day 1: opening ceremonies (and more)

Holy shit. This is no joke. It really is like being in a city hosting the Olympics. I can't believe my impecible choice of study-abroad city. There is no cooler or crazier or busier time to be in Melbourne. This place it insane. It's a bustling city of over 3 million on a normal day. And these days are anything but normal. Tonight I walked down to the river to see the opening ceremonies for the Commonwealth Games. The opening ceremonies themselves were a ticketed event (of course) but there were nine huge viewing screens set up along the Yarra River (and more in other places throughout the city). The Swanston street bridge became pedestrian only... but "no standing." It was like... when the freeway overpass at the Berkeley marina becomes pedestrian-only for the Fourth of July. You know when everyone leaves the marina at once? The streets were like that this evening... but at all hours. Not only at the beginnig or end of anything. Constantly. Talk about crowds. Here are a couple of pictures... my attempts to capture the immense quantities of people down at the river. (The third picture is actually looking in on Federation Square from the bridge... I wish I could sketch you a map so the layout all made sense. Oh well.)


And then... in addition to the screens with the opening ceremonies playing (or, initially, previous memorable Australian victory moments from past Commonwealth Games) there were the giant fish in the river lit up and occasionally spouting water. And a (brief, but appreciated) fireworks display. Fireworks from the tops of buildings! Here's a picture of that:


And then, on the other side of the bridge from Federation Square and the fish in the river and the screens... is "The Beach at the Arts Centre." They just trucked in massive quantities of sand and set up a beach in the middle of the Arts Centre... where they will proceed to have beach parties every night during the Games. And live bands. And cricket. And moustachioed lifesavers on stilts. And synchronized waterskiers in a wading pool. And you can only imagine what else.


There is more. Throughout the city are all kinds of artistic displays (of greatly varying sorts) set-up throughout the Games. One of these displays is in the storefront windows (yes, all of them) of the Myer department store. There are people living there. In the window display. For the duration of the Games. It is... bizarre. They have a kitchen, a dining/living space, a bedroom, and a bathroom... complete with a glass shower door, which you can see into with the exception of a solid colored middle-part.


And that is just day one. I'll keep you posted.