Melbourne

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Trip Start Mar 19, 2007 Previous
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  Melbourne, Australia
Saturday, March 31, 2007

Greetings from the wild city of Melbourne!  Ok, not really.  Yes, I survived the 7 1/2 hour drive here and successfully made my way into the city of Melbourne!  It was a beautiful drive here with lots of scenery, two dead kangaroos (no I didnt kill them), and lots of 'koala crossing signs'.  No- I didn't see any Koalas :(  (Or live kangaroos for that matter!!)  Once I arrived here, it took me about 1 additional hour to navigate through the insane city freeways (which are not so clearly labeled) and arrive at the American from the train station, Jason's house.  He was quite the host and took me out to a local pub/restaurant (offered to pay, but I politely declined).  We ate, and then instead of sleeping in my car (and utilizing my money wisely), let me stay in their lovely upstairs loft.  It was a cool Victorian looking house with a VERY cool cat, and not too many spiders :)  This morning we woke, I had some weird aussie version of wheaties with honey and milk (weird, but oh so yummy!).. then we headed off in search of a hostel for me to plant myself at, a new purse (mine is falling apart), and a look at the city

Countryside to Melbourne

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We ended up planting my stuff at the local Metro YHA of Melbourne (u can look it up on the internet), not finding a purse (but making our way through a lovely street market), dropping off my car rental, and then walking ALOT.  Naw, it was fun- but he has really long legs, and so I realized how much smaller my strides were than his!!  So we went through the markets, walked through the city, had a coffee in the botanical gardens, a juice drink (similar to Jamba juice) downtown, spent 1 hour looking for perfumes for me, and then finally made our way back to the tram.  Picked up some food, wine, and headed to his house where he cooked a lovely meal for us and his flatmates (roommates). 
Afterwards, I took the bus back towards the YHA, got a little lost (what's new), and passed the strangest people on my way to the hostel.  I should actually say strange person because there was one man in particular.  He was standing in front of the pub, holding up some flag (it wasn't australian), and just stood there for about 20 minutes.  WELL, now I am lucky enough to be sitting about 4 computer seats away from him (in the YHA) and have since realized, he's just a REALLY drunk Scottish guy!!  Funny accent, pretty harmless guy- but nevertheless, drunk and Scottish.  When he tried to mumble about his inability to type on the computer, I kindly told him to go to bed- then it will be all better. :)  Of course, not before he could plant a card with his phone number and some silly drunken message in my hand.  No worries, u sortof get used to drunk people in the city because most are just harmless European fellows just having a strangely good time.
Well, that's all to report now- I will spend another few days here.  But what I've found is that it is indeed, just another big city :)  We shall see what awaits!

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Driving to Melbourne	Gazebo in Garden	Gazebo in Garden 2	Jason
Melbourne 2	Plaque at the gardens..	Shopping Mall	Stuff at the market
Train station

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