Pimp my economy class rental car
Trip Start
Feb 13, 2010
1
11
55
Trip End
Aug 15, 2010
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Upon landing in Melbourne we struggled around like lost souls, trying to find the cheapest way to get to Lois' house (Tom's sister). After encountering rude and unhelpful Auzzies, i once more demanded (pleaded with a man) to tell us what to do. An hour later we pull up at Lois' house.
Our body clocks were completely out of synch and we both dozed off. a few hours later, showered and refreshed we set out to discover the sights and sounds of Melbourne. We got as far as the park at the end of the road. We both felt very uneasy in our surroundings - the tranquility, the cleanliness, the road markings and the obvious high level of wealth in the area all made us feel like aliens after coming from the chaos of India. Mike observed that it felt like we were in our own version of the Truman Show. We retreated to Lois' to wait for her to get back from work!
That night was very warm and we decided to open our window, a seemingly innocent and harmess activity. Not so, however, when Lois had told us that under no circumstances should their house cat 'Mylo' be allowed outside...
In the morning we awoke to the sound of Mylo outside our bedroom door. We casually opened it and wandered off in search of showers and food. a couple of hours passed by uneventfully, all the while us both wondering where Mylo had got to. It didn't take long to realize he had escaped through our window.
I ran into the bathroon to tell Mike the news. We donned our search outfits and set off, terrified that we had lost or worse, killed, their beloved cat. 20 minutes later and the cat was found, a mere few centimetres from the front door. panic over, we set about our day.
We visited Federation Square, the CBD and china town... all as fashion conscious and wealthy as the other. On the advice of Lois and her housemate Meriel we also organised renting a car for the next few days so we could drive the Great Ocean Road.
In the mean time we roamed the streets of Fitzroy (like the Northern Quarter) and went to St Kilda (a beach town) both were great but we were having trouble getting used to the cost of everything.
The Great Ocean Road is a famous coastal drive that hugs the southern shore of Australia - A great way to celebrate Michaels 22nd birthday. We climbed into our white hyundi getz, armed with a map and a tent and set off on our way.
The sights of the Great Ocean Road are incredible, each turn offers a new landsape. We stopped in Lorne, lunched at Apollo Bay, did the Mariners Falls walk and enjoyed delicious fish and chips for supper. That night we camped in Blanket bay, and awoke with stiff backs and tired eyes.
No rest for the wicked and we drove on to the 12 apostles - massive statues of rock that have been erroded from the cliff face over time. 9 only stand today however, soon to be 8 - the cliffs are erroded at a rate of 2cm per year.
We drove up to Stevenson's Falls which was to be our camp site for the night. Here we saw our first kangaroos and koala bears in the wild which was fairly incredible.
Awake at 6am the next day, we packed away our tent in the pitch black and set off through otways national park back to Melbourne. Later that day it was back to the airport and up the coast to Sydney.
