Day 1 -
We made it safe and sound. The plane trip was long, but not as bad as I had imagined. Unfortunately, I was made to believe that we would have two seats together on either the left or right side of the plane, but somehow my travel specialist with Quantas put us in the middle of the plane where there are 4 seats! UGH, horrible! But the food was good and there was plenty of entertainment to keep us occupied. We got up and walked around the plane a bunch of times, and it seemed like every time either of us needed to head off to the restroom, the plane would experience turbulence. Seriously, that is the only time we really experienced any kind of bouncing. LOL.
When we arrived, we went thru immigration and I received my FIRST stamp in my passport! Exciting! Then.....CUSTOMS....UGH!!! It took forever! Long long long lines and sifting thru all belongings. Luckily, because we declared quite a bit of stuff, they didn't really search our things. Or perhaps we looked so innocent? :o)
We walked across from the terminal to the rental car
 Car license plate. |
 Driving on the left side of the road. |
So McDonald's was connected to a little convenience store/gas station and we wandered over there instead and found our first Aussie food! Ken had his first meat-pie and I had a veggie/cheese roll. He said his was delicious (I took his word for it), mine was good, but dry. We grabbed some drinks and we were off again.
Now the GPS was taking us turn by turn through the city of Melbourne. I think I gave Ken 3 or 4 heart attacks in a row because driving from the right side of the car throws off your depth perception AND you still think you need to keep the line to your right. Needless to say I came within inches (or was in centimeters) of taking out a car, a light post, and the curb. I think what adds to the difficulty is the fact the cars are coming at you on the right side. No medians, I mean they are right next to you. Oh and lest we forget the REALLY scary part of Melbourne....THE TRAMS! Hello? These flippin things come out of no where!!!! And they drive towards you in your lane, and then you have to TRY and make your way over into the ONLY car lane and NO One wants to let you in.... Good Grief!!! That took my breath away.
When we finally arrived our destination almost 2 hours later, I realized I set the GPS to avoid tolls, and that's why we were taken thru the city, thru the lights, with the trams. Oh and I did I tell you, the entire state is made up of Roundabouts. I HATE roundabouts!!! So you got roundabouts, yellow (not green) traffic lights, turns from left lanes into left lanes, and trams everywhere. Um, I do NOT want to go back there.
Mornington Peninsula is BEAUTIFUL and our townhouse at the resort is HUGE and comfortable. Its not to crazy with traffic and there are many ocean side shops and such to explore..
Oh and I have found THE most delicious candy called Cherry Ripe! I'm addicted! Dark chocolate, coconut, and cherry. Like a Mounds bar with cherry! Why in the world don't we have this in the US? Ken tried his first Turkish Delight and he liked it. I didn't care for it. Oh and Ken is completely addicted to "Gingerbeer". He tried it on the plane and immediately purchased a big bottle of it when we got here. I think its like sasparillo. Its not an alcoholic beer; more like a rootbeer type of thing.
We found our way to grocery store and had a hard time explaining hotdogs and buns to one of the men working there. I really didn't think hotdogs were a U.S. thing. So either this guy was clueless, or we have a lot of learning to do here.
I ended up buying some spinach/ricotta pasta and sauce, and garlic bread; that was our first dinner here. And then we went to sleep. I think it was at 7pm or close to it. We really didn't feel jet-lagged at all. So I think we must have done something right. We tried to stay awake for the first leg of the flight like my co-worker Kim told me to do, so I think that must have really helped. ;O)
More tomorrow. G'day.
