Pics from Melbourne

And yes, I'm still here... and I'm still playing poker. I reconsidered my cure and it turns out that I had mis-diagnosed myself and hadn't actually needed the cure yet, I'm up about $1100 now. But here are some of the pictures I've taken from around town in the interim.

Church, oohh, neat

Part of the building at the Federation Square (http://www.federationsquare.com.au/) and a statics problem nightmare (several of you won't get that joke, but it's really, really funny... ok not really that funny)

Went to the old Melbourne Gaol (that's jail to you) http://www.ripefruit.com/melbourne/sights/old_melbourne_gaol.htm. It was one of the main and meanest prisonsl in Australia putting over 130 prisoners to death in 70 years, all by hanging. Even though I lived in the bay area for 6 years I never made it to Alcatraz, but I imagine it's also like this....very, very erie.

After the hangings they would cut the head off and make a deathmask of the exectued inmate.

All sort of interesting items the used for restraint. I'm not sure if you can read the caption for the leather gloves but they were used to keep prisoners from "self-abuse" or as some us like to put it, spanking the monkey. They had several coroners reports and one of them actually attributed a prisoners death to "Nervous Exhaustion from Exposure want and Masturbation." I guess if prisoners were wacking themselves to death then gloves like these were warranted.

They tried to lock me in a cell but I busted loose.

While running from the guards I took this shot from outside. Friendly looking place.

Here's a picture along the Yarra river of the city skyline.

Went to the gallery of victoria

No pictures were supposed to be taken but I snuck this one just because of the reflection in the mirror.

At the main entrance they had a wall of glass with a thin layer of watering cascading down. It made for some cool pictures.

Part of the performing arts center.

mmmmm....iced coffee. Good stuff. I had lots of this when I visited Brett in Adelaide a few years ago and I was happy to find this specific brand again. That's the Federation square in the close background.

Melbourne has a great system of trams for people to get around but it leads to some strange traffic conditions downtown. They have this deal where cars have to turn from the outside lane if they are taking a right (remember we're on the otherside of the road down here). The first time I saw this I thought "what the hell is that guy doing? Why isn't everyone honking at him?" Supposedly it to keep any cars from impeding the way of the trams, but it seems really wierd. The tram costs $6.10 for a day pass, but the enforcement of the tram tickets seems very seldom (I haven't seen it yet.) Of course I've been a good citizen and paid everytime.....

Sunday morning I went to a market in a suburb called Camberwell. Basically your typical flea market but it was good to see that Australians were trying to off load the same sort of crap that Americans would back home. Maybe a few more interesting items, but the same for the most part.

If you want Burger King you can't have it. But you can have Hungry Jacks which is exactly the same as Burger King but someone else must own the name in Australia.

Me at the riverfront after my $15 haircut.

I think I mentioned it before, but Australia has had one of it's worst droughts in years and there are tons of bush fires. On monday I went outside and found a very distinct smokey smell and limited visibility. All the haze that you see in this picture around the building tops is smoke from the fires. Lukcily it was just the one day that was nasty.

Part of the city skyline and the train line at night.

All-in