Suburbs
The past couple days I've spent wandering around Melbourne's various suburbs. Yesterday I walked, ate, and shopped in Fitzroy (=Greenwich Village) and went to dinner and a movie in Carlton (=Little Italy). I saw Little Children, which was not what I'd call enjoyable, but was definitely worthwhile.
Today was my Jewish themed day. I went to the Jewish Museum and discovered that the entire Jewish population of Australia is about 100,000. That is about equal to the number of Jews in Suffolk County, and less than a third of the Jews in Brooklyn. Pretty incredible. 48,000 are in Victoria (meaning Melbourne), 44,000 are in New South Wales (meaning Sydney), and most of the rest are in Perth and Adelaide. There are only 200 in Tasmania and amazingly only 110 in all of the Northern Territory. There are no synagogues in the Northern Territory. I guess that shouldn't be surprising, but it is anyway. After seeing the museum and touring the synagogue I walked down the main street of Balaclava, the Jewish suburb. I bought bagels from the number one bagel place in Australia- I haven't tried them yet though, so I'll have to report back. They did have everything bagels though, so its a good start. After that I walked around the trendy backpacker suburb, St. Kilda and ate at a Jewish restaurant. I was the only one there and the family working there just sat around and talked to me (well I assume it was a family, an older couple and a girl my age). They told me to go see the Great Barrier Reef and that I probably had distant relatives in Australia since they knew a Katz family originally from Poland. I felt bad leaving them- they seemed really thrilled to have a patron, and a NY Jewish patron at that! But I had to leave and go buy tickets for a day tour I'm doing tomorrow to an animal sanctuary. I still need to see koalas and platypuses (sp?). Should be fun.
One final fun thing to update about- when I mentioned going to the horse races, Norva got very excited and told me that she always goes to the big races so that she can wear big feathery hats- which she makes herself. She took out a bunch of them and we tried on hats together and talked about how great they were. So that was a lot of fun. Too bad I'm not going to be here in November for the big Melbourne Cup. Norva says that even the people who buy the cheapest tickets and pack picnic lunches dress up in fantastic hats and dresses to go to the track. Sounds like just my kind of thing!
Anyway, I have to get off the internet. Finding a cheap place to check email means that my addiction is flaring up again. I'll be sure to update about the bagels and the koalas soon. And I'll try to remember more pictures- I always forget the cable!
Love,
Emma
Today was my Jewish themed day. I went to the Jewish Museum and discovered that the entire Jewish population of Australia is about 100,000. That is about equal to the number of Jews in Suffolk County, and less than a third of the Jews in Brooklyn. Pretty incredible. 48,000 are in Victoria (meaning Melbourne), 44,000 are in New South Wales (meaning Sydney), and most of the rest are in Perth and Adelaide. There are only 200 in Tasmania and amazingly only 110 in all of the Northern Territory. There are no synagogues in the Northern Territory. I guess that shouldn't be surprising, but it is anyway. After seeing the museum and touring the synagogue I walked down the main street of Balaclava, the Jewish suburb. I bought bagels from the number one bagel place in Australia- I haven't tried them yet though, so I'll have to report back. They did have everything bagels though, so its a good start. After that I walked around the trendy backpacker suburb, St. Kilda and ate at a Jewish restaurant. I was the only one there and the family working there just sat around and talked to me (well I assume it was a family, an older couple and a girl my age). They told me to go see the Great Barrier Reef and that I probably had distant relatives in Australia since they knew a Katz family originally from Poland. I felt bad leaving them- they seemed really thrilled to have a patron, and a NY Jewish patron at that! But I had to leave and go buy tickets for a day tour I'm doing tomorrow to an animal sanctuary. I still need to see koalas and platypuses (sp?). Should be fun.
One final fun thing to update about- when I mentioned going to the horse races, Norva got very excited and told me that she always goes to the big races so that she can wear big feathery hats- which she makes herself. She took out a bunch of them and we tried on hats together and talked about how great they were. So that was a lot of fun. Too bad I'm not going to be here in November for the big Melbourne Cup. Norva says that even the people who buy the cheapest tickets and pack picnic lunches dress up in fantastic hats and dresses to go to the track. Sounds like just my kind of thing!
Anyway, I have to get off the internet. Finding a cheap place to check email means that my addiction is flaring up again. I'll be sure to update about the bagels and the koalas soon. And I'll try to remember more pictures- I always forget the cable!
Love,
Emma
1 Comments:
Little Children, eh? What would Irene think? Did it make you homesick, seeing as it was possibly filmed in your laundry room?
Apparently platypoda is an acceptable plural form of platypus, as is platypuses, platypus, and platypi if you want to go crazy. (So says wikipedia)
Whatever you want to call them, make sure you take pictures.
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