Fall in Melbourne

I stepped out the door of my friend’s suburban Melbourne home and was filled with a sense of familiarity and excitement. “It smells like fall!” I exclaimed as I stumbled down the steps. She turned and looked at me strangely.

“Fall? Oh you mean autumn.”

But I wasn’t listening; I was on a long rant about halloween, pumpkin pie and upstate new york leaves. “They turn every shade of orange imaginable! And they cover the ground and the sky and it seems like you’re walking through small mountains of crunchy flames. Ohhh and the pumpkin pie- have you ever had pumpkin pie?….”

Its strange to think I’ve gone a whole year without experiencing fall or winter. Had you asked me a year ago, I would’ve been excited about it, especially missing winter. I’ve never been a fan of cold weather, and up until now I had always imagined myself living in some tropical climate, as far away from the snowy land scapes of New England as possible. But small things now, like the smell of crisp cold air in the morning, bring me home.

I spent the day wandering around the artsy east-melbourne district of Fitzroy. I headed there in the early afternoon to a radio station, to meet a personality who runs a show devoted totally to spoken word. I was ushered into the green room, and struck up a conversation with a few people there. They were all poets too. I busily wrote down names, numbers, emails, gig dates, venues and addresses. This will be a busy week!

A few people from New Zealand who I met at the radio station and I went out for pizza at an artsy restaurant with an amazing deal! An entire personal pizza for 4 dollars! The restaurant was filled with large cushiony couches from a variety of styles. The walls were painted a golden yellow. There were high contrast pictures of H.H. The Dalai Lama and and peace flags hanging from the ceiling. Rugs were draped from the roof, and shoes superglued up the wall. My kind of place.

I wandered for the rest of the day up and down Brunswick street, weaving in and out of bookstores, cafes, used clothing stores, artsy boutique shoe stores and record shops. Later that night, I met up with Joey (Crazy Elf) and Li and we headed over to a small bar for my first exposure to Melbourne poetry.

It was exactly as I thought it would be. Though I could only stay for a few hours, the poetry I witnessed was incredible. But perhaps the most delicious and unexpected work was by a poet from Auckland, NZ, who I had lunch with earier that day. Not only was his poetry superior to most that I've heard in recent months, his delivery and performance style was engaging and entertaining- despite reading off the page! Typically, after 3 minutes of even the most beautiful poetry, my mind begins to wander. But not with this poet. Most of his poems were 3 minutes or longer, and I was engaged and awestruck for the entire piece, eating up every word and wanting more. So, not only am I absolutely thrilled to be in Melbourne, I'm really looking forward to exploring the Auckland scene, starting late next week!