Waves 1 - Me 0.00001

Had my first surfing lesson yesterday. I took a serious beating but did get up a couple of times. Also drank about a liter of seawater before I learned that I cannot, in fact, breath underwater. Today I rented a board again and went out for a bit, but there were hardly any waves. So I worked on my paddling and strained my triceps muscles a bit. Now I realize why surfers are always in such good shape - it takes serious upper body strength.

Travels to Apollo Bay

So my last post was on the 11th and it's now the 18th! I arrived in Apollo Bay yesterday, from Melbourne. The first hour of the trip was by train, then 2 hours by bus along the "Great Ocean Road". This is a very twisty road built right hard along the shore, into the cliffs. So picture the bus, with a driver who is not exactly taking it slow. Me (still somewhat afraid of heights) in this said bus. About 1-2 feet beside the bus (the side I'm sitting on) is a guardrail which is about a foot or so high. IMMEDIATELY after said guardrail - nothing but air. And the bus is leaning out a bit as the driver is hoofing it through the turns. I was looking down some 40-50 meters in places. In 3-4 spots there was one way traffic only (with temp. stop signs) and a second temporary guardrail, because the permanent guardrail didn't have enough dirt to hold it. Washouts... Here one could see that the metal posts holding the guardrail are long, really really long pieces of metal going straight into the ground, somehow trying to find some rock/soil to hold on to. People actually pay for tours to take them along this road, although at least the tour buses drive more slowly. We finally got stuck behind a tour bus which made the rest of the drive a lot easier. That being said, the scenery was nice, what with the cliffs and being able to look out quite far over the ocean.
The hostel in Apollo Bay is the nicest yet. They have two good sized rooms with couches, and even put a fire on in the evening. I played a good game of Scrabble and a couple of games of asshole with some fellow travelers. I'm booked in here for another 9 days, and may extend that to catch up on business.

Melbourne

Melbourne was somehow not so exciting - perhaps not the best idea to go directly from one city to another. But I did entertain myself somewhat in the time I was there. The coolest thing was probably the "Human Bodies" exhibit, which shows bodies (human and animal) preserved by plastination. It was not as extensive as the one I saw in Toronto a few years ago, but I've been waiting to see this again so that was sweet. The best exhibit was a person where they removed everything but the blood vessels. They put the material they use (not sure what it is) into the blood vessels, then use acid to remove everything else. So you're left with this red network of veins and arteries, in exactly the same places in space as they were in when the person was alive. No pictures allowed though. :(
The visit to the Melbourne Aquarium was kinda cool, but the place was chock full of loud kids! Made me really look forward to diving and seeing some of these animals in nature. That being said, they had baby hammerhead sharks, stingrays, a sword shark,and many many other fish. One of the most fascinating things was the octopus. It "breathed" by opening a pouch by it's head to gather water, they closing it with a sort of sliding flap and pushing the water out through a nozzle. Kept doing this the whole time, nice and slowly. Deep breaths...
Down by the waterfront I found this strange really tall structure that seemed to serve no purpose. Turns out it's a huge Ferris Wheel, but without the wheel. Built in 2008, but they found cracks in parts of the wheel in 2009 and took the wheel down to repair it. Repairs are expected to take a year or so, under warranty! I guess each of these machines is unique, so you can't just go to the parts warehouse.
Probably the best thing in Melbourne was the market. I would say some 20 counters with meat along, another 10 or so with seafood, masses of vegetables and fruit. I bought some Kangaroo meat which made a great stir fry. Unlike beef, this stuff was so lean that it totally soaked up the soy sauce and olive oil I marinated it in. I also found some "Bio-dynamic free range eggs" for $10.90 a dozen. Note that Australian and Canadian dollars are about par... What the hell is "bio-dynamic"???
While in Melbourne I also went to see Lindsay. The similarity to Chris when it comes to posture, the overall physical appearance, and general way of moving and such is striking. But of course once I talked to him the personality was quite different. Same thing with Adam (an Aspergers/autistic fellow of about 18 who is staying there as well) - he sits in chairs and moves very much like Simon. Fascinating how mental and physical traits are so related.
Spent a bit of time hanging out with Katharina, whom I originally wanted to tour the Melbourne area a bit. (email mishaps prevented this). Really sweet girl, she's back in Germany now. Homesick and probably missing her boyfriend, she actually changed her flight to leave 5 days earlier (out of a 3 week trip). She had suggested taking the train to Melbourne, which is pretty sweet because otherwise I wouldn't be in Apollo Bay today.
Last night I actually had a guy called Malte staying in the same room. And I've heard my name a bunch of times when someone else was meant. So many Germans here, I can't go a day without meeting at least one and most times it seems like over half of the people in the hostel are German.
That's all on Melbourne - time to go to the Sea!
Penguins!:

 There's a fish right in the middle of the picture:

 Sea dragons?:

 Swordfish:

 Octopus - the sack fills with water on each breath, which is then squeezed out through a tube:

 A cool building - part of the Melbourne University:

 Bangers and mash - looked better than it tasted, but still:

 This whole corridor is meat, all the way to the end:

 Ground beef...:

 The old central station, still used as a train station:

 Long way down (taken from the bus):

Night Train

I'm currently on the night train to Melbourne - since I'm skipping a night at the hostel it's not costing me much, the ticket is only 69 dollars and the hostel was $40. From now on I'll only be paying $27/night for the hostel since I bought a 15-night package. Only downside is that limits me to 3 nights stay in a row.
Australian habit Canada should adopt: Posting prices with tax included. I love it. The label says $69, I pay $69, not $69 times 1.15 for HST. The tax is still printed on the receipt, so it's not like you don't know how much tax you are paying.
Canadian habit Australians should adopt: Separate the compostables from the trash. Seriously, do you have any idea what all that food mixed in with garbage produces in the way of toxic seepage? I cringe every time I through food waste in the garbage here, but no other choice.
Not rocket science people, figure it out and do it!
Today I didn't do a lot - laundry, computer stuff, and walked around downtown Sydney. I was looking to buy a pair of shorts. So I go into a mall which is below some skyscraper, and come out an hour or 2 later and a long ways away. There are signs in the mall directing you to where the next mall is, all underground. You don't even notice when you are walking along the street. Oh, and multi-level (6 levels in the one I was in) parking garages underneath the skyscrapers. Makes sense.
Sign for a family bathroom (i.e. bathroom where parents can take their very young children): "Parents Room" - underneath in slightly smaller print: "Fathers Welcome". Yay, men can now be parents too!
We must be out of the city, the train is picking up speed. Time for a bit of work before the battery runs out.

A day with the locals

I spent the 10th with Genista and Doug, a lovely couple with whom Laila put me in touch. Really cool people. They took me out to a fantastic lunch and then showed me around some of the touristy and some of the non-touristy parts of the city. Got to see a water dragon (a lizard, bout a foot long). You can apparently tame them with food and patience. The shoreline at the park we went to was rocky, and really neat because the stone was really full of old shells which were now being washed out again as the stone was being eroded. So the same stone was here long, long ago on a shoreline, and is now getting eroded on a shoreline again!
The candle factory was closed but I saw some neat candles through the window.

Tomorrow I am working, then taking a night train to Melbourne. Impulse decision on Melbourne - I want to join a fellow traveler on her travels for a couple of days, and she went down there last night. I love not planning more than a couple of days in advance. May end up renting a car and seeing some country for a change, hopefully more beaches.

Opera House and Royal Botanical Gardens

Today I started with some computer time, then took a free bus to Circular Quay and walked from there to the Sydney Opera House. It is way, way more impressive up close than on the typical pictures. From there I spent about 2 or so hours walking through the Royal Botanical Gardens. Absolutely fantastic - crazy trees, a separate garden with succulents (cacti...), a rose garden, and a large fancy-shaped greenhouse housing rainforest flora. I was still tired from yesterday so I did not get to explore every nook and cranny. Apparently I missed some bats which spend the day hanging from the trees. I'm sure I missed much more - the gardens are gigantic. There were stands of bamboo, really dense you would not be able to crawl, never mind walk or squeeze your way through a stand of these. Huge trees, I think they were fig trees, which normally sprout on top of other trees and drop roots to the ground. One tree will take up as much ground space as several normal sized houses.
I also looked at Government House - the governor no longer lives there but it is used for official functions all the time. The old British architecture is amazing, can only imagine what it would have been like to live in a place like that. Lots of stone and fancy detailing.

Made myself a salad and smoke sea trout supper, and ended up having a lovely chat with a girl from Germany. Too bad she leaves tomorrow. I may also have found at least one person with whom to share a car for a couple of days to go explore the Blue Mountains. No touristy bus tours for me, if I can avoid it!
Yay - Pictures!
Fathers Welcome:

Unfortunately I am not posting pictures today. I only have internet through the phone, so posting them takes a long time and chews up data credits. I will see about posting a bunch when I get some fast internet which is not billed by the MB.