Sunday we woke up and packed as much of our crap as we could manage. The rest of it we just threw into the back of the car - which now more closely resembled a dump. We had to check out by 10am; we handed our key over to the X-Base desk chicks and left our building with the bright-red-facade. We walked a few hundred metres down the road and found the Hotel Esplanade, which was apparently very famous. We ordered brekkie (huge meals!) and met up with Pix, my sister. Together we wandered the Esplanade markets. They were a little more expensive than our tight budget allowed for, but i scored an awesome photograph by some famous guy, and a ring for $2.50. Then we turned onto Ackland street, where there were heaps of funky little shops with cool clothes and random things in them. I scored a demin vest on sale, an Edward Monkton book, a decorative egg for nan (standard - i get her one everytime i go away). Woo!!
We went back for Thomas and followed Pix back to her place. We were crashing there for the night, seeing as our hostel was fully booked. Her house was really cute, a little cottage that she shared with her boyfriend. It took about four trips to empty the car - the guest room was nearly overflowing with all our crap...
...Too stuffed to deal with it all, we took Thomas and found the ScienceWorks (equivalent to the awesome Investigator Science Centre in Adelaide that was closed down). We spent a few hours playing in the giant kitchen, mucking around with fossils, and hitting the Planetarium. The Planetarium was awesome! We were in chairs that reclined fully under the domed ceiling, and we spent forty minutes watching a Harrison Ford (voice over) doco about life on other planets, and had all of the constellations pointed out to us on a beautiful image of the sparkly sky. It was just like being outside in the country!
It took us an hour to make the fifteen minute journey home, after filling up the car yet again. Somehow we got totallylost and did a loop of the entire city, past Flemmington racetrack and detouring past any toll gates. Heaps of streets were blocked off in the city because of a gay parade, so that complicated things further. We were off our map and really had no idea where we were... and then we were running out of petrol. Finally, with me in an absolute panic about running out of petrol, we found a little station. WOO!! And then we made it home in one piece.
Pix and her boyfriend cooked us hamburgers for tea, and then we girls watched So You Think You Can Dance. Pix is totally addicted... now i am too. Then we watched Election, a very creepy and bizzare Reece Witherspoon/Matthew Broderick movie. It was a little too sex-sex-sex for me, but whatever. We gave up on packing that night...
...and woke up to the pigsty in the morning. It took an hour or so to pack as much as possible away. We ended up only needing to leave a few things behind, which was awesome. Then we tried to take the car to she shops... but it wouldn't even turn over. Apparently it was well and truly dead. R.I.P. Thomas. So we caught the trams down to Ackland street again. I wanted to look at some of the things i'd seen yesterday because i'd really liked them, and they'd past the 24hr 'i still want that' test. Unfortunately, the prices were too high, so i went into Sportsgirl and found a knock off for a third the price. We'd caught all our trams that day without paying - until the last one, where there were condutors on the train! The man got really mad at us, going all agro, disbelieving us when we said we'd just climbed on. Another passenger stuck up for us, and he let us get our tickets. Really, his in-your-face attitude pissed me off. There was no way that he could have known that we'd not planned to pay!!
When we got back, we cooked pancakes and toast (we're so domestic) and the taxi arrived. $75 later, we were at the airport. We wrangled our four massive bags into check in, bought Hungry Jacks, read mags and nearly missed our flight. It went so quickly - mum met us at the other end.
As we drove out of the airport to drop Loz home, with our massive bags squeezed in, it really was the end of our adventure. And it most definately was an adventure! We'd travelled over 1200kms in seven days, killed darling Thomas, bought great things and flown home again. It was sad that our adventure had ended... and we were back in 46 degree weather again (it had cooled slightly in Melb)!! Still. We'd completed the Great Australian Road-Trip.
I think we have the right to call ourselves true-blue Aussies now!
We went back for Thomas and followed Pix back to her place. We were crashing there for the night, seeing as our hostel was fully booked. Her house was really cute, a little cottage that she shared with her boyfriend. It took about four trips to empty the car - the guest room was nearly overflowing with all our crap...
...Too stuffed to deal with it all, we took Thomas and found the ScienceWorks (equivalent to the awesome Investigator Science Centre in Adelaide that was closed down). We spent a few hours playing in the giant kitchen, mucking around with fossils, and hitting the Planetarium. The Planetarium was awesome! We were in chairs that reclined fully under the domed ceiling, and we spent forty minutes watching a Harrison Ford (voice over) doco about life on other planets, and had all of the constellations pointed out to us on a beautiful image of the sparkly sky. It was just like being outside in the country!
It took us an hour to make the fifteen minute journey home, after filling up the car yet again. Somehow we got totallylost and did a loop of the entire city, past Flemmington racetrack and detouring past any toll gates. Heaps of streets were blocked off in the city because of a gay parade, so that complicated things further. We were off our map and really had no idea where we were... and then we were running out of petrol. Finally, with me in an absolute panic about running out of petrol, we found a little station. WOO!! And then we made it home in one piece.
Pix and her boyfriend cooked us hamburgers for tea, and then we girls watched So You Think You Can Dance. Pix is totally addicted... now i am too. Then we watched Election, a very creepy and bizzare Reece Witherspoon/Matthew Broderick movie. It was a little too sex-sex-sex for me, but whatever. We gave up on packing that night...
...and woke up to the pigsty in the morning. It took an hour or so to pack as much as possible away. We ended up only needing to leave a few things behind, which was awesome. Then we tried to take the car to she shops... but it wouldn't even turn over. Apparently it was well and truly dead. R.I.P. Thomas. So we caught the trams down to Ackland street again. I wanted to look at some of the things i'd seen yesterday because i'd really liked them, and they'd past the 24hr 'i still want that' test. Unfortunately, the prices were too high, so i went into Sportsgirl and found a knock off for a third the price. We'd caught all our trams that day without paying - until the last one, where there were condutors on the train! The man got really mad at us, going all agro, disbelieving us when we said we'd just climbed on. Another passenger stuck up for us, and he let us get our tickets. Really, his in-your-face attitude pissed me off. There was no way that he could have known that we'd not planned to pay!!
When we got back, we cooked pancakes and toast (we're so domestic) and the taxi arrived. $75 later, we were at the airport. We wrangled our four massive bags into check in, bought Hungry Jacks, read mags and nearly missed our flight. It went so quickly - mum met us at the other end.
As we drove out of the airport to drop Loz home, with our massive bags squeezed in, it really was the end of our adventure. And it most definately was an adventure! We'd travelled over 1200kms in seven days, killed darling Thomas, bought great things and flown home again. It was sad that our adventure had ended... and we were back in 46 degree weather again (it had cooled slightly in Melb)!! Still. We'd completed the Great Australian Road-Trip.
I think we have the right to call ourselves true-blue Aussies now!
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