Week 495 · Black Rock · Yarra River · Melbourne Coffee Culture · K-Mart
Settling
After a full week back in the USA visiting my parents in Branson and having our going-away/Sharon retirement outing in the neighbourhood, I flew back to Melbourne. A common theme was "isn't this your 3rd or 4th going away — you keep coming back." And I will again. Sharon comes over next week.
One of my first settling-in tasks is figuring out the bike situation — do I ship one or buy one and try to sell it later? The shipping to Australia is a pain and at least $400 round-trip — so that is the breakeven point. I found a relatively new hybrid for AUS$549 ($370 US) online. The store was on the outskirts of Melbourne — a train ride then a bus ride to this little town called "Black Rock" — right on the bay about 10 miles south of St. Kilda.
I get there and he said that bike was gone — but he had another one in red instead of black — so it wasn't a used bike, just an old model that had never been sold. So I asked the price of the red bike. He said AUS$549 — why would the price be different? I explained in the US many times the product you show up to buy isn't there and somehow almost the exact same product costs a lot more. I couldn't tell if he was horrified or thought that was a good idea.
Similar to driving, biking is on the left and I am fine with that — what I struggle with is that the rear brake is on the left side. In the US the brake set-up is "right-rear." The consequence is that in a panic if you lock down on the right brake — it is the front brake — and over the handlebars. That is the biggest transition.
The ride back was along the bay for about 15 miles back to the CBD and through St. Kilda. The sun made a rare appearance so I kept riding up river from the CBD — actually nicer than the ocean/bay ride.
Melbourne has a huge coffee culture — if you were to bring a Starbucks in, you would lose all credibility. In my 10-minute walk to work, I pass over 20 coffee shops. I am not that into coffee so I still am seeking the largest cup possible for the money (the grams caffeine/AUS$ metric). A large is usually 8 oz. So I found a place that serves a bacon bap and a 24-oz coffee — "Kenny's Bakery Café." But when I sat down at the morning meeting — I was advised that bakeries don't serve real coffee and real coffee shops don't serve good baked goods — I need to go to both.
Melbourne is widely regarded as having the most sophisticated coffee culture in the world outside Italy. The city's café scene was shaped by Italian and Greek immigrants in the 1950s who introduced espresso culture — long before Starbucks arrived in Australia in 2000 and then withdrew from most of the country by 2008, unable to compete. Melbourne's distinct flat white (now adopted globally), the "magic" (a double ristretto over steamed milk in a smaller cup), and the long black are all products of this culture. The city has over 2,000 independent cafés. Bringing a Starbucks cup into a Melbourne office is considered a genuine social faux pas.
"In my 10-minute walk to work, I pass over 20 coffee shops. If you were to bring a Starbucks in — you would lose all credibility."