Melbourne

Melbourne is the first city on this trip that I've found myself repeatedly saying, "I could live here! I could SERIOUSLY live here!" It is a good medium size city that is zig-zagged with trolly lines. It has a decent beach, an awesome china town and the victoria markets. We were suggested to check out the victoria markets up on arriving at the YHA and I couldn't have been more impressed. They are like many other markets around the world but they happen to be very authentic feeling and in a major metropolitan western city. Its a big outdoor marketspace smack dab in the middle of the city. We're talking the size of a state fair ground - yup think sandwich fairgrounds but EVERY WEEK!!! They had every kind of food you could ever want!! Indian, Vietnamese, Nepalese, French, Spanish, BBQ, Pizza, fresh squeezed lemonade, sangria, livestock, tourist trap crap… EVERYTHING a young man could possibly want. I of course opted for the indian food and dug deep into some butter chicken. It was as good as tandoori palace next to Uni x 10!! Paul hit up some european burrito looking things and we both plopped down to listen to the band playing.

The next day we walked around the city; hit china town and took a really nice free tour of the Victoria State Building. The state building was really interesting since I have some experience with working at the commonwealth of Massachusetts building and the Indiana State House. This building was built back in the mid 1800's and has seen three different governments!! THREE since its building! It had the commonwealth government from england, plus a stint as the new independent australian federal government and now the state of victoria government. It was really amazing how ornate the building was since it was built by knights of the templar?? The symbolism in the building was so amazing and every detail was taken to instill what I think of as "good governing vibes." Colors, symbols, statues, patterns - everything! Lots of acorns (I must look up what that means…)

That night paul and I set out on an epic quest to take on the Bogan Burger (pics on FB).

The following day was a well needed day of rest. That included sleeping. reading, watching a bit of TV and just walking around to take care of a few tasks (copies, printing travel docs, etc). We're still planning for our Western Australia tours and our Bali trip. We leave for Bali in 16 days! Woooo whooooo!!! Since it was the travel expo in Melbourne this past weekend Paul and I headed to the expo to see what deals they have for Thailand and Bali. It was strange to be back in a modern exposition center since I've spent so much time in them over the past four years with DuraSeal. I was strangely comfortable there… We chatted up a bunch of tour groups and in the end didn't make any decisions. It was good to gather more information of where to stay, what to do and how much to expect to pay. Always helpful information when you haven't been somewhere. Since it was also the Chinese new year we headed down to the festivities on the river to grab a bite on our way to the tomb of the unknown soldier.

The WWI and WWII memorial were really amazing in the gardens of Melbourne. This is the second war memorial we've been to in Australia and it was definitely the bigger one. Many people don't know that Australia is the ONLY country to go to every war we went to in the 1900's and 2000's. Yup they went to Korea and Vietnam too and YUP they're in Iraq and Afghanistan right now. Americans often look to the UK for their most true ally when in reality its the Aussies that have stuck by our side. Now to be honest it might be that they're a country in the pacific and have had a bit more at stake for Korea or Vietnam but none-the-less.

I've really been touched by their memorials to their fallen soldiers. I never really knew the pacific theater story as told by Australians. It isn't drastically different from the american side but it definitely has its own flavor. One thing I had no clue about was the fear Australia had during WWII from invasion by the Japanese. They were so close to the Japanese and subs were even spotted in Sydney Harbor! Also they had crazy POW action in south east asia. I had no idea how many Australia POWs there were until the American forces were able to end the war with the atomic bomb. American planes had to drop flyers in Japanese to all of the POW camps informing them the war had been over. The Australian soldiers coming out of the POW camps looked exactly like the Jews coming out of the gas camps in Europe. They were horribly mis-treated and malnutrition. Australians are very proud people and I really enjoy seeing their dedication to their military families. The interesting component to the Australian military is that it was tied to the Queen for so long so their insignia is still so brutally British. After finishing our tour of the WWI and WWII memorials Paul and I headed back to the YHA in Melbourne for one more night before we hopped our flight down to Tasmania.

Today we landed in Tasmania! One fun fact I learned today was if you flattened out all of the mountains in tasmania the land mass would be as large as all of Australia. To put that in perspective for the folks back home it would be as large as the USA! Paul and I have booked three day tours that depart from Hobart each day and return to hobart each day. Its nice to be back on a schedule with tours for a few days. We did however fit some time in today to hit up a wildlife sanctuary. This was high on my list as I hadn't see any Kangaroos yet and heard you could feed them at this sanctuary. The sanctuary takes in any hurt animals all over tasmania 24/7 and helps rehabilitate them and rerelease them into the wild. The tour was excellent with the lead animal worker taking us to see the famous Tasmania Devils. Back in the day the Tasmanian devil was all over Tassie and the mainland of Australia. Once their main source of food was destroyed by humans they started dwindling in population. They were thought to be wiped off the planet back in the 50's and 60's but came back strong in the 70's. Now they're going through another tough time as a cancerous virus keep spreading which causes tumors to grow on their faces and eventually keep them from having any eye-sight. Its a bit sad. Ultimately the facts I learned today were that they have the strongest jaws on the planet (five times the strength of an american pit-bull) but are not aggressive at all. They're actually total bottom feeders (looneytoons got it WAY wrong). They look like super mini-black bears and take the pickings of left over carcasses. The strong jaws are not for killing as they never attack they're for breaking down bones to help them digest them. We were able to pet a wombat, pet a Koala and feed a boat load of Kangaroos. I am not quite sure why but I seem to be obsessed with Kangaroos. I must have taken well over one hundred photos today of Kangaroos. They are so interesting to me since they are only native to Australia and its unique environment. Standing in the middle of a group of them today was a bit nerve-racking at first but worked out to be an amazing experience. They are quite loving and eat out of your hand like a horse would with a carrot. The lead animal care taker even told us to pet them on the neck and they'll start kicking like a dog. It worked too!! I have mixed feelings about interacting with animals in this way as it takes away from their natural instincts but in the end it felt good to be financially supporting a good animal rehab cause. The lead care-taker gets call phone calls at all hours of the night and actually responds to them to save hundreds of animals.

Thats all I have for now. I had Scallops tonight for dinner and was thankful to have good sea-food! I'll try to update after we get to Perth about the rest of my Tasmanian adventures.