Australia 2004 Trip

Well, after such a great time was had in 2003 in Australia, Claudia and Steve couldn't pass up a second trip to the golden continent.  Steve had a paid trip to Perth for the 6th International Large Branchiopod Symposium.  Claudia and Steve were able to convince Steve's Mom and her husband to take care of Sophie and Sarah for THREE weeks while the two of them headed down under. 

The beginning of the trip Claudia and Steve stayed with an old friend of Claudia's, Gian Garambone, who had migrated to Melbourne a few years back.  Gian was staying at a friends house (Fig. 1) while she was out, and thus there was a good deal of space that Claudia and Steve could occupy. 

Fig. 1 – Gian cooking in the Melbourne house.  Note the prominent VB bottle (Victoria Bitter, the REAL beer drank "down under," not that mamby-pamby Fosters!)

The day after we arrived, we took a trip into Melbourne to check out the city.  The city was gorgeous (Figs. 2-4)!  We hung out and drank good coffee and took in a couple of museums and did some shopping. 

Fig. 2 – Train station in downtown Mebourne

  

Fig. 3 - The Yarra River in Melbourne.

Fig. 4 – Cool architecture in downtown Melbourne

After doing the downtown thing, Gian took us to shop in an open air market area of Melbourne.  It was GREAT!  You could by any food item fresh (Fig. 5) and the prices were quite good for a major metropolitan area.

Fig. 5 - Steve checking out the produce at the Melbourne open air market

One of the more bizarre moments of the trip was when Gian, Steve and Claudia were on the trolley car going from the open air market to the meat market and Gian said he was getting off and wouuld "meet us at the meat market"!  Steve and Claudia were of course a bit freaked out about being left alone in a big city, but managed to find the meat market and then spent a surrealistic hour cruising up and down the aisles checking out decapitated pigs (Fig. 6) and all varieties of seafood (Fig. 7).  We finally met up again with Gian and then headed off to the harbor.

Fig. 6 - Pigs' heads and hanging meat in one off the open air stalls at the Melbourne meat market

Fig. 7 - Squid, octopus, shrimp, and blue crabs at the Melbourne meat market

We went off to eat next to the boat dock near Melbourne (Fig. 8).  Gian had packed a scrumptious lunch and we sat behind the wave breaks having a gourmet meal.  Someone came by and told us to peer in between the rocks and we might see wild penguins!  In fact, he was spot on, we saw one only a few minutes later (Fig. 9) just hanging out between the rocks and trying to stay warm!

Fig. 8 – The boat docks near Melbourne

Fig. 9 – A wild penguin hanging out between the rocks

We hung out for a couple of days, but then we headed off to the Great Barrier Reef which was located near:

Cairns

Last updated: 12-26-04

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