Today I set off for the local library. A strange choice you might think, but always one of the first places I want to see when I'm travelling. Anyone who hasn't been in the British library has committed some kind of crime. Where is it written that we should visit locals churches and cathedrals [houses of God] but not local libraries or book shops [houses of my God; words]?
Anyway this trip involved walking as I have developed an aversion to the trams. There isn't anything wrong with them but I always thinking walking is the best way to get around in a new place. This city is a grid [more or less] and I was convinced that it was simply a case of having to memorise it and I would be happily meandering like a local. Sigh. Why is it that my girl brain can never ever remember a map? I have to get it out of my pocket every single time I get to a corner. I used to take the piss out of Leah for having to always take an A to Z to London, but maybe I am finally understanding why!
The one thing I do notice as I begin my walk is the amazing buildings here. The streets in St. Kilda are packed with these huge low riding colonial style houses with wrought iron steps and verandas and canopies and huge Georgian windows. I love them. They are also beautiful colours, alabaster, greys and greens. The run down ones looks even better because they are mottled and weather worn. I want one of these houses and I imagine them standing empty with cracked paned french windows and dusty tiled floors; like the house in Interview With A Vampire - the one that Tom Cruise holes himself up in after they've cut and burnt him.
Anyway, back to the walking . . . I have managed to navigate myself [correctly] to the biggest road I have ever seen! Well, that might be an exaggeration but it is pretty huge and as yesterday's post revealed this is terrifying for me. St. Kilda Road cuts straight through the city to the sea and I crossed it. I sort of hopped around a bit and was quite scared for my life at least twice but I did make it across and to the silent electric doors of the library in one piece.
On the way back I discovered Greeve Street [by accident]. I am walking down the road looking at a woman standing in the street, she's quite pretty and I am wondering why she would be standing on the road like that and decide she is waiting for a lift. About twenty feet down the road there is another woman, she is less pretty but also waiting for a lift. Another twenty or thirty feet down the road is a really quite ugly woman and I suddenly realise that she can't be waiting for a lift as well and that in fact they are all on the game and I have wandered into another red light district. This seems to happen to me every time I go anywhere by myself.
Prostitution is legal here apparently, although I think it's only allowed in brothels, but the police don't seem to mind either way.
I find my way to the St. Kilda Botanical Gardens [an anti-climax] and then go to the local supermarket [yes Kate - how exciting] to buy the ingredients for the cannelloni I have promised to make. I buy some very expensive cheese because everything is so shiny that I am confused by the choices.
We eat and drink a nice bottle of wine. The cannelloni is a bit crispy but quite good really. We watch The City of Ember which is an OK film - good idea a little patchy but I did go to school with the guy who plays the lead.
I'm beginning to like this place.
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