The best place to start in any tale is at the beginning.
To follow the Yank's journey from the start, CLICK ON THIS LINK and then just work you way forward by clicking the "newer post" links.
Cheers!
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Photos and Such
Well, as most of you know, we got back to the states. The trip is over, and I'm sad. There is so much more I could say about our last days there, Phil the tour guide, things I like better about Australia then the US, things I like better about the US than Aus, but I'll leave it for now.
Anyway, all you really want is pictures anyway. So here is a link to all of the photos (and two short videos) off of my (John's) camera. Chris has about 400 more, and I'll try and get all of those up next.
Here is the link: http://photobucket.com/yanksinoz
Enjoy.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Melbourne -- Day Two
Right now it is Wednesday, the 28th.
Yesterday we awoke to a cloudy city, and rain. Our initial plan had been to catch a train down the bay to one of the more well known suburbs of Melbourne, Geelong, but it just didn’t seem like a good idea with bad weather. Instead we decided to stick in the city and do some indoor stuff.
We grabbed a meal at the Melbourne Center, which is a giant mall that encloses an old factory in the middle of the city, then crossed the street to visit the famous Old Melbourne Gaol (gaol is how Australians spell jail) where Ned Kelly was hanged in 1880. For those of you who don’t know, or haven’t seen the great movie starring Heath Ledger (RIP) and Orlando Bloom, Ned Kelly is like the Australian Jesse James. He is a folk hero, the last of a group of outlaws known as “bush rangers.” He is notable for his last stand where he and his gang faced off against the Victorian Police while dressed in body armor (complete with helmets) made out of plowshares. He was captured, brought to Melbourne, and hanged inside the jail we explored. His last words are purported to have been, “such is life.”
Part of the Gaol experience was the Watch House tour (the watch house was a newer jail used in Melbourne beginning in the 19th century), where a “police sergeant” took twenty of us and booked us as criminals. Each person was given a new identity and a crime for which we were being jailed. I was Tristan O’Keefe, arrested for “dangerous driving.” My excuse was apparently, “I knew what I was doing and no one was ever in any danger.” Chris became Dan Rogers, arrested for “manufacturing illicit materials.” The Sergeant was hilarious (and knowledgeable having actually worked as an officer in the watch house in the eighties –it was closed in 1994 and became part of the Gaol museum.) We were all booked and put in a cell, then unexpectedly the lights were cut and we were left to sit uncomfortably in the dark while speakers played sound effects of prisoners yelling and what not. After a bit the Sergeant turned the lights back on and let us out to explore the cells and exercise yards, including a fully padded cell for insane people. So Mom, I’m sorry but I did go to jail.
After the Watch House experience we moved into the actual cell block turned museum of the Gaol, built in the 1840’s and home to 135 hangings, right up to 1975 when Capital punishment was (inexplicably) outlawed in Victoria State. We saw the actual gallows, which are inside the cellblock on the second of the three floors. The condemned would be tied to the scaffold via noose then a trapdoor would opened by lever dropping the lucky bloke (or Sheila) halfway towards the ground floor before he or she was snapped short and killed via neck breakage. Sometimes however, since it was a short stop hanging method, the necks of the criminals wouldn’t break and they’d just hang and choke to death while writhing about. In one instance, a woman hanged in the late 19th century dropped through the floor only to have her neck tear apart as oppose to breaking. There was a humorous little toy demo that exemplified this process. When you hit the button, the trap door opened suddenly beneath the toy man and he dropped abruptly to his hilarious “death.” I hit the button at least three times, and laughed out loud at each toy hanging.
The highlight of the exhibits was Ned Kelly’s death mask (a mold of his face taken off his corpse after his hanging) and his colt revolver on display. Unfortunately, the Gaol doesn’t have his armor (it’s in a museum somewhere though.)
After the Gaol we crossed town to take a ride 88 floors up to the observation deck in the Eureka tower, the tallest building in the southern hemisphere. We saw all of Melbourne from above, from the far Dandies where we explored the day previous, to the bay and coastal suburb of St. Kilda. We took copious photos. Once returning to earth we walked up the street to see the Shrine of Remembrance, which is a memorial originally built in the 1920’s to honor the dead in WWI but has now been updated to include WW2 and subsequent conflicts Australia has been involved in (Korea, Vietnam, Borneo, Malaya, etc…) It was a sobering place where we paused to reflect and watch the sun set on the city in the distance.
Weather permitting; our next outing will be to Geelong. If it rains, we might check out the aquarium or something else indoors.
Yesterday we awoke to a cloudy city, and rain. Our initial plan had been to catch a train down the bay to one of the more well known suburbs of Melbourne, Geelong, but it just didn’t seem like a good idea with bad weather. Instead we decided to stick in the city and do some indoor stuff.
We grabbed a meal at the Melbourne Center, which is a giant mall that encloses an old factory in the middle of the city, then crossed the street to visit the famous Old Melbourne Gaol (gaol is how Australians spell jail) where Ned Kelly was hanged in 1880. For those of you who don’t know, or haven’t seen the great movie starring Heath Ledger (RIP) and Orlando Bloom, Ned Kelly is like the Australian Jesse James. He is a folk hero, the last of a group of outlaws known as “bush rangers.” He is notable for his last stand where he and his gang faced off against the Victorian Police while dressed in body armor (complete with helmets) made out of plowshares. He was captured, brought to Melbourne, and hanged inside the jail we explored. His last words are purported to have been, “such is life.”
Part of the Gaol experience was the Watch House tour (the watch house was a newer jail used in Melbourne beginning in the 19th century), where a “police sergeant” took twenty of us and booked us as criminals. Each person was given a new identity and a crime for which we were being jailed. I was Tristan O’Keefe, arrested for “dangerous driving.” My excuse was apparently, “I knew what I was doing and no one was ever in any danger.” Chris became Dan Rogers, arrested for “manufacturing illicit materials.” The Sergeant was hilarious (and knowledgeable having actually worked as an officer in the watch house in the eighties –it was closed in 1994 and became part of the Gaol museum.) We were all booked and put in a cell, then unexpectedly the lights were cut and we were left to sit uncomfortably in the dark while speakers played sound effects of prisoners yelling and what not. After a bit the Sergeant turned the lights back on and let us out to explore the cells and exercise yards, including a fully padded cell for insane people. So Mom, I’m sorry but I did go to jail.
After the Watch House experience we moved into the actual cell block turned museum of the Gaol, built in the 1840’s and home to 135 hangings, right up to 1975 when Capital punishment was (inexplicably) outlawed in Victoria State. We saw the actual gallows, which are inside the cellblock on the second of the three floors. The condemned would be tied to the scaffold via noose then a trapdoor would opened by lever dropping the lucky bloke (or Sheila) halfway towards the ground floor before he or she was snapped short and killed via neck breakage. Sometimes however, since it was a short stop hanging method, the necks of the criminals wouldn’t break and they’d just hang and choke to death while writhing about. In one instance, a woman hanged in the late 19th century dropped through the floor only to have her neck tear apart as oppose to breaking. There was a humorous little toy demo that exemplified this process. When you hit the button, the trap door opened suddenly beneath the toy man and he dropped abruptly to his hilarious “death.” I hit the button at least three times, and laughed out loud at each toy hanging.
The highlight of the exhibits was Ned Kelly’s death mask (a mold of his face taken off his corpse after his hanging) and his colt revolver on display. Unfortunately, the Gaol doesn’t have his armor (it’s in a museum somewhere though.)
After the Gaol we crossed town to take a ride 88 floors up to the observation deck in the Eureka tower, the tallest building in the southern hemisphere. We saw all of Melbourne from above, from the far Dandies where we explored the day previous, to the bay and coastal suburb of St. Kilda. We took copious photos. Once returning to earth we walked up the street to see the Shrine of Remembrance, which is a memorial originally built in the 1920’s to honor the dead in WWI but has now been updated to include WW2 and subsequent conflicts Australia has been involved in (Korea, Vietnam, Borneo, Malaya, etc…) It was a sobering place where we paused to reflect and watch the sun set on the city in the distance.
Weather permitting; our next outing will be to Geelong. If it rains, we might check out the aquarium or something else indoors.
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