I think I am missing my car

Yep, the title says it all. It struck me today, as I was making my way home from downtown Melbourne, that I am missing my car. Don't get me wrong - I'm all for public transit, and Melbourne sure has an intricate system of buses, trams, and trains - but really, at the end of a long day, being packed into a tram like so much sardines just isn't all that much fun. TOO MANY PEOPLE. Turns out I enjoy the 'alone' time I get when commuting in the car! The trams and trains here have irritating seats - they're set in pairs of benches, one bench facing forwards, and the other facing backwards, all down the length of the car. Pretty much nobody wants to be in the rear-facing seats, which means that as the tram fills up, you can get a crush of people in the aisles and free seats that nobody will sit in. Also, the pairs of seats that face each other are so close together that if four people do sit down in them together, their knees all touch. Ick. I know that when you ride on public transit you do have to be a bit more forgiving about personal space, but still!

I wouldn't want to drive in the city anyway. Despite my best efforts, I am still disoriented by which side of the road the cars drive on. I was downtown today and switching from one tram route to another, and had to consciously stop and think about which part of the platform I needed to be on in order to travel in the right direction. Also, the rules for cars turning corners in the downtown core are bizarre to say the least. Along roadways with trams, cars who want to turn right (remembering that this would be the same as wanting to turn left at home, meaning you're cutting across lanes of oncoming traffic to do so) have to turn right from the LEFT-hand-most lane. Which makes no sense to me at all - it means the right-turning cars not only have to cross all the lanes of oncoming traffic, but also all the lanes of traffic on their side of the road as well. I have yet to find someone who can explain why the rules are this way. Apparently it has something to do with ensuring that the tram lines are always clear and the cars don't block them (like Toronto, the tram rails run down the middle of the roads). I'm just amazed there aren't more accidents! The locals seem to get how to make these turns, for which I am grateful.

Actually, in general I'm quite happy to be walking all over the place around the city. I am slowly learning the streets and landmarks. Although that's another thing that's reversed here - where the street signs are posted on the corners of intersections. This means I can't always find the street signs to tell me where they are (they're always around, I'm just looking for them in the wrong parts of the intersections; it's amazing how much is hard-wired into us from a young age, about where to look for things like this!). But I've always been more of a landmark navigator anyway.

Today I took my map in hand and set out on my own to find Fitzroy, a funky neighbourhood that's to the east (ish) of the downtown core. I must admit I was a little disappointed with the adventure. I made my way downtown with no problems, but when I went to switch trams at La Trobe Street, I discovered that there was a tram stuck on the tracks (of course in the direction I wanted to travel!). Since no trams could get around this particular spot, it meant there were no trams heading in my direction and I ended up walking about 30 minutes to get to the edge of Fitzroy. The touring map I had promised me a funky district filled with retro stores, little cafes, and other fun things... but the reality wasn't quite what I was expecting. Kensington it wasn't. Queen Street it wasn't. I did find one funky shop full of designer kitchen ware which I liked (you know, all the stuff I'll never be able to afford - I particularly liked the knife block shaped like a man, and you inserted the different knives into different strategic points in the body - like the head and the heart. Ha ha.). I also walked into a neat little environmentally friendly store which had a great book selection. But that was about it.

I had originally ventured to Fitzroy because last week Jen had made references to how "strange" and "totally wrong" Fitzroy was. I returned home this afternoon completely puzzled - it was just another neighbourhood in the city, from what I could tell. But apparently she was talking about Fitzroy Park, not Fitzroy the neighbourhood - and I had been nowhere near the park. She's promised to take me there herself another day.