Australia Day, old friends and sunbathing
Trip Start
Nov 26, 2007
1
11
17
Trip End
Mar 01, 2009
Sydney/Melbourne,
Australia
Sunday, February 3, 2008
On Monday we headed off on another plane to melbourne and stopped first of all in St Kilda. Its a great area of Melbourne and we enjoyed having some more relaxation after the hectic pace of NZ. We played Killer Pool and headed off for bed that night. A few hours later, about 1am we heard so much noise and the corridor outside our room (shared with a private double room - we were in a 4 bed dorm) was almost shaking from the noise. There was one guy shouting all kinds of obscenitys (not to us - but not to be repeated) and rattling our door handle to try to get in - knowing there was a spare bed in our dorm
Aborigini - Australia Day, Sydney
. Thank our lucky stars for Jonathan, who had locked the door from the inside. Then all went quiet for a few hours before more of their herd came back about 4am with much the same occurance of banging and shouting. One of the guys was sick constantly all night it felt like - really nice, all over the corridor and in the bathroom. Its certainly an experience i dont want to repeat and i'm very glad its all over! Im sure they were high on something so we couldn't talk to them - they were too volatile i think, and we couldn't get out to get someone! - yuck... But, luckily we left the next day and went to stay with Jonathan's 2nd cousin's family - Helen and Lloyd, together with kids; Mina, Guy and Bella and the dogs; Pheobe and Sparky. They made us feel very welcome and we really liked staying there. We have been very lucky with our 'hosts' of friends and family, and are most grateful for the clean houses, bedding and bathrooms not to mention home cooked food and taxi-ing! - Thanks everyone!
We spent a few days chilling on the beaches of St. Kilda and Sandringham (south of Melbourne city - where Helen and Lloyd live) and spent a couple of days in the city. We did a walk through the lanes, which we highly recommend and free too, curtesy of the local info centre! We ate at a cafe where the lane was so narrow that you felt as if you could almost touch those eating on the opposite side!
On Friday we met up with Amber, my old friend that I met when I was an exchange student in the US. It was great, its been 5 years, so it was really nice to catch up, hopefully it wont be another 5 before we meet again
Australia Day
.So now, we are back in Sydney, and thank god our visas for Japan have arrived - just in the nick of time. We were so worried that they would have to be sent to us in Thailand, but no, they have arrived and it suddenly feels more closer than before.. We are not sure of our start date, but are thinking it will be around the 15th March when we land on Japanese shores. Watch this space for where we will be living in Tokyo!
We are off to Thailand via Singapore tomorrow and stopped in Melbourne for a last travel clinic check up to stock up on all the necessarys to stop delhi-belly (hopefully!). We are a little apprehensive about Asia, as first timers there, but we have lonely planets in hand and have planned our route. After all with the size of our first aid kit now, we must be prepared for everything!!
