Melbourne to Sydney

I am headed on the train now between Melbourne and Sydney. 11 hours on one train, something I never got in Europe. A long day of travel like this in Europe would have required several trains and a possible tram or bus ride.

Toni and her sister were incredibly hospitable to me during the week that I was in Melbourne. They set me up in a private room with a huge comfy bed and fresh towels. The home that the two of them share reminds me of many of the homes in the states, a small bungalow with one bathroom. It was a perfectly lovely place to spend the week, and even though it was a bit outside of the city, I got to see how real citizens of Melbourne lived, worked, and played.

Toni is currently looking for work after returning home from her excursion, so it meant I had her all to myself for the most part to show me around and share adventures with. The first day that I got to Melbourne, I arrived very early in the morning, but by the time I had processed through passport control, customs, and health check (because even with the fact that Australia has the highest concentration of deadly and poisonous species of animals in the world, they really don’t want mad cow disease or the bird flu) it was about 7am. By the time I walked out the door of the airport to look for a phone to call Toni from, I saw her walking up from the parking garage to come and get me. After stopping at Mackers (McDonalds) for breakfast, we made it back to her house to unload and have a little nap. Due to the time change and a lack of sleep on the plane, my “nap” turned into a bit of hibernation, but seeing as how it was New Years Eve and I was going to be up pretty late that night, the nap was well worth it. Toni had planned for the two of us to go to a 1920’s inspired dinner party for the evening, and lucky for me, I had a suit made in Thailand that worked perfectly with the aid of a few accessories and hair product to pull off a pretty decent looking 1920’s ensemble.

New Years Eve was filled with fun. The dinner party was pretty small with only about a dozen or so people in attendance, making it very easy for me to get to know all of the other partygoers and enjoy the festivities. The guy, Troy, whom had planned the event, had set it up like a pot luck, but instead of serving everything buffet style, we did a proper sit down 8 course meal. Portion size of the food got drastically smaller as the night went on and everyone started to pop buttons from being so full. One of the other guests, Stu or Soup (depending on your personal taste in nicknames), works as a bartender, so after every course we would go into the kitchen and he would teach all of us a new cocktail to make. I lost track of all the different types of drinks we had and by the 8th course I am pretty sure I was just putting whatever I could reach into the glass and drinking it. Not necessarily the best approach to making a delicious cocktail, but the longer one drinks the less sophisticated the palate becomes. Fifteen minutes until midnight the party walked over to a nearby park, champagne in hand, to sit in the grandstand for the cricket field and watch the fireworks in the city go off. It was lovely, although the fireworks were a ways off, and as soon as the clock stuck midnight, we tried to get everyone in the grandstand to do the Mexican Wave. Some people went for it others looked at us like we might have had a little too much to drink. But I think the Mexican Wave is a much more exciting way to ring in the New Year than just kissing someone nearby, although we did a bit of that too.

The next day, while nursing a hangover, Toni and her sister took me out for brunch at a fun little café in the artsy area of Melbourne. It was delicious, greasy, and the perfect cure for a hangover. Plus we won’t the only people with that idea. Melbourne has been surprisingly cool in temperature while I have been here. I do have to remind myself that south of the equator, the further south you get, the colder it gets. I keep thinking to myself, “I can’t believe it is so cold here, I am so far south. Wait, I am so far south I am near Antarctica.” It is just a strange concept to me that the further north one goes, the warmer it gets. Due to the cool weather we spent the afternoon doing a driving tour around the city of Melbourne and its outlying areas. It is a pretty big little place once you get out of the city limits. On Friday, Toni and I got up and went into “China Town,” not quite the Chinatown of Singapore, but it was still cute, and walked around for a good chunk of the day exploring the downtown area. We decided on our stroll to see Wicked that night, so I treated her to a couple of tickets as a thank you for letting me stay with her. We rushed home to freshen up and then headed back downtown for the show. Toni loved it, thank goodness, and was talking about how much she would like to see it again. I think I have finally added another show to her repertoire of musical theatre, the list formerly only containing Phantom of the Opera. (So many people and their obsession with that show.) The two of us had a great night, and it was fun for me to see the show a second time, especially since this was a permanent production and nothing was cut out to make it easier to travel.

I also bought a bus ticket that day to do the Great Ocean Road. Early Saturday morning I awoke to go into town to catch the tour bus headed down the Great Ocean Road, think Pacific Coast Highway meets Australia but better. It was a full day going to all of the major sights on the Great Ocean Road, and at one point I got to do a helicopter ride over one of the more famous landmarks, the 12 Apostles. All of the wonderful little beach towns along the way really made me want to live there once I have made the million or so dollars I will need to purchase property there. I have lots of pictures since there is no way to really describe the sights along the Great Ocean Road.

Sunday, was a very lazy day for the most part, until late afternoon, when we all went to the St Kilda Sea Baths to enjoy the weekly outdoor Salsa dancing marathon. The Baths, or beach club, sit right out over the water, so we enjoyed a few cocktails, a live salsa band, and dancing on the beach. The crowd varied from super experienced to beginner so it was a lot of fun for a spotlight hog like myself to break out my dancing shoes and enjoy the evening. It was also really hot that day, so you could really only do one song at a time, which was delightful in that everyone on the dance floor did a natural rotation so it wasn’t unbearably full. Finally on Monday, Toni and I went to one of her favorite beaches to enjoy the warmer weather. Of course, I got a gnarly sunburn on about 70 percent of my body, but I am taking pretty good care of it and longing for the day it will either darken brown or peel off, so I don’t look like a lobster anymore. The beach, though, was beautiful, although a bit more crowded then we expected. Seeing as how it is summer here in Australia, all of the students are on summer break. That was really weird for me to try to understand, students don’t go back to school after the Christmas break until March. I thought all schools would work on the schedule set up in the Northern Hemisphere. Some things I just don’t have the time to get used to.

I am on to Sydney now, seeing more friends for the trip, and maybe doing a surf school, although I will be wearing an SPF 80 from now on, white is way better than red.

P.S. I made it to Sydney, late of course. I should really have learned by now that anytime I get on a train it is going to be late.... I just didn't think it would be 2.5 hours late

Next day in Sydney:
Sydney is great, having loads of fun. Seeing a show at Cate Blanchette's theatre tonight... Ye-Haw