More or less by accident I walked into the State Library of Victoria, and into the exhibition Bohemian Melbourne that is currently on display for free.
It presented a rich overview of Melbourne’s bohemian life, from it’s early beginnings in the 19th century, especially after the gold rush brought in the money and the dandies, to today’s hipsters and hippies.
They presented a number of famous Melbourne bohemians, artists mostly, but also people of everyday life.
It was funny to see how little had changed. The picture of the young bearded Bohemian Melburnian men in the 1880s looked eerily familiar to any of today’s bearded hipsters.
This picture shows Marcus Clarke, a London-born journalist, writer, librarian and professional bohemian, and founder of Australia’s first Bohemian society, the Yorrick Club.
It was a writing on the wall, a vague definition of bohemian life, that made me have an epiphany.
I should have taken a picture of the exact quote and its source, but it read something like this:
‘…a bit of scribbling in the morning, a walk in the afternoon, some friends and drinks and debates in the evening till late…’
Hello? I totally recognized myself and, weirdly enough after 17 months, I realized that that’s what I did, all the time….
This trip is, basically, a bohemian way of life, a bohemian excess even.
It is weird that sometimes something that obvious only occurs to you that late, when it’s being screamed at your face, essentially.
Every day, I worked a bit on my blog, took pictures, went to exhibitions, plays, theatre, met friends for drinks….
It is about time that this comes to an end, it’s not real life, but it has been a helluva ride!