Melbourne: Hipster hurray!

 

"Hell-no" burger

Australia. The land down under. If you believe all the things posted on Facebook, the country is filled with giant animals and other things that can kill you, be it funnel web spiders, salt water crocs, venomous 2-headed snakes, bull sharks, bodybuilding kangaroos, or Hugh Jackman’s deltoids. Or worse - Vegemite! 

My work trip brought me to Melbourne and Sydney. I never really thought much about visiting the land down under because it seems so far away, and it takes an entire day to travel.  So, I had no clue what it had to offer.  While there were definitely shockers (what?! they eat their beloved kangaroos?!), most of what I saw in Melbourne and Sydney were quite tame. Its not like these cities were crawling with koalas and wombats. Although that would be cute.  

First up, Melbourne. Melbourne was crawling with laidback hipsters, still cute, but less so than koalas. I stayed at an Art Hotel, where my room was adorned with a huge original art piece on the main wall, and everything was tastefully contemporary.  It was a great preview on what Melbourne had in store for me. Here are my top memorable moments in Melbourne:

• Coffee - I will never call myself a coffee connoisseur ever again. Coffee in Melbourne is a culture on its own.  I've been to Europe and enjoyed cafes aplenty, but have never had consistently Ahhh-mazing coffee than I've experienced in Melbourne. Is it the water? Is it the beans? Is there hidden kale in it? What sorcery is this?! Interestingly enough, I read that the rise of coffee in Australia began as a response to drunkenness. The Temperance movement in the 1890s saw abstinence from alcohol and into more socialization - enter the cafes! And the Melbourne coffee literacy got passed on to present generation. Safe to say, the beans are on their genes! 

Coffee roasting heaven

• Laneways and arcades - after arriving in Melbourne, I was quickly educated in Melbourne shopping way. Laneways and arcades have completely different meaning than how we use these words in the US. Laneways are narrow streets or tucked away alleys, paved or not with cobblestones, and lined with arrays of cafes, boutiques, shops and restaurants. Think Diagon Alley, if you're a Potterhead.   Arcades, on the other hand, are covered shopping plazas. They are often connected by laneways. These were so cute, and I enjoyed every navigation (translation: getting lost) minute. 

Hebrew happy new year greeting
at the Royal Arcade

Centre Place laneway

• St. Kilda - I didn't have time to go to the historic 1912 amusement park, Luna Park, and I'm not really sure I tried very hard after seeing the creepy clown entrance. Yikes. But that not-so-good tingling sensation down my spine easily blew away when dusk came and I headed to the pier to watch the sunset.  I was on a mission when I took the public tram ride to St. Kilda: See the little penguins - the smallest species of penguins in the world.  These little nuggets come home to the St. Kilda breakwater at half an hour past sunset.  They swim and waddle back to their nests among the rocks every night. Absolutely adorable!

Luna Park, amusing or disturbing? I'll pass!

• 
  
• Queen Victoria Market - 140 years strong, and the largest open-air market in the southern hemisphere, this market is full of life! and souvenirs! and Uggs! and food, so much of it. 

I can guess, but I'd rather not know. :(

Uggs. Uggs. Uggs. Say that 10x,
and you'll sound like hip enough for Melbourne

Breakfast?

3D street art:
Because 2D graffiti is not trendy enough!

• Sights - Street art, bridges, buskers, and shoppers.  Melbourne is like a mellower version of Philadelphia, or Philly's quirky cousin. It's quite easy to navigate by foot, bus, tram or Uber.  I tried them all. 

I was fortunate to meet up with Ethel, a friend from grad school who moved to Melbourne. She graciously took me to some places that I wouldn't have known otherwise (cause I had no time to read the Frommers Guide I brought!).  The Coop's Shot Tower was fascinating. I didn't even know such places existed nor what a shot tower was until I visited Melbourne, though I could guess it. Basically, this is the tower were they made small pellets for shotguns. When the factory produces pellets or "shot balls", they send down the molten lead down the tower by free fall down to a water basin at the bottom.  The liquid lead forms spheres and solidify as they fall down the tower.


Ethel also took me to the State Library which is Australia's oldest public library. Thanks Ethel! Since I love looking down from great heights, we went all the way to the top floor treating me to the view of the chess room, which houses books dedicated to... well, chess. How on earth did you guess that? Perhaps because nothing screams hipster like Chess does? ;) They even have game tables with chessboards. 

My favorite muggle turns 8!

I lived to tell the tale, the magical tale of a Harry Potter-themed birthday celebrating a special girl.  This crazy mom pulled off a birthday party with 25 kids, then caught a 7 am business flight the following morning. I must really love her! And t'was certainly a character-building experience, to say the least. It's true what they say: What doesn't kill you... gives you a great sense of humor!!! 

My daughter turned 8 a few days ago, and we celebrated with a Harry Potter themed birthday party because the girl is obsessed with the Harry Potter books (she's on the 4th).  I remember loving the books while I was reading it as an adult in graduate school, but rereading it with my kids is even more fun as I hear their gasps of awe, and squeaks of fear. I couldn't NOT do a Harry Potter birthday when she requested it. It's almost like turning down an invitation to go to Hogwarts! Seriously, Sirius Black. But... where to begin?

Requesting the presence of Wizards and Witches 

With our busy schedules between work and kid activities, the trick to not be overwhelmed is to have fun, do a small thing at a time, and definitely try to not reinvent the wheel - beginning with the invitations.  There are many templates one can use from the web, or you can design one yourself, or do a mix of both.   It's a great way of just using something that works for you and personalizing it. For ours, I did a mix and downloaded a Harry Potter-inspired font and added my own touch. I printed wand spell motions on the back of the card stock paper. We bought an owl stamp and a gold stamp pad and ink for that "owl post" look.

The Wand Chooses the Wizard 

I was one of those kids who did arts and crafts in grade school and barely got a passing mark.  I remember making a medicine cabinet, a fruit tray, and a picture frame  out of popsicle sticks and they all ended up looking the same.  Hey! at least I was consistent. With the advent of YouTube and Pinterest, my craft skills are not as shameful. Such are the inspirational resources for a DIY beginner!  Armed with a hot glue gun, these chopsticks were no match for me. The kids enjoyed painting them with different shades of brown to get that unique wand look.

Chopsticks + hot glue gun + rainy day = beginning of glorious wand making

Acrylic paint in 3 shades of brown, plus gold for those wands with unicorn core

Ollivanders approve. But no unforgivable curses!

Professor McGonagall would be proud

One of my most favorite personal purchase for my home office is my laminator.  Seriously, whether it's for written speeches, teaching materials, inspirational quotes, or party posters, the laminator does the job when you want to protect that important piece of paper. So, off I went printing different signage on card stock paper.  Et voila! Cheeseballs were 'transfigured' to Hufflepuff, green plant juice to Polyjuice potion.... Magic!

Luckily  Unfortunately, we had to stay indoors one weekend because of the bad weather, which gave us ample time to work on the party crafts.  It was a win-win situation - the girls weren't bored, in fact they were excited to help, and I had my minions! Mwahahaha! Er, I meant Dumbledore's army.  Now that I'm  an ace with the glue gun, we glued clips on ties printed on beige card stock  papers. These ties serves as one activity where the guests can color with their house colors - green and silver if they're in Slytherin, and red and yellow for Gryffindor.  We also made the quidditch hoops, and the girls even helped me bake our 'trial' cauldron cakes. Sorry, I forgot to take pictures after making them. Overall, what a fun indoor weekend it turned out to be! 

Pumpkin cauldron cakes trial

Working on Harry Potter for Pin the Scan on HP

The making of the golden egg for the 1st task. I'm a chemist, I wear gloves for such occasions.

Quidditch hoop made of pool noodle and removable mop handle

In the next few days, we put the finishing touches on the party planning. We gathered the 7 horcrux items for the scavenger hunt, thought up some riddles, and yes, I printed that and laminated it too. The ring, locket, tiara were resurrected toys from the girls' toy bin in the basement;  I took one long forgotten plastic teacup and painted it gold for the goblet. And we're set with the activities!  

Insta-goblet

But what is Hogwarts without chocolate frogs?  It simply isn't the same! Many thanks to Amazon, frog molds for chocolates were delivered to my door pronto. Amazon prime hopped to it! (sorry). I would also have served butter beer (a.k.a. butterscotch rootbeer float) but my divination ball showed me that Alas! it will be cold on the day of the party, so I can forget about serving ice cream. But what should witches and wizards' swag be? A broomstick, perhaps?  My office floor was littered with "broomsticks" party giveaways holding the goodies inside paper bags that's been cut and frayed to look like brooms, and the handles are actually broomstick pens. 

Happee Birthdae, Harriett...

Since I wasn't making the cake and cupcakes for 3 dozen kids and grownups at the party, (thank you, Dorothy Ann bakery!)  I surprised Tamar with a homemade Harry Potter cake on her actual birthday.  This was my first foray into fondant cakes, and I must say it's not as difficult as I thought it would be.  The cake I had in mind was Harry Potter catching the golden snitch in his mouth.  I bought a few essentials - white and black fondant, fondant tools, edible glitter in gold, and edible marker. You can easily pick these up from Michaels. I also bought icing glue, but I think I could have done away without it. The pastry mat with the measurement was quite important for measuring the surface area to cover. I think it turned out ok.  There's definitely room for improvement design-wise, especially on the glasses, where I should have rolled the fondant in circles instead of cutting them. Again, art is not my talent. But for someone who once built a leaning tower of bookshelf, the cake is not bad at all.  Still, I'm not planning on making fondant cakes often because fondants are just way too sweet for me. In fact, the best part of this cake is the cake inside.  Since we were going to have a chocolate cake at the birthday party, I made an almond cake for this one. It was just dense enough to hold the weight of the fondant, but still feels light and soft. And it's not sticky sweet!

"It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live" - Albus Dumbledore

The birthday party day finally came, and the inconsistent weather forecast was giving me the whiplash! I couldn't decide whether to text all 25 kids' families and move the party indoors to our house, or brave the possible showers. Thankfully, my super sister was with me to allay my doubts. She flew in from California and the Minnesota 'fall' weather had her in layers, but together we willed the powers-that-be to hold the rain off so the kids can run around outside. I do thank the g-ds that the weather cooperated, because the thought of 25 kids in the house with party games indoors was anxiety-inducing! 

So, the hoops were planted, the owl pinata hanging in the tree branch, and our wands at the ready!  As the kids started arriving, they got sorted to their houses in a sorting hat ceremony. We had them decorating their wands with sticker gems and coloring their ties while they waited for their housemates. I also blew up a couple of balloons so they could practice their wingardium leviosa spell.

"Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see... 
So where shall I put you?"
SLYTHERIN!

Swish and flick!

Going for gold

Yowza! The teams took the games very seriously, and the 3 hour party flew by! For those wanting to make their own HP party, I hope the activities below inspire you. 

1. Pin the scar on Harry Potter -  We kicked off the games with Pin the scar on Harry Potter. The scars are just lightning cut-out green or red construction papers, and we used double-sided tape.  The kids were super cute and cheered their housemates on! 
2. 1st Task - The kids had a blast trying to steal the golden egg from the dragon (my husband), 2 kids at a time within 30 secs.  We tied crepe papers around the kids' waists, and if the dragon pulls it, that means they're incapacitated and their time is up.  Some of the serious fans asked me if 1) they're allowed to use spells, (yes, my dear, just no unforgivable curses) and 2) what kind of dragon it was they were fighting!  AH!  My hubby was a handsome dragon, but I'm not sure if he qualifies as a Swedish short-snout.  
3. Horcrux Scavenger Hunt -  This involved pre-hiding the 7 horcrux items before the kids came. The ones who have read and seen the movies definitely had an edge in solving the scavenger hunt riddles, but the keen ones followed the leaders and found the objects with their razor-sharp visions. 
4. Quidditch - I have no pictures because it was crazy!  We did away with the 'beaters' to avoid tackling, and the keepers had to use a broom to swat away the balls from the chasers. The game ended with the first team scoring 50 points.  It was certainly less elegant than the book version, but most of the kids were far too small to follow the complex rules of Quidditch. The kids had a great time anyway!  
5. Pinata - The games ended, of course, with finding the golden snitch! But there's a twist. The kids had to hit the owl pinata and find it. And guess who the lucky 'seeker' was? None other than the birthday girl! So, what is the snitch exactly?  Nothing fancy! Just a yummy Lindt white chocolate and some gold wings. 

And with the snitch caught, the Slytherins won. I'm not sure that the kids really cared though because in reality, everyone did.  

Riddle me this! Riddle me that! 
Are these kids looking for a rat?

Alohomora!

Mischief managed!

Day 7: Emerald Isle Last Stop: Castle on the hill

Alas, all good things must come to an end and we have to leave the fairy tale setting behind. We'll certainly long for the rolling greens, the enchanting castles, and plummeting cliffside... OK, maybe not that last bit. 

But before we do, I had one must-see castle to visit! By absolute coincidence, our hotel was a mere 9 minute walk from Manderley castle, a.k.a. Enya's home. My closest friends in college would know that Irish singer Enya is the single most influential female singer during my college years. So much so that I brought my cassette tapes with me to graduate school, and I still have them to date.  She saved my sanity during my sprectra-solving, electron-pushing years with Watermark. That's why I could hardly believe my luck when, on a whim, I looked up where Manderley castle was located and, lo and behold, it's in Killiney hill, right next to Dalkey, and within walking distance! (Cue in Lothlorien).  The Dalkey-Killiney area is something like the "Beverly Hills" of Ireland, and a hotspot for celebrities. Bono and Van Morrison live in the area too. But, they take a backseat to Enya on my playlist, and my itinerary.

For those who don't know, Enya is an Irish female musician. Her music is like an ambrosia for the soul. She plays different instruments and sings with Celtic rhythms and you can't peg her music in any clear genre. She sings in Latin, Gaelic, English, and also in made up languages like Elvish and Loxian. She may be better known to most for her song "May It Be" in the first Lord of the Rings movie. She is also a very private person, selling millions of albums without performing even a single solo concert. Well, no worries, Enya, I'm not scaling the castle wall! The castle is small, as castles go, but and accentuates the Killiney hillside perfectly. The location offers a view of the Wicklow mountains, the Irish Sea, and Dalkey Island; it's inspirational, as one would expect, for an artist like Enya. 

Manderley Castle - Enya's private home

On top of the hill with a view of Manderley Castle

We climbed Killiney hill. On top, the small obelisk sits in the most enviable spot looking out into the Irish sea. And because the girls needed to get their wiggles out before the long way home, we ended our Emerald Isle trip with... what else? A visit to the playground.

Killiney obelisk

The playground at the bottom of the hill

Needless to say, the girls had an amazing experience, and the family had a memorable first trip abroad. Seriously, how do we even top this trip?  The Emerald Isle mesmerized us.  My 5-year old asked many times if we can live in Ireland.  Not today. But someday, kiddo, you can take us back...

"I'm going to turn around, go back to the hotel, 
and live here in Ireland to see all the castles I didn't get to see."

Day 6 Emerald Isle: Song of the Sea

Turning Darkness into Light

We are geeks. I don't think it'll come as a surprise to anyone that the highlight of our day in Dublin is visiting Trinity College to see the Book of Kells.  On the way to Ireland, the girls watched the animated movie "The Secret of Kells", a unique fictional film loosely based on the journey of the Book of Kells, believed to be necessary to preserve the Celtic culture from the invaders (likely the Vikings). The kids loved the movie and bounced their way to Trinity College library to see THE BOOK. They had already seen an Abbey and a stone circle during our trip so far and they related those well to the film. It felt awesome to see their faces lit up when they realize not every cartoon is fictional. In The Secret of Kells, the boy meets a fairy in the stone circle, which supposedly served as entrances to the "other world". Seeing the book was icing on the cake, and what sweet icing it was! I didn't think they would be as excited with this surprise. The book was safeguarded in the Abbey at Kells, which was its home for centuries before it was moved to Dublin.  The Celtic artwork in the book were incredible!  My 7 year old was amazed at the different materials used to make ink, like berries and minerals to create the art text and images in the book.

  

Picture taking of the actual book is not allowed, and it is encased securely for viewing. After all, it has been around since 800 AD, and regarded as Ireland's national treasure. The book itself contains the four gospels in the new testament with ornate calligraphy and vibrant illustration and symbolism. I cannot recommend this exhibit enough if you're in Dublin. But treat yourself to the movie too!

Our other must-see in Dublin is also conveniently located at the Trinity College library - The Long Room. Full disclosure, our main interest here is due to its resemblance to Hogwarts' Great Hall, and we thought it would serve as a delight to our mini-Potterheads.  However, the Long Room, apart from being vast and, well, long, doesn't really evoke Hogwarts' dining hall. Not entirely surprising, I guess. After all, this is a library! It is perhaps one of the most impressive libraries I've seen, in the company of Manchester's John Rylands Library. It is filled with 200,000 books, two stories high, with marble busts of great philosophers, writers, and scientists lining the room. Encased by the back of the room is Ireland's iconic Harp. It is well-known that Ireland's emblem is a harp. The Brian Boru Harp in Trinity College is the "official" emblem of Ireland, a 15th century harp and the oldest Celtic harp surviving from the medieval period. 

The symbol of the harp is much loved in Ireland. You see it as a moving bridge in Dublin, on Irish euro coins and even on Guinness beer. 

Samuel Beckett bridge, an Irish harp-shaped bridge rotating through the air

We continued to explore Dublin on foot, crossing the Ha'penny pedestrian bridge and taking in the somber sculptures commemorating the Irish Famine, the famine due to potato disease. The famine killed ~1 M people and caused emigration of ~1 M more. We walked down to the Medieval area (and was not very impressed); we saw the Dublin castle, which is really too embedded in the city and the view obscured for one to appreciate the structure; we walked on the famous Grafton street then headed to St. Stephen's Green where the kids spent  the time chasing pigeons.  Where is all this energy coming from?? After 30,000 steps, I'm beat!

Clotted cream, where have you been all my life?

Song of the Sea

At about 4 pm, we were contemplating on whether to stay longer in Dublin city, or to take the train to Howth (rhymes with "oath"). The lure of sitting down on a train for short time was very attractive to me.  Howth is a pretty fishing village on the Dublin Bay less than 30 min train ride from Dublin. Indeed, it would have been a shame if we didn't visit! Howth turned out to be my favorite town in this trip, and that's saying a lot after seeing colorful Kinsale, Kenmare, Sneem, Glengarriff, and quaint Bantry. The idyllic town offers so much.  We took a wonderful walk along the pier, then up to another Abbey ruin, which can't be accessed, then towards the Martello tower. They have a number of these towers in Ireland. The stunning view of the bay, the boats, and Ireland's Eye, an uninhabited island off the cost, calmed our weary bods.  And as if we haven't seen enough, Howth also has a grand castle a short walk away from the town center, though it is privately owned.  This is what Ireland is about - castles, rolling hills, ancient rocks, and tranquil waters. 

Howth's unmoving castle

We capped the night with a train ride back to Dalkey, enjoying dinner and stroll in the town center and back to our hotel, facing the reality of having to pack for our trip back home. 

Dalkey castle