Hitting The Road

January 5, 2002-Waiting
(photos: Melbounre, Cook's Cottage, Tram)

We just finished packing for Melbourne & Tasie & we didn't kill each other. You'd think that after all our travels we'd be pros. The problem is the weather there is cold. We need sweatshirts, winter jackets, etc. I was determined to get into one suitcase so we skimped on clothes. After all, they won't show under all the layering.

We’re at the airport now. Our flight was delayed three hours. There was mechanical trouble in Darwin, so here we wait. It’s ironic. We called to verify the departure time yesterday. There was a discrepancy between our itinerary & our E-tickets. When David spoke to the Qantas people, they took our phone number just in case. Well, the computer at the airport said they tried to call us today. I don’t know whose phone number they called, but the one on the computer screen wasn’t ours. It wasn’t remotely close to either our home or cell phone number. Since we were transported by airport limo, I don’t know if we could have made other arrangements anyway. Qantas treated us to $A 7.50 each of goodies at the snack bar & we also get to eat dinner on the flight at about 8:30PM. That means we get into our Melbourne hotel at around 12:30AM. Yippee! We have an 8AM tour tomorrow. This is one of my favorite parts of travel….exhaustion. At least I can nap on the tour bus. David will fill me in. I have plenty of time to read up on Melbourne. I think that’s what I’ll do now.

Fire In The Hold

We’re now in the air but five hours late. We can look forward to getting to the hotel at about 2AM. The plane that was supposed to be ours landed in Brisbane with an engine in flames. I guess the engine they replaced in Darwin wasn’t really an improvement over the old one. David saw it all & said that it was quite spectacular. By the time the fire engines met it the engine had been turned off & the plane was sitting out on the runway. They checked it over then it pulled into our gate under its own power. They got the passengers off quickly. I’ve never seen such a happy bunch of folks deplane before. We gave them a round of applause. Those waiting to board started conjecturing that we would soon be the guests of Qantas at a Brisbane hotel. But Qantas had other thoughts. I’m sure they didn’t want to pay a hotel bill for however many passengers a 767 holds. The crew from that flight had to do all the paperwork that follows a near disaster & then get on the replacement plane & continue on to Melbourne. That must be a bit like getting back on a horse when you fall off.

Daniel & Wendy will appreciate this. We got kind of friendly with a young couple who had two sons aged 6 & 7. After waiting together for five hours, we had a “relationship.” I told the boys how my kids entertained themselves while waiting at airports. They check ed the coin returns on the pay phones. The little guys went right to it & were rewarded on the first try. They’re hooked now. I’ll put this away now & get ready to eat my midnight snack. Yum!

January 7, 2002-Playing Catch-Up

I felt as if I have been out of touch with you all forever. I’ll try to catch you up in chronological, if not logical, order. David is feeling fine now. He decided to take the antibiotics even though we found out that the doctor we went to is only a GP. Here, the “kids” go to med school right out of high school & are general practitioners at age 23. It takes a residency of about 2-3 years more for someone to get an MD (medical doctor) degree. This is really the old system at work. If you see a specialist, you’re really sick.

We figured out that the flight to Melbourne was our 21st since leaving home & we have had no real delays or glitches until now. I guess it was time. We didn’t get to bed until 3:30AM that night. Needless to say, we were trashed the next day. Our hotel was not as bad as Alice Springs, but it wasn’t up to snuff. I didn’t mind the smallness of the room, but David literally couldn’t get around the chair at his side of the bed. The bathroom was the real problem for me. There was stubble in the sink from the beard of the previous occupant. At that hour, I didn’t want to start with complaints. I just rinsed it off. The next day, things were better. When we got back to the room at the end of the day at least it was David’s stubble in the sink.

At 8AM the next morning, we were at the tour office & got on the bus for a ½ day tour. We were surprised at the prediction for 37 degrees (98.6 F), but brought long & short-sleeved shirts & jackets on the bus with us. We had hats, umbrellas, & sunscreen too. They say Melbourne can have four seasons in one day. They were right. Now it’s 9 Celsius. That’s about 50 F. I did manage to nap on the bus & only missed the drive through one suburb while I slept. It was the Jewish area. We ended up going to it later that afternoon.

The first thing we learned was that Melbourne is 20% parkland. The second thing we learned was how to do a maneuver called a “hook turn.” Trams are a venerated & preferred means of transportation in the city. They always have the right of way. Picture this, if you can. Cars drive on the left side of the road. Trams have the run of the middle. To make a right turn, the car has to be in the far left lane (even if there are multiple lanes), pull into the intersection when the light is green, & turn right as soon as the light turns red. This means crossing a lane of traffic going in the same direction that has, hopefully, stopped. It also means crossing a double set of tram tracks & on-coming traffic. David watched the bus driver very closely. It paid off. When we picked up our rental car today, he had to execute no less than two of the hook turns to get out of town.

Learning Melbourne

One of our first stops was at the reassembled cottage of Captain Cook. It’s in the Fitzroy Gardens &, although it was built in 1755, it reminded me of a house I sold on Yellow Creek Rd. in Bath, Ohio. That house was built in the 1850s. Cook's house was shipped from England & re-built, so the floors of the cottage were much more level than the house I sold.

As we strolled through the park we heard the call of bellbirds. At first I thought it was a bicycle bell & kept looking for the bike. It’s uncanny. These birds are aptly named. As we made our way through the clouds of gnats, I realized I didn’t like Melbourne as well as Sydney. It seemed a bit skuzzy & the toilets were certainly not up to the standards of the rest of the country. There was more litter & I even saw dog poop on the grass. That’s most unusual here. Pet owners are usually scrupulous.

We cruised past the Yarra River, historic buildings, churches, & neighborhoods trying to inhale all the new information. At the end of the morning, we had to decide whether or not to go back to the hotel for a nap or carry on. We made the wrong decision. St. Kilda, the Jewish area, also happens to have a popular beach, so we got on a SRO tram full of scantily clad teen-agers. The temperature inside the un-air conditioned tram must have been over 100. We were really dragging, but we had a quest. David had a yen for a corned beef sandwich. He’d also heard the name of Glick’s, a bagel bakery. We couldn’t turn back. St. Kilda turned out to be an area trying to undergo re-gentrification. At night, it was a red light district. The Jewish population had moved out to the “burbs” & we really wanted to be in Balaclava. No worries. It was a short tram ride away.

As we made our way to the tram stop, we passed a used furniture store. In the window was a huge molded plastic desk organizer hung on the wall. I’ve been looking for one like it for at least 25 years. Now, 25 years later, I had a second chance. There were two in the shop. One was orange & the other was gold. I was out of luck again, but, to my delight, the shop owner said an Italian company had actually started making them. They only cost 225 English pounds. What a bargain. I guess I’m destined not to own one.

Pushing On

Balaclava was just what David was looking for. We found the bakery & bought bagels only to see Glick’s on the next street. We bought more bagels there. It looked as if corned beef was out of the question. We enquired at Burger Shack, a kosher restaurant, & were told that the butcher was closed for summer vacation, so no one had corned beef. We settled for a kosher hot dog at Kosher Express. We were surrounded by Hasidim (ultra-orthodox Jews) so David put on his kippah (head covering). It went well with my t-shirt from Egypt. As for the hot dog, it should be ashamed of itself for misrepresentation.

We got directions to the Jewish Museum & decided that it didn’t sound like a long walk. It turned out to be over a mile. When we got there, the docents were very solicitous. Although we had drinks with us, they offered us cold water. They asked us to sit down & rest before seeing the museum & acted like all around Jewish mothers. I didn’t realize how bad we looked until I went to the ladies room & looked in the mirror. I was bright red from the neck up. It wasn’t from the sun. It was the heat. We did take time to cool off & rest in the air-conditioning. Here we were in the Jewish Museum in Melbourne, Australia, & we were talking to a docent from New Orleans, LA. Her father was an orthodox rabbi there. We’d gone to Tulane University in New Orleans & knew some of the same people.

The museum is extremely well done. The section that interested us was on the Jewish experience in Australia. The most fascinating bit was about Esther Abrahams who was one of twelve Jews to come over in 1788 with the first fleet of convicts. She was 16 years old & pregnant. She’d been convicted of stealing a bolt of lace. On the transport ship, she & Lt. Johnson struck up a romance. They ultimately had seven children & he became Lt. Governor of New South Wales for a short time. After 25 years, they decided to marry. Another display was about social welfare. There were several letters asking for matzo (unleavened bread) for use during Pesach (Passover) for individuals & for the “gaol.”

Toby