Yeehaw, we're heading to the Outback

It feels like we've been in Melbourne for ages now, but today's only Friday and we got here Monday. So far, we haven't been doing a lot of sightseeing-- except brief rides on the "City Circle" tourist tram :) We've been fretting about work-- something brought on by our month of fun in Asia, and our hellhole of a hostel, which we chose because it's cheap, central, and it had free airport pickup. Adrian and I were reading reviews of it today (on our 4th day there) and had a good laugh. Funny the stuff that's not on the advertising... shower-peeping Japanese men, bedbugs, bad smells, flies in the "breakfast". Ew! (Paula, it's Europe all over again, but worse!)

But today we had a big weight taken off-- we found some work, yippee! Tomorrow we're heading out to a town called Echuca, north of Melbourne, along the Murray River. We'll be picking as many pears as possible for the next few weeks (or switching to another farm if this one sucks)... dreaming the whole time of (Adrian and I dream of these things in different order, of course): a snazzy apartment, a laptop, a cell phone (adrian says IPHONE!), and a campervan!!! (oh yeah, and new Converse shoes)
The town looks cute and quaint and apparently it's a weekend getaway for Melburnians. It's got paddleboats and red river gum trees, so I read, and now we're fantasizing about being "home on the range". (Well, actually, we stay at a hostel, and ship out each day to gather pears. We'll probably never want to see another pear again by the end of it. Oh well!)

In other news... We've been spending so far, a great deal of our time going library to library, using free internet, reading newspapers (I was reading about drivers in Shepparton- near Echuca- in fear of being overrun by kangaroos while on the road!), books, etc. It's sunny and hot here (end of summer), and Melbourne's streets are unbelievably clean and wide. Yesterday we bought some business clothes (future planning), at Target-- yes they have Target here! Otherwise, we've noticed the people in this city really seem to like designer clothes. Melbourne is full of super-modern architecture, which is cool-- colourful buildings, weird shapes, huge outdoor urban sculptures (like "Cow in a Tree", which is literally, a big old papier-mache-looking cow, upsdie down in a sculpture of a tree. We'll snap photos...). So, I'm reminded a little of Rotterdam, but then there's the odd palm tree, which makes it California perhaps? And the streets are a hilly grid, which is kinda like Vancouver. Maybe we should stop comparing.

Still, we giggle every time we encounter names like... Batman Park, Batman Road, etc. (So maybe John Batman was a settler... still funny) Good old Australia!
Today we're going to treat ourselves to a beer and some sightseeing, after we buy outback straw hats and open bank accounts, that is. We'll stop cheaping out soon and if we go to a real internet cafe, we can actually upload some photos!
Miss you all; we'll be in touch from our new frontier-town home. ;)
Love, D & A

Ps. So glad the cold Canadian weather is letting up, and very jealous of everyone buying Jays tix right now!