BRISBANE

Just a quick little post to let you all know I've made it into Brisbane, about an hour ago. So far, it's not raining...yet, the sun is actually out a bit & it's hot & humid. My hotel room is pretty nice, it's a bit bigger & has more tv channels than the one in Melbourne, not that I'll be watching much tv except at night in bed. The hotel internet access was very pricey so I shall not be making my postings & checking emails from there. The nice girl at the desk told me about a place, which I'm at right now, that is very reasonably priced, on Queen Street, is only a five minute walk from the hotel, which is not too bad at all. If my postings become a bit sparse, it'll probably depend on how much I feel like coming down here to use the web, but I promise to try to be consistant!

So at the moment, all I really feel like doing is finding something to eat, this Queen Street area seems to be a popular place to shop & eat, so I have a feeling I'll be spending a bit of time getting to know this area. Won't be doing much else tonight beyond getting my bearings & settled & seeing where I am exactly. In the coming days, I'll be looking in to day tours & hopefully, fingers crossed, getting up to see the Steve Irwin zoo & maybe Lone Pine Koala sanctuary.

Oh, one little quirky story I have to share with you all. Once I got into Brisbane airport & out & got my shuttle arranged, as I sat waiting for it to come, along came this little old lady, she seemed friendly enough & we struck up a conversation. It seems she'd been out hiking & visiting around & was now going to stay in Brisbane for a bit. We talked a bit about where I was from, what I was doing & blah blah blah. Then we got on to the shuttle & we were off; while my head was doing the swivel thing, looking around at everything, I happened to glance down at the nice little old ladies' legs. They were the hairiest things I've ever seen in my life! Now, after you've all had a good laugh at that, you're probably asking why I'd mention something like that. It's just one of those weird, funny strange things that I happen to notice. You can all roll your eyes now.

Until later,

Lisa xoxo

Last Night in Melbourne

Well, I'm now in my final hours staying in Melbourne, tomorrow will be a busy travel day off to presumably wet Brisbane, but I'm all prepared, well sort of, I went & bought a cheapo umbrella! So some of the observances I've noticed while out walking around the town, twice today, I've seen guys walking down the street with no shoes on - who does that!?!? I guess that's a new "cool" thing to do, but I guess it must really make me old because I couldn't imagine doing that & wondering what the heck's on the bottoms of their feet, but that's Melbourners for you I guess!

And the women in this town are very interesting dressers as well, I've noticed a lot lately that young women mostly, & teenagers, have adopted wearing think leggings underneath skirts & shorts. When it's done well, it actually looks pretty cool, but I don't think that this is one trend I'll be taking on any time soon, hahah. Another trend, that seems to be very universal as I know I've seen this back home, are young women who may be decidedly on the heavier side deciding to leave the house wearing something skimpy-ish. Again, not something I would ever do, but, that's what makes everyone individual & I guess they've just embraced their curves.

Actually, young or old, the people watching has been really very interesting. I have yet to see one really unattractive looking Aussie, they're all very pretty & good looking I have to say. Because my stupid wonky leg was still giving me a problem, I really didn't do too much on the last day here, mostly because walking at the best of times has been a bit challenging, so I mostly just wandered through the South Gate market again, & this time, I even made a few purchases that I'm quite pleased with myself about. There truly are some really exceptional & creative people selling their wares down there & it was really great to see. There were also a few performers doing their thing for the crowds which was fun to watch. As I sat & watched this one young guy doing acrobatic things, I happened to notice a little boy holding a dragon/lizard type animal, I didn't happen to get a picture of it, although I wish I had, I just wasn't sure whether or not his mother would've appreciated it.

So this is about all there is for Melbourne, my next dispatch will be from Brisbane, if I haven't washed away somewhere.

Lisa xoxo

Last Full Day - Melbourne

Hello all, well today being Sunday, this will be my last full day in Melbourne, in the last couple of days, I've been continuing to wander around the streets of M town looking around at this & that & checking it all out. I've spent a lot of time around the South Gate area, which is right down by the river, & across from Federation Square. There's lots to see & do (& eat) down there, with lots of great photo taking possibilities. I've also met up with a few message board friends which has been great, they've been fantastic hosts, showing me around various Crowded House related notable areas, in particular, one of the houses that Neil Finn used to live in!

I also went to a couple of movies at night during the week, since I'm really not into going to pubs or clubs alone, even though I know I probably could, those of you who know me, know I'm not into that so it was all good. The closest movie theatre just happened to conveniently be right around the corner from my hotel so I went to see Charlie Wilson's War, which wasn't bad, 27 Dresses, which was okay & Dan in Real Life, which I could barely sit through.

Being Sunday, I'm going to go back down to South Gate today, as they have their market open, which I did see last weekend, but I want to take a closer look at things. I'll also have to try & wrestle w/ my bulging suitcase, not that I've bought much of anything really, just that I brought waaaaaay more than I needed, I don't know what I was thinking! The weather, I promise I'll try not to rub it in too much, has been really nice, pretty tough to take...Not! So I guess that's about all I have for now until I get into Brisbane some time tomorrow & settled in. I hope everyone's staying safe & warm, I'm thinking of you all as I put my face up into the sun.

Lisa xoxo

Valentines' Day in Melbourne

So yesterday was the day of hearts & flowers, since I really don't care for this day, I decided I was going to avoid all of that stuff, which wasn't easy since every second person I saw walking down the street had bouquets of flowers in their arms. Anyway, I went to check out an Aboriginal art gallery, they are in the process of closing their shop & were selling things off, they had really beautiful pieces of art, some of which I would have loved to take home with me but unfortunately, the prices of the pieces stopped me from doing that. It really amazes me how interesting & detailed the art is, with many different colours, patterns & textures used.

After I left there, I decided I was going to head back down to the South Gate area & look into the river cruise. Got on the cruise which was an hour long, up & down the Yarra River. While mostly seeing a lot of the industrial sides of it, the captain of the boat also pointed out all of the development along the Docklands areas too. In London England, they have the "Eye" farris wheel, well apparently Melbourne is going to have their own version of it & I happened to see that it's well on it's way to being built, to be completed perhaps later this year or early next.

The captain also mentioned a sky deck that was well worth seeing too, which is located in the tallest condo building in Melbourne. That would be my next journey, which was well worth seeing. It's 88 floors off the ground, & the view turned out to be excellent. As I'd gotten off the boat, the sky was opening up & the sun coming out finally, so the view was as far as my eyes could see in any direction. I now have well over 700 pictures, the newest ones being the awesome views of Melbourne in every direction!

After I was finished with that, it was finally time to stop & have a bite to eat; you'd think that with all this walking I'm doing, I'd be hungry all the time, but my appetite is still a bit wonky, not that that's a bad thing. I decided on a small pizza, one which had chicken & corn on it, it turned out to be quite tasty, I also thought I'd finally get myself a drink, I had my usual, a strawberry daquirie, which turned out to taste a bit different than I'm used to, more alcohol than sweet, & no sugar rimmed glass, but I did manage to drink most of it, so it was fine. On the way back to the hotel, I decided that I wanted to indulge in something sweet & chocolate, so I stopped at one of the food kiosks & picked up a very decadent slice of chocolate cake - yumm!

Today (Friday) I'm off to meet another new friend, Ron, later this afternoon, & I think some time after that I'm going to try & get in to see another gallery down at Fed Square, the Centre for the Moving Image, which holds all things in the manner of audio/video/film/art. I may also take another run through the National Gallery because at the Aboriginal shop, one of the nice ladies working there asked if I'd seen the collections, which I must have missed, so I'll be checking that out too.

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

Best Day Yet!

After a false start, I was off on my day tour of the Great Ocean Road area. Everyone, let me first start off by saying....If you have never been to Australia yet - GO! This tour turned out to be the best thing I've done so far....Every inch of Great Ocean Road is just ridiculously breath taking! The tour was A-MAZING, & Chris, the tour guide, was funny & informative, he had lots of stories to tell & was a terrific host for the day.

At this point, I think I now have well over 400 pictures, a lot of which was taken on Great Ocean Road today. I saw the 12 apostiles, London Bridge as it's known, I even got convinced to go on the 10 minute helicopter ride, giving me a birds' eye view from the sky of everything we'd just seen from the ground!

Never in my life did I ever think I'd do that but I did & it was such a blast! There was just a small group of people in the van, so it was totally manageable. There were lots of stops along the way, & at one of them, we got to see a couple of wild koalas up in a tree, which was so cool! We also saw lots of beautiful colourful parrots in trees, surfers in the waves, at least one wild kangaroo, a guy up in a motorized sail up in the sky, a lighthouse at Split Point, lookout areas all over Cape Patton, another area we drove through. There are just too many little places to mention but as I said, I've got a ton of new amazing pictures to share with you all once I get home. Along the way, there was also lots of farm land, tons of cows, & some sheep, we also saw a couple of eagles. At one point, we made a stop at a rain forest area for a 20 minute walk through which was just long enough (for me-hah) to be interesting & again, I've got some really cool pictures from in there too.

I have to tell you all something. I absolutely love the smell of salty sea air. There's something so powerful about it, I think it does something almost calming to your senses, between that & the breeze, by the time got back to the city, I'm feeling pretty mellow right now. And between smelling the sea air & watching the waves crashing in the surf, I'd say that today was definitely the best day I've spent here in Melbourne yet, & I still have a week to go.

All the best,

Lisa

Chinese New Year - Year of the Rat

It was another gorgeous sunny day today, so I spent time walking up to the National Library on Swanston Street, I brought a newspaper with me & decided to sit in the sun for a bit which was nice. Later on in the day I would go back & into the library to have a look around.

When I got back to my hotel, I met up with another new friend, Reanne, & off we went down to Fed Square to walk & talk, then over to the outdoor market at SouthGate which was really nice, there were lots of lovely wares on display for sale, a few things I came close to buying but in the end just looked at it all, really great stuff though. My friend Karen will be happy to know that I've finally tried my first Lambington cake, which is this chocolatey cake thing with chocolate icing & jam in the middle, very tasty! Nearby was another nice art gallery, the name escapes me at the moment, when I recall it later I'll post what it is. After that Reanne & I parted ways, she showed me what to do on the tram, which I decided to take after my leg started acting up again.

When I got back up to my area, I was going to go have a bit of a rest, but I heard all this fire cracker noise & started walking towards it. As some of you might know, they're celebrating the Chinese New Year, so there were lots of people around Chinatown, so I went to have a look & was rewarded by seeing all the colourful dragons & the drummers. They were also setting off the fire crackers & you wouldnt' want to stand too close to them because wow, when they go off it's extremely loud! I managed to take quite a few good pictures of the dragons too, so there will be lots to see of that.

After a while, having grown tired & a bit hungry, I decided to finally make my way back to my hotel & have a rest, which was much needed. I picked up something to eat & bring it back & had a good rest. Spoke to mom for a bit when she called. I think I'm going to have an early night tonight because tomorrow I'll be off on the Great Ocean Road day tour which I'm looking forward to. Will report on that soon.