Safe and sound in Melbun

hey there :)

Here we are in Melbourne (pronunced "Melbun"...funny Aussies). Last night we went out and explored the city a little. We even found our way to the bar Allumbra, where two guys we met in Thailand so long ago work. One of them was working at the bar and so he made us a beautiful drink. It was nice to see him again, even if it was for a few minutes. That's one of the many things that I love about travelling...where it takes you and the people you meet along the way!

Today we rented a couple of bikes from our hostel and went to the Melbourne Zoo. It was built in the 19th century when they had better ideas about how animals should live in captivity. I was impressed with the space and the gardens. We even got to see some giraffes up close, as well as some koalas, kangaroos and even a platypus. From there we toured around the city. Melbourne is such a cool mix of cool trendy, fun and old buildings.

For dinner we stopped off at the grocery store on the way back and bought kangaroo steak. Yes, we did. It sounds horrible, doesn't it, since we were at the zoo and saw kangaroo today. The main reason is just because when we were sailing in the whitsunday islands, one of the crew members suggested that we try kangaroo, and we hadn't had the opportunity to try it until now. I think if we would have grilled it on a proper BBQ instead of on an Aussie BBQ (almost like a hot plate) it would have been different. Anyways, it was pretty good, although yeah, pretty strange to eat an animal you only just saw that day.

Here are some pictures from our outing today. From left to right, a meerkat (they made him look so much cooler in the Lion King...but this guy was cool because he was just hanging out and posing), the lazier of the two gibbons who just stayed near the window while his buddy swung around effortlessly from rope to tree and finally a lowland gorilla (we loved this guy because it looked like he was just waiting for his buddies to come back with beer).

So, hopefully tomorrow will be less strange, although we're going to a cabaret dinner thing called "Dracula's" that was highly recommended. So, maybe Melbourne will just be a strange, fun, cool place, which is just the way I like it anyways :)