One of the joys of living in Melbourne is the facility to get just about anywhere using public transport. We are especially blessed to have an extensive network that spreads its tentacles for many kilometres.
A joy of tram-riding is the possibility of meeting total strangers, visitors to this city who often are lost, or use that excuse, and start up conversations with the person sitting next to them or opposite to them. When the weather is especially fine, it brings out the sociableness of people and a natural friendliness towards strangers, or just the need to find out something about the person next to you. The close confines of trams which, sometimes, can seem like one is riding the bullet train in Tokyo, crammed to the rafters, causes the unintended invasion of personal space making us take liberties and feeling free to speak to strangers when one normally wouldn’t do so.
Once the conversation starts flowing, it amazes me how personal it can become; not truly personal, but enough to think, perhaps, that one is talking to one’s therapist. You know, telling one’s tales to a total stranger because you know you’ll never see them again! That is a liberty of personal space, but, we don’t mind on these rare occasions.
The number of foreign visitors to our fair city makes it feel like a United Nations. Today, the weather is especially fine and the tram is going to St Kilda, our main beach holiday destination. Coconut sunscreen aromas (beautiful!) and seeing interesting faces and ways of dress, some ready for the beach, makes me feel I am part of the party. There are some French Canadians, some real French, some Spanish, some Germans, and so on, and the mixed-blood visitors from interstate, joining us local mixed-bloods. Well, this brings to mind the saying, if you stand still long enough, the world will come to you. Tram rides in Melbourne bring this home to me.
Multicultural Melbourne, a United Nations, all of us much the same under the skin in our simple tastes, needs and ways of being.
The picture shows a reflection of the iconic Luna Park, located at St Kilda Beach. The building is an apartment block at 30 Upper Esplanade. A cellphone image.
