Melbourne Day 3

Well Day 3 started off just like any other. I decided to take it easy this morning, since I went to bed last night at 8pm.... which is basically 1am San Diego time, and didn't really wake up until 5:45am. I obviously haven't adjusted to the time yet. It feels like its 11pm at night right now, but its just 6:30pm. My body is still all wack. I've also been reducing the amount of coffee I have been consuming... which isn't hard to do here. Its just so accessible at home. Honestly it is everywhere here, but when you are on a tour all day it doesn't afford you much opportunity, and it being 6:30pm at night, I can't drink any now or I'll start to get those fucked up dreams I used to get. Funny how the voices stopped when I stopped drinking Red Bull/Coffee after 7pm.... thats another story.

So breakfast was a simple scrambled eggs on toast... read some more of my vampire book (I'll be finishing it tonight)... they were playing acapella Bon Jovi... kinda wierd. After breakfast I walked around to find another place for breakfast tomorrow... no luck. All places want 19-22$ AUS for breakfast usually contential... Sorry breakfast is breakfast... saving my money for something else... like COFFEE.

Todays tour went back up to the Dandenongs.. this time the sun was shining. After returning to the exactly place the bus went yesterday to visit Parrots and Cockatoo's... i decided to avoid the birds, and wander into the rain forest. Very lush, and green, and smelled wonderful... but sadly no neat bugs or animals. The trees reach heights of 100 meters! with a girth of 20 meters! WOW! I am told its too cold for most of the cool bugs. And once I get to Brisbane and Cairns it should be better.

The Puffing Billy train ride we went on that snakes through the hills was really cool. Getting up towards the front while they fired off the engines was damn cool. Lots of big white clouds came out the top, and the smoke smells like gun fire. When the train took off, we were allowed to sit on the edge of the train and dangle our feet out above the plants... looking up at the engine sounded cool until ash rained down into your face... eww. Chatted a bit with Eddy who was on a 30 day leave from the Navy... hadn't been back in the US for over a year. So he was interested to hear how Arnold got elected. Don our tour guide was a hoot! I ended up taking a picture with him so I could visually remember his face... why you ask. Because I think I was the only one on the bus that actually looked down the aisle and saw him talking in the rearview mirror. He was SOOO animated with the way he pronounced what he was saying, and his facial expressions went along with it. It was priceless. Definately made the tour unique and something to do again.

Our trip finally took us to Fergenson Winery for lunch... everything just looked OK... so I ended up with a Beef and Guinness pie... yes folks, a beef pie made with Guinness beer! And let me tell you... IT WAS GOOD! Which made up for the bad wine... I'm not sure what it is about my palate, but reds from Australia do nothing for me. So much for hopes of bringing one back... maybe the duty free shop will have something (grin).

We then got to goto a nature reserve, which specialized in only Australian animals. It was kinda cool, because it was built right into the bush... natural dirt trails to each exhibit, which were large, and had individual animals in it. It was odd seeing the Dingo's... they look kinda like golden retrievers... but with a REALLY beautiful coat of fur, with very bright yellow/gold fur. The aviary seemed like it would be boring until you realize that there about 4 dozen bats hanging from the ceiling. I got some cool pictures of one of them spreading their fleshy wing out. A couple others were squabbling... all very animated for being the middle of the afternoon. Chatted more with Chris and Joel from London. We came across a bush that grows Kangaroo Apples... which sounds nice until you find out when they are poisonous. They were/are? used by the aboriginals to abort pregnancies? Apparently when they are green, they are toxic... orange make you real sick, and red are OK to eat. Why this bush was on the trail in the park... I have no idea. Is there anything in Australia that doesn't kill you?

There was a long ride home where I read more of my vampire book... did I tell you the author does a really vivid job of describing the details of the violence in the book... I have very vivid images of the amount of blood being spewn everywhere in this book... she has at least 8 other books... I think I found a new book to read... and share with Tina.

Tonight after the bus ride, I took off and looked for a place serving Fish & Chips... not because I love them, but there are shops for them all around town... it seems to be quite a thing here. But as I walked up by the 2 movie theaters (showing the likes of Scooby Doo 2 and 50 first dates)... all I could find were Japanese places... I was running parallel to China Town. So I wandered into some very Japanese Arcades with tons of multi-player arcade games, all in Japanese. 20 of those Sega racing games they have at Dave and Busters linked together all at once. WOW. I ended up eating Sushi from a "Walk Away" place.. meaning in US English "To Go". I sat out in front of the restaurant, and people watched (90% Asian in this part of town). I felt in a way that I was no longer in Australia... but in Japan or Hong Kong. They aren't kidding about Melbourne being a hugely diverse city.

I'm now sitting in an Internet cafe (slash) LAN Party computer place in the basement off some store off the street. Its filled with people playing Counter Strike... In some very basic levels... doing the Counter Strike meets Deathmatch thing. Bahh... enough of that.