If you ever have a few hours to spare I completely recommend just wandering around the city. Melbourne has so many hidden treasures as I discovered on Tuesday when my boyfriend and I found ourselves at Flinders having already eaten, with no movies we wanted to see and no interest in bowling. So we wandered. Remembering the graffiti alleyways of Melbourne from when we came here in high school we set off with the aim of finding it sans google: old school style. Of course we got distracted by various side quests, and found out a lot about the three block area of Melbourne that we found ourselves in.
First off: Melbourne has A LOT of hairdressers. Like, too many? Within the space of around half an hour we saw a good dozen hairdressers and barbers. Why do we need so many? Is there something in the Melbourne water that makes hair grow really fast? Is it a front for the mob? The CIA? ALIENS?!? These are questions I need answered.
And then theres these bad boys. Named The Dirty Dozen these art pieces are housed in a series of 12 glass cases underneath Flinders street, they can be accessed by going into the underground entrance to Flinders Street Station. Sorry I can’t give you better directions than that, I don’t have the best sense of direction to begin with and all the wandering got me really turned around. These things were seriously cool, each case had a backlight and a rotating circle cover, and when you peered through the cover the clear plastic sculptures behind became iridescent.
We wandered through a lot of arcades, including one that had an industrial heater at the front that blasted you with hot air when you walked in. It was bliss. Having no money we didnt go into many shops, except one because it had kinetic sand in it! I made a penguin.
NOOT NOOT
We eventually found the alleyway in question, although I’m still not sure whether it was the same one from all those years ago. It was covered in some stunning pieces of artwork and I saw at least three people taking photos.. four including me.
The point to all my wandering comes down to a lesson I learnt in class a few weeks ago, which is to be constantly on the look out for film opportunities and locations. Ive been trying it out since that class. I took a walk around the neighbourhood I grew up in and went down some streets I’d never gone down before. In doing this I discovered Ioana Grove, a copse of staggeringly tall trees hidden in a hollow. In the mornings when its misty it looks like woods from a fantasy film, and I never would have known it was there if i’d stuck to the path I always took.
Never stop being curious, it could lead to something wonderful.
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