



As you can see, Degraves Street is more like a clean ally-way. It housed most wonderful soy lattes as well as an interesting crowd (lawyers, students, business folks, straight-edgers, elderly). I purchased a triple soy espresso and a croissant. As I was paying, I noticed little packets of jam, butter, and the Australian treat of VEGEMITE. I don't know how many of you know about VEGEMITE? Until Australia, my knowledge was limited to the line in the Men at Work song "Land Down Under" that says, "He just smiled and gave me a VEGEMITE sandwich."

As I looked at the packets, a Japanese man behind me warned that no matter how good people say VEGEMITE is--I should beware...because it has a kick and a punch (as he made kicking & punching gestures). I laughed to myself, because I thought he was going to go into a story that went a little something like this, "It was a morning much like this several years ago when VEGEMITE crossed my path...(as lightening crashed and wolves howled in the background)." Rrrright!!! So, upon the freaky advice from the serious Japanese man, I secretly took a couple VEGEMITE packets with the plan of trying it in the comforts of my own space later that night.


I buzzed about Melbourne (click on Melbourne for my photos) touring Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne University, The Hall of Remembrance, Melbourne Botanical Gardens, Victoria National Art Gallery, Melbourne Cricket Stadium. It was a gorgeous sunny day...about 75 degrees. Um, one piece of information that would have been really good to know before my leisurely day out-and-about...AUSTRALIA HAS NO OZONE!!!!! You would think the Australian Government would plaster this on a brochure or post it on a big billboard at the local airport.


I found that Australia has the highest rate of skin cancer in the world; therefore, all SPF sold in the country is @ 30 or higher. In fact, even the Kangaroo and Tasmanian Devils are affected by serious skin lesions--sadness (one more reason to get out and advocate for that strict climate change legislation). Anyhoo, I wore sun-screen when I was in Melbourne; however, I would have paid closer attention to my sun-screen application if I had known about the ozone seriousness. Evidently, I forgot to put sun-screen on my chest and neck; therefore, the wrath of the sun's non-ozone protected rays were upon my unsun-screened neck and chest. When I got back to my hotel later that night, I looked in the mirror and noticed the nice sunburn I acquired on my chest...it looked like I had a red skin necklace--unbelievable!!!!




I made it back to the hotel around 8:30pm and after dealing with my sunburn (which you can see in the above picture), I decided to try the VEGEMITE. I pulled out my left over croissant and the VEGEMITE packets from the morning. I noticed the ingredients on the back of the pack said, "Yeast Extract," blah, I wasn't sure that sounded very good...maybe this Japanese man had a point? On the other hand, he also told me it's eaten like peanut butter and jelly by Australian children and as a hangover cure for adults. So, I thought, "If children and hung-over adults are eating it then it can't be that bad, and I'm in Australia...so as long as this isn't made out of cow stomach...I'm tryin' it."


I spread it on...and took a bite. Unfortunately, since I was my own photographer, I didn't get a picture of the look on my face after I tasted and took a bite--but, for those of you who have seen me take a whiskey shot (even though I love whiskey) the look on my face was very similar!!!Oh..Ma..Ga...It was like eating a bouillon cube!!!! It tasted soooo salty...oh, I'm getting sick just blogging about it. I had to spit it out...I couldn't even chew it. I felt like a slug that just had salt poured all over it. Please take note...if a Japanese man ever tries to offer up some advice...TAKE IT!!!!


After my VEGEMITE experience and learning that Australians must have steel stomachs...I packed and went to bed. The next day I planned to take the train to St. Kilda (Melbourne's loverly Beach) to spend the day, and then later that evening it was off to the airport for my 7pm flight to Darwin in the Northern Territory to begin my Outback Adventure.