It's nearly Christmas again and it's that time of year with decorations adorning our buildings and there is a feeling of festivity in the air (sadly as I live in Australia it is not accompanied by snow flurries and hot toddies to keep you warm as you race around doing your Christmas shopping)
Our plan for the day was not actually the decorations but the African Music Festival
which was held in Federation Square and it was a fun event with some amazing dancing and singing and delicious foods (I choose an Ethiopian meal which was scrumptious)
The performances were fantastic, colorful and vibrant and made you want to get up and dance yourself and some of the kids...wow they could really shake those bootys.
Our feet still dancing we decided to go in search of Christmas decorations, apart from the obvious ones like the windows at Myer or the Town Hall and our wanderings took us to the Block (opened 1892) and Royal (opened 1870) Arcades which are both stunning buildings which reflect the heritage of the architects of the time (mostly from England and Europe).
I had a fabulous day wandering the city, just exploring and going where my feet lead and I realized how different a tourist I am in my own town as opposed to when I travel somewhere new or somewhere that I am not sure I will ever be able to get back to. When it comes to that sort of stuff I am a planner. I guess it is because I never know if I will have an opportunity to come back and I don't want to be sitting on the plane/car/train/ship on my way home saying "I wish I had done that." Generally speaking I have a few things I know I want to do before I leave which I HAVE to mark off my "must do" list, as well as a few-'if a get a chance I wouldn't mind...." list but I always allow plenty of time to wander, explore and get lost which usualy helps me to knock things off that "if you get....." and also create a new "to do" list.
When I explore Melbourne, I just explore-I sometimes have a plan in mind, (like the fact that today we went in to see the music festival) but most of the time I just see where my mood leads me which can be awesome because I find things I didn't know were there, but also afterwards I sometimes say to myself "damn I should have....." but then I add "well I can do it next time" and today was one of those days. I realized that I have never been into the Royal Arcade before and it was amazing, which made me think of how many other arcades. alleys and lanes that I have missed. So of course when I got home I did some research and found some tour companies that do tours for $90+ which is great as they will probably know all the 'secret' alleys and if I have a spare $90 to throw around I might do that. However if I take the approach that I do for an overseas trip, (research and maps) I should be able to do my own lane and arcade tour which I guess I have to add to my to-do list.