Multicolored, Multicultural Melbourne

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WEEK 12

Dear Lincoln, Lilliana, Leni, Juliana, Evyn, Jack, Faye, Chloe, Emerson, Lake, Rita, Violet, and Ella,

I have so much to tell you! I had a very exciting week exploring the beautiful city of Melbourne with Jett and his mom. It’s the most artistic, musical, magical multicultural place I’ve ever been. I met so many wonderful, talented people from different backgrounds and countries. I met a Ilona from Hungary (who has a cousin who lives in Switzerland), Jett’s Aunt Shirley (who is a fashion designer), Steve (who is Aboriginal – which means he is descended from the first people who lived in Australia), a saxophonist (that’s some who plays the saxophone) and a family from Chile (who were really sad I was leaving for Sydney because they wanted me to stay with them!). I saw model village, a fairies tree, a dolphin fountain...

...and a park full of giant bells...

...and a swimming pool that hangs over the edge of a building...

...and beautiful paintings on buildings (called “street art”), and a kids’ art gallery, and a kids’ play space, and a giant 3-legged animal structure, and a bridge full of all the countries of the world! I even went to a Lebanese music festival. I’m not quite sure how I fitted it all in. Maybe because I was going everywhere with my High Speed Jett!

One of the best places for kids (and there are loads of them!) in Melbourne is Fitzroy Gardens. It is a huge, beautiful park with tons of space to run around in.

In Fitzroy Gardens, there is a cool model village that was given to the city of Melbourne by people in England.

And there is the Fairies Tree, with carvings of fairies and other magical creatures all over it.

There are so many fountains in Fitzroy Gardens.

I think Jett loved the Dolphin Fountain best.

It was a big pile of rocks with little stone statues of dolphins on it... and mini statues of ducks...

...and even an octopus and some sea horses around it.

My favorite was the fountain that is a memorial to an American president. You might have heard of him. His name was John F. Kennedy (although he is usually referred to as JFK).

Jett had so much fun hiding, and running around.

When he got tired he just got in his stroller (that they call a "pusher" in Australia) for a rest, except that, being Jett, he had to do it his way!

We also met a little puppy dog and Jett tried to teach it some of his dance moves!

In the middle of Fitzroy Gardens is a very special house. It is Captain Cook’s cottage.

The whole house was shipped to Melbourne from England many years ago to celebrate Captain James Cook, who was a British explorer who sailed from England to Australia and New Zealand over 200 years ago.

Many things in the cottage are over 200 years old. Including the bedpan that, if you look carefully, you will see beside the beds. This is what they used as a toilet next to their beds because in those days toilets were outside and it was too cold and dark to go out there in the middle of the night. Hopefully it’s been washed since it was last used, 200 years ago!

Look how tiny one of the beds is. A grown-up man would sleep in that bed.

And just look at the different clothes they used to wear.

Outside the cottage was a herb garden and a statue of Captain Cook.

In the herb garden we saw the biggest spider's web we'd ever seen. You'll have to look very closely at the picture to see it. We didn't hang around too long to try to see the spider because remember many spiders in Australia are very poisonous.

Jett’s Aunt Shirley lives in a beautiful apartment on the other side of Fitzroy Gardens.

It is on the 21^st floor so it has some pretty amazing views of the city.

Aunt Shirley is an art collector and her apartment is full of paintings and special furniture called antiques (which means it is very old and special) so Jett has to be super careful when he is there!

It is such a beautiful apartment that a magazine put a photo of it on the front cover once!

Aunt Shirley is also a very talented fashion designer and one day she took me to her showroom where I saw all the beautiful clothes she makes.

And this is where I met Ilona from Hungary, who helps her make the clothes.

They love art in Melbourne. They will put art everywhere and anywhere.

There are many art galleries, but some people like to do art on the walls of buildings.

This isn’t really allowed, but they still do it and I guess the cops don’t arrest them because the paintings are so beautiful. Either that or the artists paint the pictures in secret in the middle of the night!

The most amazing piece of art I saw was this giant 3-legged creature (I have no idea what it is) that is painted in many different colors.

At the big National Gallery of Victoria, there is a place called the “kids’ corner” that Jett loves because there are so many cool things to do. There is a car to drive and places to paint and decorate the walls.

Down by the river we saw another gallery that was a Kids’ Art Space. Kids had done sculptures of their own that were on display for people to see.

It was like a kids' art gallery!

The river that runs through Melbourne is called The Yarra. There are walkways along both sides of the river, and it is a great place to sit and watch the world go by from.

There is a rowing club on one side of the river and rowers do boat races along the Yarra, and under all the bridges.

There are so many bridges that cross The Yarra; some of the bridges are for cars and trams, some are for trains, but most of them are for people only. The walking bridges come in lots of weird and wonderful shapes. People use them for walking over, and some people use them as a place to play music, like this guy playing the saxophone.

One of the bridges is a very special place because it is a big symbol of multiculturalism (welcoming people from all parts of the world) in Australia.

The bridge has all these amazing metal sculptures all the way along it. One of these is called “the walking sun” and that’s exactly what it looks like!

The bridge also has a piece of glass for every country of the world that people have moved to Melbourne from.

I tried to take a pictures of all the countries I’m visiting on this trip...

...like Singapore, which is where Finn and Archie and Charlie live...

...and Switzerland, which is where Lincoln's cousin, Annelie, lives...

...and the UAE, which is where I lived when I was young, and where I'm meeting my mom for a vacation in April!

I'll be visiting Hungary, which is where my dad is from...

...and Ireland and Israel...

...and England, France and Germany...

...and Latvia, where Lincoln's Grandma is from...

...and maybe even Scotland.

The biggest non-Australian population in Australia is form New Zealand, because it is so close.

And do you remember we saw a concert for the people of East Timor when we were at Victoria Market?

And of course there was one about the United States. You probably can’t see the tiny writing, but on each one it says exactly how many people have moved to Australia from each country in which year. Some also tell you which cities people have come from. For example, from the United States, many of the people who have moved (emigrated) to Australia were from Chicago, Boston, New York, Washington, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Melbourne is a really easy city to get around on public transport, you don’t really need a car, which is great because it is much better for the environment to take trains and buses and trams.

Trams look like buses but are more like trains because they run on rails... but down the middle of the road! Melbourne is famous for its trams.

Trams are such a big part of life in Melbourne, they even put pictures of them on postcards!

Some people like to travel in a way that is even more environmentally friendly because it uses horse power!

If you want to travel to the city by bike, there are really great bike parks, where you can put your bike in a locker, and even take a shower, before going to school or work!

One of my favorite places in Melbourne’s city center is Federation Square. It is a great place to sit and hang out and look at all the amazing buildings and watch people go by...

The Flinders Street Station building is beautiful.

They also often have concerts and festivals in the middle of Federation Square, like this Lebanese music festival I went to. There is a big stage for all the musicians and a big screen above it so people can see them from a long way away.

Some concerts in Melbourne are big... but some concerts are very small.

When we were walking along the river, we saw some Aboriginal people having a smoke festival. They build a fire in a special fire pit and then put leaves on it that produce smoke that is special and lucky.

They were playing some music and one Aboriginal guy had a traditional instrument that is a long hollow tube of wood called a didgeridoo. Jett had a go at blowing it but he was too small to make any sound!

We met a great guy called Steve who told us how he can trace his family back to the very first people who lived in Australia. Well... he told Jett’s mom and me all about it.

Jett was more interested in exploring the giant shield structures and seeing how far he could run (you might have to look very hard at these pictures to see him, like we had to look very hard for him because he ran so far and so fast!

In the book store in the art gallery, they were selling plenty of books about the First Australians, like Steve's family.

You might think I saw everything there is to see in Melbourne, but there is so much, you could keep coming back here many times and still not see everything! I didn’t see like the aquarium, the museums, the botanical gardens, the penguin parade on Phillip Island, and the steam train called Puffing Billy. Well, maybe I will see them next time because all the families I stayed with (even the Chilean one I haven’t stayed with yet) made me promise to come back and visit soon!

I was so sad to leave Melbourne and say goodbye to all the great friends I’d made there, but eventually I had to leave for Sydney where I knew there were lots of new families waiting to meet me.

I’ll write to you from Sydney and tell you all about my first family next week.

Love you and miss you all more than ever!

Susie

Xxxx