2001 Day 15 - Coming home.

I haven't updated here for a while as it's been either work or busy since I got back on Sunday night. We're not getting the entire Christmas break, I have to work every working day except Christmas Eve over the period 9-5, except NYE when I managed to negotiate 8-4.

Fun stuff, eh? I have left the parting Canberra side of things aside for a later time, but it was completely mental. I'll give you the 2 minute summary to keep you intrigued:

1. There is no public bus to the airport, and the shuttle does not run weekends. I was parting Canberra at 3:30pm on a Sunday.

2. I got a bus to the city and then another to an "industrial" area called Fyshwick.

3. Everybody on the bus reminded me of the front page of http://batemanimation.com (EDIT: now folded into Scott Bateman's other enterprises, page had deranged idiots bleating at each other randomly), they were all completely mental and had serious issues.

4. Attempting to get a taxi from Fyshwick, 2 suburbs from the airport, to the airport involved:
a. The phone ringing out twice
b. When I finally got through, having to argue with an unfriendly operator.
c. No cab for 10 minutes.
d. Having to use a mobile number for a driver which he'd given me earlier in the week to obtain a taxi, which promptly arrived.

The flight was easy enough, and I got to Perth at 7:50pm local time (10:50pm EDT, 11:50am GMT). Oh, and getting a regional airline when you are right next to the propeller is a bad idea - it's like sitting in front of a stroboscope for 45 minutes and I couldn't see when I got off in Melbourne Airport.

Views of our national capital.

Before continuing, I'll explain here that Canberra has two city centres, so in order to avoid confusion Canberrans call the seat of Federal Parliament "Capital Hill" on south of Lake Burley Griffin, and the commercial and banking city area "Civic", on the north bank. They are linked by a bridge road called Commonwealth Avenue. Most of the attractions in Canberra are in the Capital Hill region.

I thought I'd use this post to explain some of the oddities one or two of my friends have heard about already by mobile phone. So if this is old ground, you know who you are. :)

1. Conversation on bus yesterday. From back - tall guy in black shirt, about 18, two rough looking guys in their late 30s or early 40s (Man and Other Man), to their right a mid-teen couple (Boy and Girl) who are making out on the seat. I was sitting directly in front of them, and to my left (to the men's front) was a stately looking middle aged lady (Lady). Everyone I've repeated it to thinks it's the funniest yet.

Man: You know what pisses me off?
Other Man: What, mate?
Man: Wankers.
Other Man: Yeah.
Man: They're everywhere. Wankers everywhere you go.
Other Man: Too true, mate.
Man: Wankers, wankers, wankers. Can't get away from them.

[Boy stops making out with Girl just long enough to say]

Boy: Hey, would you mind toning down the language a bit?
Man: Are you offended by "wankers"?
Boy: Yes, I am.
Man: Would "tossers" be better? Would you be offended by "tossers"?

[Guy at back and me laugh softly so as not to attract attention. Men fall silent for about 3-4 mins]

Other Man: We've been on f##king welfare for 20 years.
Man: Yeah, it pisses me off, you know?

Lady: I'm offended too. If you don't stop talking like that, I'm going to have to get a higher authority, and they'll do something about it. Just you see.

[Men shake heads, boy at back and me laugh a little]
[Boy and Girl get off bus]
[Men stay silent all the way to Woden, where Lady gets off. Once she's off:]

Man: F##king wanker.

[Other man shakes head, then they alight from bus.]


2. Christmas carols at Woden shopping centre. In keeping with the fact that most people listen to rap here (apparently there was a riot at a cinema when a recent movie preview with Dr Dre (EDIT: 'Training Day') aired and only a certain number of people could get preview tickets), they have jazzed up the children's choir a bit by adding a boom box. Hearing the children sing in time with the boombox was somewhere between amusing and vastly depressing. The teachers told me they'd been training for 3 weeks. It was apparently supposed to mean Christmas was relevant even in the present day.


3. A certain fast food outlet - I won't say where it was as I perfectly understand the teens' predicament.

Man: I'd like a meal deal.
Female Cashier (about 15): Certainly, sir. Would you like ketchup with that?
Man: No, but I'd like a tomato sauce.
Cashier: Yes, certainly, one ketchup.
Man: No! I said tomato sauce. What part of that don't you understand?
Cashier: We have to call it ketchup, sir. [Quietly - but I was nearby] I hope you understand, but we are not allowed to call it anything other than ketchup, you can get fired for less.
Man: OK. [Spitefully] Ketchup, then. You have lemon squash?
Cashier: Lift or Sprite?
Man: Just lemon squash would be fine.
Cashier: Well, we have Lift, and we have Sprite.
Man: Don't bother. I'll go to KFC where they don't go in for this American crap.

[Man leaves store]

Obviously he doesn't know what that K stands for :)

2001 Day 12-14 - Canberra

The section of the holiday in Canberra has been substantially more mundane and boring than the previous sections.. In two days, I will be back in Perth, and I won't deny that I view that as something of a positive.

Basic summary of holiday in Canberra to date.

Monday 10th
3:00pm - Arrived in Canberra as previously detailed on Kendell Airlines flight 8528.
4:30pm - Set off for city centre, ended up with National Library, dinner and walk.
9:30pm - Returned to Canberra Central Apartments to spend my night there. Talked with Steven.

Tuesday 11th
8:30am - Breakfast at Canberra Central, and checkout.
10:30am - Went to Belconnen shopping centre. Kmart's passport photography centre dead. Got my Kodak disposables from Melbourne developed at highly overpriced cost. ($16 a piece, and no free folder)
2:30pm - Emerged tired, hungry and annoyed from Belconnen, went to Civic.
4:00pm - Not much joy there, although I had time to post the previous entry. Returned to Belconnen to pick up photos. Thankfully, they worked out.
7:00pm - Left there, arrived at Stuart's place 20km S of the city to nice home-cooked meal. He had to go out so I had a long lost reunion with 2 of my CDs (Stabbing Westward and Manic Street Preachers) which cheered me up no end and then chatted to Jon.

Wednesday 12th
10:30am - Woke up.
12:00pm - Somehow ended up back at Belconnen. Just don't ask.
4:00pm - after concluding service standards at this shopping centre are at an Australia-wide low, not limited to extremely poor service while collecting a refund for passport photos I was very unhappy with, experience great catharsis by filling in a Westfield "How did we serve you?" form. It contained no swearing or abuse, but was in very strong terms. I felt better afterwards.
6:00pm - Back in Civic. I noticed I had a bit of a sore throat and cough, but as I regularly have sinus issues, wrote it off as nothing. Came home to more home cooking - this time a form of spaghetti bolognese. Was nic :)
11:00pm - After chatting with Steven, begun to realise this was no ordinary cough and started drinking large amounts of fluids, taking Vitamin C.

Thursday 13th
8:40pm - After various rather revolting episodes in the dunny overnight, woke up for the last time with a full blown headache and sinus cold (what people call the flu, but it isn't influenza).
12:30pm - Finally made up my mind to leave the house. Went to Civic.
2:00pm - Got ripped off by foreign taxi driver en route to Telstra Tower. The views of the city were beautiful - Canberra is a very spaced out city with lots of green and forested areas throughout its suburbs. I enjoyed a small snack on top of the Tower.
4:30pm - Left tower. Some weird notion possessed me to take a shortcut by walking through the forest instead of catching a cab down the winding road.
6:00pm - Got to bottom, quite exhausted and dehydrated (it was, after all, 27oC) but I was happy I'd done it. Caught cab to Civic, bought drink, went home.
11:30pm - After nice long chat with Stuart, went to bed.

Friday 14th
8:30am - Woke up. Internet down, so decided to go out despite cold/flu and the prevailing humidity that's kicked in today.
12:00pm - After getting my photos done *properly*, I went to New Parliament House intending to stay there maybe half an hour.
2:30pm - Emerged from New Parliament House. OK, the rest of Capital Hill can wait till tomorrow, I guess. Went back to Civic and this time went into the shops there and had a pie and a litre of Solo Lemon Squash. (OK, I was thirsty).
4:00pm - Returned but caught wrong bus! Ended up at Woden shops (6-7km SSW).
5:00pm - After intense levels of boredom and amusement, left for Tuggeranong shops (15km S).
7:00pm - Returned home. Tuggeranong's a nice place, just strange.
9:30pm - The present time. Stuart will return later, he's out role-playing. I'm amusing myself by playing with my LJ style and drinking lots of water to combat the humidity and my headache.

2001 Day 10-11 - Canberra

Monday 10 December 2001, Melbourne

Spent my final hours in Melbourne in the city, the weather changed at least four times while I was there. Got back and had missed the Skybus, so had to get a taxi for $40 to the airport. When I got there, the flight had been so delayed that I could have caught the Skybus anyway. Damn. I also failed the security check as I have so many coins, keys, and god knows what else on my person that I had to take them all out and put them in trays then pick them up again. The guards, thankfully, were very sympathetic, treating it as some kind of machine anomaly and they apologised a few times.

The flight to Canberra, a city of barely 300,000 - well, my first ever time on a regional airline. 42 seater, with sheepskin seats. No safety video with a column of female attendants performing in synchronicity what I call the "Emergency Exit Macarena" - there was just one guy reading a transcript of the video. It was noisy as we were close to the motor, and when they told us there'd be turbulence coming into Canberra it would be nice if they had warned us we could pick yesterday's breakfast up on the way down. Eugh.

A friend unexpectedly met me at Canberra and drove me to the city, I hadn't seen him in 4 years so it was a good experience all round :) hopefully I'll be going to a cafe or something with him later in the week. My apartment was beautiful - shame I only got 1 night in it. It had balcony views of parts of the city and the mountains tracing the outline of the city.

I then went for a long walk, during which I discovered the following things:
(1) The average speed on main roads in Canberra is 80km/h, rather than the usual 60.
(2) Drivers in Canberra are completely mental.
(3) The people employed to help us tourists know less about the city than their own brochures contain.
(4) Ignore any signs indicating costs or closing times - "till late" on a cafe means about 7pm and something advertised at one price could be much higher or lower than advertised. Furthermore, the locals seem to know this and regard you as somewhat silly for not guessing/knowing.

I got some beautiful photos too in the Commonwealth Avenue region of the city overlooking Lake Burley Griffin.

Tuesday 11 December 2001, Canberra

I checked out of my room and headed off to Belconnen, about 6km NW of the city, and got completely lost in a huge shopping centre, then caught the wrong bus and found myself on the NSW border at the far north of the metro area rather than in the city (the driver, thankfully, took pity on me and drove me back).

This place is starting to annoy me. Contrary to expectation, most things are expensive here (sometimes up to twice the price of Per/Adl/Mel), and I don't even get a free presentation folder with my photos. Oh well.

Oh and the Snowy Mountains are too inconvenient to do - it seems none of the tourist companies here have realised the potential in tourism in having people stay in Canberra and go to the Snowies. I'd have to stay there 2 nights and pay an absolute bomb. There are no guided tours whatsoever.

I'd better get off this net terminal and go back to Belconnen to pick up my photos actually, because unlike anywhere else I've been in, "Express 1 Hour" means 4.5 hours. I still can't get over the fact they charge $16.60 to develop a roll.

Hopefully my holiday in Canberra will improve from here. It is a nice city, and maybe my annoyance with its daily norms will subside in a day or so :)

2001 Day 9 - Melbourne, Great Ocean Road

Tonight is my last night in my second favourite city in Australia, after my own city, Perth. I really am going to miss this place and it's with some sadness that I realise I may not get to come here again for another couple of years. Melbourne's a big city with a soul, unlike Sydney which just comes across to me as lifeless and somehow having lost its way amidst the hustle and bustle. This is my 2nd time in Melbourne - the first being in 1997 living with my ex - and it's probably the only other city where I've genuinely felt at home.

To complete last night's entry, I went down to the Flinders Street station and listened to Chris the busker for around 2 hours, then walked home. This must be one of the few cities where you can walk home at 1am without having to seriously worry about your personal safety (that being said, I did take precautions anyway)

Today was the Great Ocean Road, which runs all the way from Torquay (about 100km SW of Melbourne) to Warrnambool (around 350km west). We didn't go all the way to Warrnambool - we went only to Port Campbell. But the views were magnificent. Huge limestone natural monuments formed by the relentless Bass Strait (between Victoria and Tasmania) and the Southern Ocean (which goes to Antarctica), coloured with the minerals in Australia's soils, meant there was some real sites to see.

I don't really have time to go through all of them, but it was mindblowing, that is for sure. If you want to have a look, go look on Google for pictures of the London Bridge, Loch Ard Gorge, 12 Apostles, Otley Ranges, or the Surf Coast.

Tomorrow at 1:25pm local time, I am off to Canberra. I really wish I'd had more time in Melbourne now - due to the way the flights work I spend one day more in Canberra than either of the other cities, but there is less to do there.

2001 Day 8 - Melbourne, Dandenongs

Enjoyed a real cooked breakfast (as per previous day, and I forgot to mention a beef stroganov dinner I had at the Miami on Thursday night - which was yummy) and then headed off into the city. Today's tour started with a river cruise on the Yarra River, going through from the City of Melbourne through to the port area about 1/2 way up to Port Phillip Bay. We then did a bus tour of the city, seeing some of the tourist attractions of Melbourne itself, before heading off to the Mount Dandenongs (I still don't know why they're not called the Dandenong Mountains, or why they're nowhere near the urban centre of Dandenong). They are simply beautiful - they're like many other forests I've seen but much greener. The mountain ash trees (a member of the eucalypt family common in Australian native forests - there's over 600 of them) remind me a little of the karri trees in Pemberton south of Perth. Unfortunately, I felt the tour rushed through the Dandenongs - I hope to come up here and spend a decent amount of time on them someday.

I've so far spent the evening in the city after having a buffet at the All Seasons Welcome Hotel - wasn't brilliant but was decent (and budget - around $30) and I'm more than overfull :) I should really find something to do - seeing if Chris is playing down at Flinders Street sounds good right about now.

2001 Day 7 - Phillip Island

Friday 7 December 2000, Melbourne - Nearly all of today was spent on a Gray Line tour. None of the pics you see in this section are mine - I have no access to a scanner, and simply looked for good quality representative ones on Google.

• 12:20 - Picked up from hotel by coach


• 12:50 - Arrived in city by roundabout route


• 13:30 - Left Melbourne - went down St Kilda Road (this road is simply phenomenal - two roadways each direction each of two lanes, a big multi-tramway in the middle, and median strips between each, and tree-lined on both sides - it is huge!) and drove down the bayside suburbs with a full commentary.


• 15:15 - After going somewhat inland, our first stop - Warrook Farm. Apparently it's too wet for the sheep, but there's plenty of kangaroos and wombats (for those of you who think everywhere in Australia has them, it's in fact quite rare to see them without going to a place like this).


• 16:15 - After a considerable drive (including a causeway), we got to Phillip Island's Koala Conservation Park and got to see real life koalas as well as some information displays.


• 17:00 - Went to Cowes (the main town of Phillip Island) and, despite the tour guide's recommendations of expensive restaurants, bought a yiro souvlaki at a local fish & chips shop for $5.50, and loved it. I agree with the person who said Cowes is blatantly cashing in on the tourists rather than providing a meaningful gateway to the island, but even so, it was still nice :) I hung around some fishermen and got to meet a couple of other tourists, including Yoko, from Japan, and Joe, from Italy. I'm still stunned at the lack of Australians on the tours I've been on.


• 19:00 - Seal Rocks, and I wasn't going to pay the $10.50 entry fee, so hung around the free area (shop, binoculars, beach areas). Bought a few soft toys too :) (EDIT 2002 - This centre was destroyed by a tornado 8 months after my visit.)


• 20:00 - Penguin Parade information centre - saw some of the computerised displays and shops - the centre was busier than some shopping centres I've seen given the time and day.


• 20:51 - The penguin parade itself. A single shout and everyone was generally heading towards the seated area, but I'd been tipped off to check the boardwalk instead.
  The penguins are like nothing I've ever seen. They're about 30cm high and they kind of waddle like a duck, and they're just adorably cute :) Basically they all run up from the water onto the beach at sunset in a huge group every night, then once onshore, preen themselves and, in smaller groups, run up to their burrows in the hills surrounding the beach where the chicks are waiting for their nightly feed. The viewing area is floodlit so you can see them pretty easily.


• 22:00 - It's all over (the penguins haven't stopped running up, but the floodlights are switched off and the boardwalk is closed by the rangers). I should note that any photography or video is banned due to the effect that flashes have on the penguins, however I was easily able to obtain professionally done photos of them taken some years ago relatively easily.

Searching for "phillip island penguin parade pictures" in Google will return a number of links you can look at, and you can look at the official site. This so far has definitely been the highlight of my little tour, alongside the Wayward tour I took on Day 4.

2001 Day 5-6 - Adelaide, Melbourne

Checkout time at the hotel was 10am, so it was a rush to meet it. One of my Net friends, Jamie from Melbourne, was, oddly enough, in Adelaide, so we spent most of the day together ... we've known each other nearly 6 years but we hadn't managed to meet until now! :) But it worked out great, and I went practically straight from Jamie's car to the airport, where I sweltered in totally un-Adelaide-like humidity waiting for my plane.

The plane flight was just over an hour, was really weird, like taking off into the clouds then coming down almost no time later. There was a lot of turbulence due to the aforementioned weather - when I got into Melbourne it was humid but fine. (It is now even more humid, cold and pelting with rain too - yes, this is a Melbourne summer.) Took the Skybus to Spencer Strete before getting a taxi to the hotel (Hotel Claremont, South Yarra) which I'd booked about a month before for my 5-day stay in Melbourne. The taxi driver told me he wouldn't stay there even if he was paid to, and said I was to receive a shock. I ignored his ramblings as that of a disgruntled taxi driver.

Anyway, I got there and paid in advance as per their policy and got to my room and ... Well, that was entirely another story. When I get home, I'll scan in the pics so you can see it, but the double bed took up 3/4 of the room. There was a bit to the left and front of the bed you could *just* squeeze through. The room looked nothing like the photos on their website. There was no fridge, no power point, communal bathroom/toilet down the corridor that stank of chlorine and smoke (the hotel is non-smoking), and the "wardrobe" was this metal wire thing. No telephone, either - they said they might have telephones by mid-2002. It was positively claustrophobic. At least I had my mobile.

So I went down and told the duty manager I was unhappy with the room - he basically said (politely) that it was budget accommodation in Melbourne and my $68 a night was an amazing bargain for the room I did get.

Thanks to my parents who looked diligently on the net (oh yeah, no phone or yellow pages either) I negotiated my way through a city of 3.5 million on public transport (with considerable help from passengers, one of whom missed two trains to find me my tram!) to find two hotels to check out. The first had no free rooms, the second, Miami Motor Inn, was amazingly good. The room which I was taken to was $70 and fully kitted out - and even a cooked breakfast chucked in. I was also impressed with the hospitality they showed to someone who had literally wandered in off the street at 11pm.

I ambled back to the Claremont one as they said I had to pay a night, so I thought I might as well use it up. The bed was comfortable enough, so it wasn't a problem. (My exotic view, by the way, was that of a truck loading zone, considering I was in the heart of the best cafe and shopping district in Melbourne).

Woke up to a cereal breakfast - the saving grace of Hotel Claremont was the overabundance of extremely good looking teenagers staying there. (Am I really that snobbish at 23 that I insist on a fully serviced twin/double room when I go to a city for a few days? :)

Had fun with the luggage, as I had to cart it by train and tram to the new place in West Melbourne. I should mention at this point that Melbourne is one of the few cities in the world to not only have maintained a tram system (most cities, including my own, abandoned it decades ago) but have made it a modern and efficient mode of transport.

The new hotel room wasn't ready yet so I went back into the city. Melbourne's weather is unpredictable at the best of times, but it was humid and/or wet for most of it. I found the 5-storey Melbourne Central/Daimaru centre in the northern CBD, but couldn't find my way out. I ended up buying a Chinese meal and 2x600mL drinks to keep me happy, and then went back to the hotel and had a well-deserved shower.

I also found the State Library of Victoria (the state of Australia which Melbourne is the capital of) which is actually really decent, and booked a couple of tours for myself (see Day 7 & 8). I spent the evening eating a nice Thai meal and standing in the subway under Flinders Street train station listening to an incredible acoustic guitar player called Chris who also had a decent voice... I might wander back there tonight and see if he's playing tonight.

Then I came back to my hotel and tried to have a conversation with Jon, however it seems to have become a rather unstable phone connection - either Orange (UK) or Optus (Aus) has issues with international bandwidth, I'd say.

2001 Day 4 - Adelaide

Finally got into a netcafe, so here goes ...

I woke up late, and in the rush managed to miss my bus, so had the Adelaide taxi experience. It was fun - the driver was a nice guy and it wasn't too expensive (it was $11 from where I was into the city).

So I get to the tour company, and there's like a minivan outside. I was kind of surprised, but yeah ... it turned out to be amazingly good, with only two others, myself and the driver/tour guide, Bruce. We got around the entire south of Fleurieu Peninsula in it, and it didn't have the limitations of a larger vehicle so we went into quite a lot of nice places. I saw lots of rolling countryside, nice big forested areas (very different to others I've seen as Adelaide is a much drier climate than both Perth and Sydney) and huge, undulating beaches. I had a brilliant meal in the town of Victor Harbor (it was started as a US whaling post, hence the spelling), and had a ride on Australia's only horse-drawn tram. The driver had a great sense of humour and at times quite jokingly turned on the whole Russell Coight touring guide voice. More later... I found out that Wayward also have an Adelaide-Melbourne tour via the Great Ocean Road, might be interesting for a future point in time.

Then I got back to Adelaide (the tour guide deposited me right at Najjar's Cafe in North Adelaide) and I had a great evening out with my Adelaide friend Andrew L, was a great chat and good food too.

When I got back I phoned Jon but the mobile network kept playing up so the convo was very fragmented towards the end... I then had my last night's sleep in Adelaide.

2001 Day 1-3 - Adelaide

Sat 1 Dec, 11:15am Perth time (GMT +8.0h) - Boarded Ansett Mark II plane AN342 to Adelaide.





4pm Adelaide time (GMT +10.5h) (written on plane) While the nice white fluffy clouds are great to look at, they become something of a drag after about two hours of nothing but clouds. En route to Adelaide. Ansett Mk II has been an interesting experience. The friendly lady doing regular rounds with plastic cups and bottled water is a relief, although I can't say much for the donated cricket and music videos. We got a cute little snack pack thingy too. After reading the Adelaide Advertiser onboard, I get the impression I'm making for a large country town, but who knows until I land. I'm Bored!!!

6:30pm - At Adelaide International Motel in Anzac Highway, Glenelg North, where I will be spending my next 5 days. We got off the plane *onto the tarmac*, which I thought bizarre and mildly comical. We're only 8-9km from the CBD but looks almost like a cleaned-up version of a Perth outer suburb (like Gosnells or something). I'm about to check out the sights around Glenelg. The motel room looks really nice, but has an old (i.e. 70s era) dial phone and an old TV.

10pm - Back from my trip all over the place. Went to Glenelg (which is basically a quite nice beach with a paved square at the top, and a long street coming out of it with restaurants and shops the way down) and tried to find an affordable restaurant, but failing to do so, bought a steak burger and chips at an overpriced cafe. An identified problem here is getting drinks at an affordable price - I seem to get dehydrated easily. The steak burger and chips was nice but didn't really thrill me, and a random person on the street told me to check out Chinatown in the city (one block from Victoria Square). I'm now glad I did, as I now have special fried rice and beef in black bean in two little containers. I got to check out the Glenelg tram, which is a restored 1929 tram and is actually an integral part of the public transport here (Note 3/12/01 - I found out today they used to be all over Adelaide but now only this one route remains).

I have two disposable cameras (one flash, one non-flash) with me at all times. God knows how the photos will turn out, but we can only hope.

Sun 2/12/01, 8pm Adelaide time (GMT +10.5h) - Well, I had a fun day. I only got 4 hours sleep, because they had a wedding downstairs with nightclub type music until 11pm, then at 3am the most spectacular lightning storm I've ever seen hit Adelaide. I wish I had better cameras - this was just awesome.

I got bored of being awake at such an early hour and phoned a friend in Northern Ireland, we chatted for a while and it was good hearing a familiar voice again. :) I went into the city fairly early on, checked out Rundle Mall (apparently Australia's oldest shopping mall) and found another good Chinese restaurant there in a food court. Checked out the State Library in North Tce and found out that in the parklands just outside, they have live local music all weekend. I wish they had that in Perth.

(Adelaide is surrounded by a belt of parklands about 800m wide - it's most obvious in this photo I took the following year from the west.)

For my own amusement I then caught an Adelaide train, which reminds me of the Melbourne ones except that they're much cleaner, much more comfy seats and only one carriage. That is to say (for those not familiar with Melbourne trains) that they're about 35 years old and only travel at like 40-50km/h, and have door handles so you manually open the doors to get on. The train stations were also reminiscent of Melbourne. Was going to go to Noarlunga Centre but was advised by several passengers it was a waste of time, so I got off at Brighton beach, south of Glenelg, and ate aforementioned Chinese meal. It was nice, and the weather was even good for the time. (Not for long, but at least I got a good photo of Brighton). I then headed back into the city, and caught up with another friend (Steven) on the phone, he was at the WACA watching Aust vs NZ and it was kind of fun hearing things at the time they happened. I got back to my hotel with very stiff knees and a headache, mostly due to walking a lot and the humidity.

Adelaide is a paradox. Its suburbs are like a reminder of some past point in time, clean, distinctly dated, and a lot of very old cars. The city centre (CBD) on the other hand has wide streets and is fairly bustling. I've almost been hit by cars a few times. They also have weird laws here about pedestrian crossings so it's possible for cars to come in your direction even if you have a little green man - this phenomenon only seems to occur in the city centre.

Mon 3/12/2001 - The main news is that I went to Hahndorf, the entirely German town 24km SE of Adelaide. Those in other Australian cities may be astounded that in Adelaide, once you get 4.5km East of the city centre you're in rolling hills and bushland on roads with hairpin bends in them (one called Devil's Elbow even) ... It was a very nice trip with an informative tour guide, and we got 2 hours in Hahndorf. I learned a lot about Adelaide and Hahndorf and the surrounding areas from him - however the stiff knee thing has become a real problem. I also got real strawberries from Beerenberg farm, which supplies Qantas as well as a number of major hotels with jams, sauces and other things. They even rode me right back to my motel (a big thing considering how far out it is).

I decided to leave the Adelaide Casino buffet for another night - I'm too full up to really get any value out of it, thanks to the wonderful food in Hahndorf (free scones, a chocolate eclair of the cake variety, and handmade chocolates - what more could one ask for?) I'm having an early night, then checking out Victor Harbor later (More on that later :) I've been told by everyone that I'll enjoy it, it will be more relaxing than the last two days.

Melbourne on Wednesday night ...

I'm leaving on a jet plane...

..today at 11:35am on Ansett Mark II, flight AN342, to Adelaide. It's amazing to think I can travel that far in just 3 hours - the wonders of modern flight.

For those who wish to know, the distance between Perth and Adelaide is not dissimilar to that between Belfast, N.Ireland, and Istanbul, Turkey, or between Los Angeles CA and Birmingham AL - it's about 2,600 km.

My itinerary is as follows:
1 Jan - 5 Jan Adelaide (staying in Adelaide Int'l Motel, Glenelg)
5 Jan - 10 Jan Melbourne (staying at Hotel Claremont, South Yarra)
10 Jan - 16 Jan Canberra

Will keep you posted with updates from netcafes wherever I go :P