Melbourne

Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore: wallabies, kangaroos, koalas, penguins, parrots, the surf coast, rainforests...

I arrived back in Sydney a couple of hours ago. The holiday was amazing, but it's good to be home (yes, this is home right now - leaving it confirmed that). It's gonna take forever for me to transcribe my journal entries from the trip. And I haven't even written half of them yet'! Here's a summary though:

We departed early Saturday morning. The train arrive in Canberra just before noon and we somehow managed a whirlwind tour of the city in 4 and a half hours. People who say they did Canberra in an hour and then got bored obviously don't take any time to appreciate the contents of the National Gallery. We also saw the Old and New Parliament Houses and the War Memorial. That evening, we experienced the incredible Canberra nightlife, which consists of absolutely nothing. So we went to bed early.

Then we got up early to catch the connecting coach bus to Cootamundra, where we transferred to the train to Melbourne. It was a long trip - ten hours - but it was fun to see the countryside. That evening, we wandered the city to get ourselves oriented. My first impression was "I came halfway around the world to see Toronto???" Monday we went to the art gallery, and did a walking tour from the Lonely Planet guide. Without that guide, we'd never have known to check out the view from the washrooms on the 35th floor of the Sofitel building, or to pop into the way too expensive for us clothing store to see the frescoed ceiling. Monday evening we went to the pub for Neighbours night. Neighbours, for those who don't know (and that's probably most), is a pretty awful Australian television show that just barely manages to keep from being a soap opera. It's rather addictive though, especially when there's nothing else on while you're making dinner. The show is filmed in Melbourne. For some reason, it's incredibly popular in the U.K., so Vikki was determined to meet the cast. Three of them were there that evening, and there was also a trivia night and dancing until 2am.

The next day we wandered a bit and spent the afternoon in the Botanic Gardens, and then picked up the car for the next day. That evening we went to the Crown Casino and lost a grand total of six dollars playing the 1 and 2 cent machines.

Wednesday morning we got up early and made our way to Phillip Island. Yes, I have now driven in Australia, on the left hand side of the road. Apart from a few hair raising moments on the roundabouts, all was good. Once on Phillip Island, we went to the old farm on Churchill Island, saw koalas from the boardwalk at the Koala conservatory, walked through a mangrove forest, peered through binoculars at a seal colony out on the rocks, and watched the Penguin Parade. The Penguine Parade was our main reason for going to Phillip Island. Every evening, the Little Penguins arrive on the beach after a day or so at sea, and waddle across the sand and rocks to their burrows. It's mating season right now, so on the walk back from the beach, we were surrounded by calls and, well, mating penguins.

We decided to keep the car for another day and do the Great Ocean Road. The views were amazing. We stopped at Bell's Beach, which is on the world tour for surfing, and watched the surfers. We walked up to Erskine falls in the middle of a forest full of ferns, and had lunch at a lookout along the highway. We walked through a rainforest and marvelled at the giant trees, and even walked under and between their roots. Then we raced the sunset to the Twelve Apostles, rock formations off the coast. We just made it and it was so incredibly beautiful. We had dinner in Port Campbell before taking the inland highway back to Melbourne (wouldn't want to try that winding ocean road at night). It was late when we got back to the hostel.

Friday we were pretty lazy. We wandered the South Melbourne Markets right across teh road from our hostel and had some delicious pastries for lunch. We went to the Victoria State Library and found ourselves in the middle of a political rally on the front lawn (it's election time over here). It was interesting, but our insurance doesn't cover political rallies and we're supposed to avoid them. Hard to do when you step out of the library right into the middle of one. We stopped to get some wine to go with dinner and discovered that if we wanted, we could get quite comfortably buzzed on the samples at that place. Saturday we went to the Victoria Markets, which put all other markets to shame. We discovered that there are wine samples there too. Lunch was at a little French bakery down the street. We spent the afternoon in St Kilda's, lounging on the beach. Jeremy at the hostel made curry for dinner and we watched Bring it On. We flew home this morning.

And now I'm back in my room in Annandale and need to get ready to go over to Vikki's and burn some photos onto a CD for her, and hear all about everyone else's holiday. Triona and Heidi were at Surfer's Paradise and Antonia was in Cairns.