To Melbourne

Today we’re going to Melbourne (Mel-bun), but first we went down to the Aquarium to buy platypus stuff. After that we walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. 16 men died making the bridge. The bridge was finished in 1932. Mom would not let me go near the edge which has a huge metal rail to prevent us from falling. We hit the worse traffic getting to the hotel so we walked. We panicked that we’d miss the plane. We had 45 minutes before the plane left when we got to the airport. We did get on the plane to Melbourne. After that we went to Aunt Amanda’s college. Which is a dorm called the doughnut. It’s called that because it’s shaped like a doughnut. After that we went gift shopping. Then we went to eat, the waiter showed me three cool riddles. After that we went to Aunt Amanda’s dorm and slept there.

Pam/Mom says:
Yes, the bridge was scary. You can even pay to climb it on the top. Luckily, Chad isn't 14 so we didn't have to deal with that. Although, we did meet 2 elderly women in the lift, who said it quite invigorating. We felt like such cowards.

Despite the fact that it sounds like it rains every day in Melbourne, they're in the 12th yr of a drought and it's quite obivious. It's very brown & dry. It just seems to spit alot, but the rain amounts to nothing. I did notice quite a few prickly pear cactus. Amanda told me they were imported at 1 point & they basically took over Melbourne to the point you couldn't build in some areas. They couldn't get rid of them & resorted to dumping arsenic on them. Finally, they brought in a moth that lives off the cactus & eventually kills it. So now everything is nicely balanced. It makes sense how strict Australia is with their imports - they have had lots of problems with non-native species. Rabbit, foxes, a European cod, etc. have all overtaken various parts of Australia pushing out natives. The foxes are a particular problem and are threatening many of Australia's smaller kangaroos, wallabies, birds and possums.

A word about Whitley College - Amanda actually attends the University of Melbourne, but lives in Whitley. The College is not a college as we imagine w/classes, etc. It's basically a co-ed dorm (even the bathrooms) with lots of amenities a cafeteria, college store,library, computer room, etc. The Colleges are very active - sort of like a fraternity. We slept there 1 night. I wanted a cup of decaf tea before bed and her friends laughed at me saying, "DECAF!!! This is AUSTRALIA!" We also admired all the beer bottle caps that she has collected for the boys. They pretty much stretch around the room.

We headed off to a local mall via the tram to look for gifts. It's quite expensive & I wanted gifts that said "Australian", so not much luck. But, we did see Santa in the big dept. store in Myer - several building spanning several streets. Then we headed over to the "Little Italy" area for dinner & Melbourne's best gelati. After that we hit a grocery store to load up on Australian chocolate & cookies. I love shopping in foreign grocery stores - I think it really gives you insight into the country. In fact, Australians love Philadelphia cream cheese - they call it Philly and it comes in many forms & flavors than here. We loaded up on Tim Tams - an awesome cookie rumored to be sold in Target in the US. Here's hoping! Many an Australian story involve a Tim Tam... I was watcing the news, reading, TV...and having a Tim Tam when...

Weather: Nice in Sydney, Rainy in Melbourne and cold



Me and mom on the bridge