After a severe deficit of Christmas trees, carols and generally, much of a Christmas mood in all places we visited after Hawaii, imagine our surprise when we arrived in Mildura, a small outback city of 30 000 inhabitants. It was filled with Christmas spirit, despite the un-chrimassy temperature of over 40 degrees!
It started with dozens of Christmas trees displayed in the information centre. It continued with the Christmas music playing on the streets lined with palm- and gum trees. And it was completed by Christmas decorations all around the city.
We had intended to stop for a night in Mildura and spend New Year`s Eve there solely because it was the only larger town on our itinerary. We ended up staying there for 3 days and regretting that we had to go…
Let me make it clear: there are no sight-seeing must-do’s in Mildura (well maybe with the exception of the Working Men Club, where I really wanted to spend New Year`s Eve but then learnt that they close at 10.30pm. What can you do – men have to work!). The charm of the town creeps upon you by a combination of many little pleasant things: a surprising number of little coffee places and patisseries; more churches of different faith and architecture style than one would imagine necessary for a city this size; a very nice and well-equipped library; and, to our delight, we discovered that the city was surrounded by fruit plantations and wineries, which we didn’t hesitate to try out!
Since the Working Men Club refused to celebrate New Year’s Eve, we decided to go to one of the two local pubs. As soon as we sat down, a couple next to us started a conversation and before we finished out first beer, we were already part of the group. It was one of the best New Year’s parties I can recall. Our new friends invited us to extend our stay in Mildura and to come and live at their place for a while. And indeed, we would have taken them up on their offer, if only we didn’t forget to take their email address….
No comments:
Post a Comment