New Day, Another Big Walk

Here is what's gone on for the last two days. Yesterday, Tuesday February 12, 08, I met up with another internet friend, the lovely Robyn, who I met on the same message board as the others. She was just getting over the flu & a cold, but she was so good to meet up with me & show me the very pretty St Kilda area. So off we went, on my first major tram ride, that was fun. When we got there, as I looked out at the ocean, it reminded me very much of a couple of different things. The beach area reminded me a bit of Miami, although there wasn't a hord of people out on the beach at the time. Then there's the main drag, which really reminded me of Queen Street in Toronto, particularly the Beaches area, because it had tons of funky little shops & cafes. Probably the best part though were all the cake shops;. I pretty much drooled my way down the street!

I took pictures of all the yummies, so you'll all see what I mean later, we decided to have lunch at a place called "Big Mouth", which was not bad, it had all open windows & while it was a tad breezy, it was nice to sit & watch the people & traffic going by. We had desert at this little cafe that served absolutely nothing but chocolate, I was in heaven. They had chocolate fountains in the window, so that pretty much sealed that decision. We decided on this thing, it's best described as deep fried elephant ear things, only in curly strips, & we had a warm pot of milk chocolate to dip it in. TO ~ DIE~ FOR!!!! It was also very filling, but it was so good!

Later on, we came back into the area I am staying at & walked around a bit more, then it was time for Robyn to take off & I was ready for a bit of a rest. Now I have to tell you all something. My eating habits have gotten a bit weird lately. It seems that, while I'll eat some cereal for breakfast, I seem to either skip lunch entirely, or have it late in the day & then I don't eat dinner. If I happen to be hungry enough to eat dinner, which hasn't been too much lately, it's been a bit difficult to actually find something other than Thai, Vietnamese, or Chinese food to eat. All the little alley way eateries are either busy, or don't have anything that appeals, or the more formal looking restaurants, I'm just not dressed right for. Or, I've also found that if I've spent the entire day walking around, I've usually been too tired to bother eating anything & I've just wandered around aimlessly. Yes, I know that's silly. Anyway, it hasn't really occurred to me to mind. Last night though, at around 9pm-ish, I finally decided to just go to the Thai place that is attached to the hotel. With the exception of two other tables, it was not busy. After my experience there, I can see why. There were two girls serving last night & it seemed to take forever to get any service. I'd decided on what I wanted, but then I changed my mind & almost didn't get to make that choice because flagging down the girl who initially served me was a bit difficult. Needless to say, I think that was my first & last visit.

Wednesday February 13, 2008:

So today, I thought that it might be a good idea to just relax & take it a bit easy, since it wasn't shaping up to be a good day weather-wise. I figured it would be a good day to do some laundry, not that I've run out of clean undies or anything, but just a good idea to keep on top of it. Then I realized I would need some detergent. I don't know why I never thought of that before I left. So I ran off to Coles grocery store to buy some, along w/ dryer sheets & zip lock bags. I bought the smallest amount of stuff I could find. Came back & did my laundry, then I thought I'd go check out the hot tub (thanks Dad). It did seem to help with the sore leg for a while, so I may have to do that again. After I cleaned up & had a shower, I watched some of the reconsiliation ceremony on tv, which is a very big deal around here today. The new prime minister was making his "I'm sorry" speech, it was quite interesting, later, after I went back out again & down to Fed Square, I noticed that there was a rally going on as well as a really big crowd down there.

When I did go out, I decided I was either going to a) look into the river cruises or b) try to find the Melbourne Aquarium. I did both, I'll try to do the river cruise tomorrow, but the aquarium was a bit more of a challenge. I stupidly ended up walking down St Kilda Road a fair ways instead of walking down Flinders' Street, which took a good 45 minutes off my day. It was a nice walk & all but it was one of those, "geez, I'm so dumb" moments. So I got back on the right track finally, after badgering a man on a cel phone, who kindly directed me the right way. It was worth it because the aquarium exhibits were really cool. There were many pretty, colourful fish, some small & some really huge fish in the tanks, along with turtles, sharks, eels I think. There were also more than a few sting rays. There were a couple in there that were utterly enormous! The way the tanks were situated, it enabled them to swim over our heads. It's really mind boggling to have a huge sting ray floating serenely over your head, you definitely wouldn't want to have an encounter with one of those things in the ocean! I also saw species of jelly fish, but no box jellies, which they didn't seem to have.

After the walk back to the hotel again, I had a rest for a bit then decided to make myself get out & find something to eat. I didn't stray far, there is a small place on the corner of Little Collins' Street & Swanston that I decided to try. The fetticcini bolognaise (sorry, I know I may not be spelling that right) wasn't bad, I definitely think I'll go there again. And it seemed I went & got an appetite back, because I went across the street to another place for a spring roll & my first piece of dim sum, both of which were good too. I was tempted to get a piece of a gooey desert the first place had, but I'm being good. For now.

Good night for now.

Lisa xo