Travels

Avalon is a far away place

Days 16-17

Melbourne

Saturday, October 15^th-16th

I last left off on my last afternoon in Melbourne. My last night was spent eating a curry dinner and drinking wine with Bernard, Aaron (my hosts), and an English couchsurfer named Felix.  After eating, we went to a gay bar party and met up with some of their friends for an hour or so.  The club played good music and it was good people watching.  We arrived home around 1am and had homemade pizza while waiting for the time to pass for me to head to the bus station for a 4am bus. See, it turns out that there is more than one airport that flies to Melbourne. I, of course, chose the one that is over an hour away so I had to take a 2am cab to catch a 4 am bus to a 6 am flight—oh the joys! Lesson learned.  Fly to Melbourne’s T-named airport (it’s a weird name I can’t think of right now but it starts with a T) and not Avalon!

It turned out okay though because I met some nice people in the bus station, including an Italian guy so I got to practice some Italian a bit (me listening, can’t speak it …yet).  Bus ride and flight were pretty uneventful, although it was storming in Sydney when we arrived so we had to circle in the air for about 45 minutes before landing.

I hung out in the airport a bit for some Wifi where I discovered my train reservation online for that afternoon said “this reservation is expired” which sent me into a slight panic in which I had to ask the train people to borrow their phone, which lead me nowhere and had to make my way to the train station to ask in person.  Turned out okay so I and then made my way back to see Rach for a few hours (helped her make dessert for a bday party that night) before heading back to the train station to catch a train to Broken Hill.

Train Ride to Broken Hill

Saturday-Sunday,October 15-16th

Trains are AWESOME! Thomas and his friends can be my friends anyday! The train was delayed an hour and a half or so to get started but it was a nice night and I made friends with 2 old ladies taking the train too.  They had been neighbors years ago and were travel buddies ever since….reminded me of one of my besties (can you guess who?!!)  Unfortunately, I didn’t get to sit near them on the train since they were in the “Gold Car” and I was herded into the “Red Car.” 

I liked my red car folk though and made friends with a Canadian guy, Corey, his aboriginal lady seat mate, and a father-daughter pair headed to on their 5^th cross-country train ride.  The time on the train passed quickly after dinner in the dining car (I watched Corey eat a nice lentil curry dish while I ate my PBH sandwich).  The seats are SO spacious and I was able to lay, comfortably, on the floor and sleep well (ipod on high to tune out the snoring man behind me—it was both annoying and comforting since it reminded me of my lovely, louder-than-life-snorer father).

In the morning, I saw a nice sunrise, spotted kangaroos, and passed the time playing checkers and connect four and eating breakfast (I did splurge for a bowl of cereal this time).

We finally arrived in Broken Hill the next morning, 3 hours later than scheduled (lost time b/c of track work), which turned out to be a good thing since I arrived at my host family’s house at 9:30 am and they were just awakening and I was set to arrive at 6 am which would have been a not-so-pleasant awakening I’m sure!