Australia Melbourne (Victoria) July 9 - 20

We finally pried ourselves away from New Zealand. Melbourne is a very beautiful and cosmopolitan city. We spent our first day just walking around. A stroll along Acland Street will take you by some wonderful bakeries...many of which are Hungarian. They have beautiful looking cakes and pastries. There are also some great restaurants. More times than not, you will find us eating somewhere on Acland Street.

In the downtown area, there's an interesting mix of architecture...from modern skyscrapers to cathedral churches and old, gothic buildings. The Yarra River seems to divide the city. Along the wharf, there are several cafes, restaurants, and funky shops. I found a really cool bath store called Lush. The products look good enough to eat! We walked through the beautiful Fitzroy Gardens...and found the "Fairies Tree". There is also a China Town.

If you're a food lover (I definitely am), Melbourne is for YOU! There are many Greek, Italian, Asian, and Hungarian immigrants ...you can really see this in the restaurants and food markets. I spent a morning at the Queen Victoria Market...here, you can find just about anything! My favorite parts of the market were the produce and meat sections. They had the most gorgeous foods ...figs stuffed with marscapone cheese, marinated olives, stuffed olives, wild mushrooms, quality proscuitto, crusty breads, and meat, meat, meat!!! I hope these photos give you a taste of what the market was like...it's just too difficult to capture the flavor in photos. As you walk around, you can hear people speaking Italian, Greek, Hindi, Chinese, and even English!

We walked around the downtown and along the river at night... the buildings were lighted and there were "fireball" pyrotechnic shows and entertaining water "fountains". It was almost like a mini-las vegas along the river.

We rented a car (well, a half-car really) and spent 2 days driving along the Great Ocean Road. The drive was along a windy coastal road with stunning views. It really hit me that we were in Australia when we saw our first Kangaroos hopping around on a golf course in Anglesea! They were really cute and I enjoyed watching them. As cute as they were, I will confess, I ate Kangaroo for dinner that night ...and it was delicious! It's a very lean red meat (low in cholesterol too).

We checked out a small area near Kennett River - because we heard koalas were easy to spot there. We drove about 1.5 km into a forest, got out of the car, and looked up. There they were...in the trees! They were pretty high up in the eucalyptus trees. We had the incredible fortune of finding one close to the ground... we got so close, we could just about see his fleas! He made a great photo subject ...hardly moved at all (not too surprising for a Koala wacked out on eucalyptus leaves).

We also fed some wild parrots in Kennett River. We've never seen birds like these in the wild. They were very colorful!

We got a good tip from another backpacker (actually, we met Tony in New Zealand but bumped into each other again here in Australia) and stayed at Angela's Guesthouse in Apollo Bay. We had a fantastic double room with a balcony for only $50.00 Aus. , and a hearty breakfast for 2 was only $15.00 Aus more.

The next day, we completed our Great Ocean Road trip by visiting the famous 12 Apostles. The 12 Apostles are large rock formations in the water along the coast. They are very impressive rocks! We also saw a southern right whale ...they're migrating at the moment. They're much larger than the grey whales we see in California. Just a few kilometers up the road is Loch Ard. This area has a beautiful rock arch, blow hole, and awesome views. It was a pleasant drive with lots of scenic areas along the way. Two thumbs up!!