Melbourne White Night

MELBOURNE -- I have been traveling in New Zealand and Australia all month with friends for a wedding.  The last stop on the group trip was Sydney, but I couldn't be so close and not visit "the Brooklyn of Australia."  So I took a chance and left the group and set out on my own for a weekend in Melbourne.  There was a woman from Melbourne at my table during the wedding reception and she wasthrilled about my enthusiasm for her home city.  She promised and followed through on introducing me to friends on Facebook so I would have people to show me around when I arrived.

I am usually too shy to follow up on introductions but when in Rome or Sydney or Melbourne...

My new friends in Melbourne were excited that I was coming out for "Melbourne White Night."  They explained the concept of staying up all night to party, though the explanation was wholly unnecessary.  Having spent many a late night with some wild friends in Paris, I am well-versed in the concept of nuit blanche.

The event in Melbourne was an official city-sponsored affair with light installations and performances weaving across the city's bridges and squares.  We (being me and my new group of friends in Melbourne) started the night with a dinner party at Laura's apartment which looked a lot like my loft back in Brooklyn and overlooked one of the main White Night avenues.  Laura is a transplant from Spain who works in marketing for a major condom brand.  She served up a late night meal of traditional Spanish dishes like octopus and red pepper pate.  After the meal the crowd of 10 had mostly faded into the couch or lost themselves in conversation while smoking on the balcony with no intention of joining the White Night party below in the streets.  And so at about one o'clock in the morning, I set out with my new friend Brooke whom I had just met at dinner a few hours beforehand to explore the city.