Wanderers

 Back in the September school holidays two of my lovely friends came down from Wangaratta to spend the day with me, wandering around the streets of Melbourne in aid of a little experiment and photo shoot.


The day before, I picked up a half price, period style wedding dress from the Salvos. Without trying it on (there may have been a big fat spider in there when I looked inside...), I had hope that it would fit the beautiful Cait perfectly.

We took the train up to Melbourne from Geelong, and I wore a blue wig so that Cait didn't feel too out of place. We got many odd looks as we walked to the station. Apparently wearing a wedding dress for no reason is even more of an odd thought in Geelong than it is in Melbourne. 

We met my other friend, Molly at the station after we ventured up to RMIT Village to pay a visit to a friend, who merely said "I hope you're not going to come back here dressed like that later, there are people here who know me."

Along our travels, some men of a greek decent outside a restaurant on Elizabeth street stopped to ask to have a photo taken with Caitlin. We also go many 'congratulations on your wedding,' and 'who's the lucky bastard,' and 'I'd marry you, baby' comments as we walked around the city. It was amusing from an observers point of view. I still don't understand why people actually thought that a bride would walk through dirty streets in her wedding gown with a photographer with blue hair. 

We had a picnic in the botanical gardens, filling our bellies with burritos and mexican style chips. We soaked up the warm summer sun, watched children hide behind trees from us and a couple lounging on a picnic blanket in the cool of the shade. It was the first taste of summer for the year. 

We explored the gardens, stopping by bright coloured flower bushes, waterfalls and statues to take pictures before moving on to Hosier Lane to meet up with my boyfriend Paul and his brother Daniel. The girls posed amongst neon graffiti and the stench of the alleyway. We watched a boy not yet our age create art on the wall and admired the 'urban' feel of the place. Molly, who had never been to the city before, was in awe of the city life, and worried I was getting her very, very lost. 

We walked through Flinder's Lane, introducing Molly to the coffee hub of the inner city, past the Hopetoun Tea Rooms (a place I still need to visit), bought her, her first maccaron in an arcade before accidentally meeting up with more old friends from Wangaratta. We ventured to Melbourne central, to relax in the indoor public garden, resting our feet and quenching our thirst. 

We said goodbye soon after, relieved to be on our separate ways home, exhausted from the day's adventures.