From Sydney to Melbourne

As you may remember, goal number 1 was to find free wifi today. With wifi found, at the New South Wales State Library, I was a happy camper; as you may have noticed with my blog updates and possible emails you may have received. I was kind of happy that the McDonald's free wifi wouldn't let me long in. I didn't really want to hangout at a McD's at the train station.

Following a long session of internet fix, I was headed to a small park nearby. Australian cities are wonderful at providing green space around and even in the city centers. It's very nice to be able to sit on a bench in the park and watch the world go by. On my way to the park I stopped to give Linda, the nice woman I met on the plane a call. She had been to Manly Beach in the morning. She said it had been a nice escape from the humidity in the city because of the nice cool breeze off the ocean.We met up shortly for drinks in the afternoon at Pitt street; one of the biggest shopping meccas in all of Australia. I had a Lemon, Lime, and Bitters, a drink that I've personally only seen in Australia. The bitters are really the interesting part of the drink. They make an already sour drink, bitter and according to the label, "it also gives an exquisite flavor to..." well everything from soup to fish to ice cream and more. Fasinating.

The cafe we were at wasn't as fascinating. We ended up at the cafe in the Myer (a department store much like Nortstrom's; expensive), mostly because it was out of the heat and humidity. I would have rather had drinks in one of the arcades, which are quaint little shopping areas out of the hustle and bustle of the mainstream shopping areas. Following drinks I wondered around the shops, stopped at Woolies for some shampoo and soap, and headed back to Clare's apartment to clean-up and take a much need nap.

For dinner Clare and I got fish and chips to eat down by the Sydney Harbor Bridge. It was beautiful! It's really unfortunate that I didn't get a picture of some of the HUGE bats that had flown past us though. Very interesting/slightly creepy.

To get to the airport after dinner Clare rented a car for an hour. It's really a neat system. It's called GoGet CarShare and you can find cars parked all over the city both in Sydney and Melbourne that you can rent on an hourly basis.

I got to the airport with plenty of time (thanks Clare) and I wasn't charged $15 (AUD) a kilo for my 5/6 kilo of excess baggage! Yay!  I was so happy! The flight went well, and Lucy picked me up from the airport... eventually. She didn't realize how far the Avalon Airport was. It's about 45min to an hour outside of Melbourne. We finally got to her apartment and we crashed at about 1am. It was another good day in Oz. Soon I'll have to quit thinking I'm on vacation. I'll give it at least the weekend since it's already here.

Maybe my cousin-in-law will hook me up with a place to live and work in Echuca for a little bit or I'll get an email back from Darren, my former boss from when I lived in Brisbane during my graduate studies, about a job. It's such an adventure I live really!