Karen's Crazy Adventures: Oct 23 - 25 Weekend - Pizza, My Sister Judy, and Williamstown Adventures

Friday evening Danielle and Zane picked me up and we headed to Lygon Street for pizza and wine. As is customary at many restaurants here in Melbourne we brought our own wine. To our surprise there was no corkage fee so we totally scored. The pizza was great and the company awesome. It’s always nice for me to have people to go out to eat with.

Saturday morning I spent about three hours talking with two good friends from back home. Being away most weekends and with the awful time difference it’s been really hard for me to actually chat with my friends back home (yes we e-mail but it’s not the same). It was so nice to hear their voices and catch up a bit. I know that I will be home sooner than I may want to be (I’m having issues with barely getting a summer before heading back into winter) but knowing that I have great friends waiting for me back home makes the return that much more exciting.

After the lengthy phone conversations I headed into town to pick up my sister Judy from Southern Cross station. After her epic journey across the world she arrived safely less one of her suitcases. I got her back to my Melbourne home, she unpacked and we headed out via foot. I showed her around Brunswick Street and Smith Street and we checked out the Rose Street Market. We ate dinner on Brunswick Street and Plant Veg (I think?) and while it’s a completely vegetarian restaurant the food was fantastic. Everything we saw come out of the kitchen looked wonderful. I’m sure I’ll be back there before I ship off to Canada.

When we got back to the apartment Qantas called and Judy was happily reunited with her second bag.

Today we were up some what early and I showed Judy where I like to run (when I run). We then walked along Johnston street to Smith Street and I showed her the Crumpler store ( an iconic Melbourne bag). I don’t own one yet and after checking on line its actually less expensive for me to buy it in Canada than to buy it here in Melbourne. Weird eh? (Mind you maybe that was before the Aussie dollar became pretty much ON PAR with the Canadian one). Any how during our post run walk I finally got to try (apparently) the BEST chocolate croissants outside of France. I don’t remember the name of the shop but I do know it’s at 90 Smith Street. I’m not a huge pastry fan but the croissant was delicious.

Eventually Judy and I made it home and after quick showers we were off again. Our first stop was the city for some wandering around in the little secret alleyways. We were going to have lunch there but Danielle had called and we arranged to meet at the Art’s Centre Market on South Bank. We met up with them and snooped around a bit. I managed to purchase ANOTHER little change purse (my FOURTH). I had mentioned to Danielle that I was thinking of taking Judy to Williamstown (a suburb of Melbourne) via train. I have never been and obviously Judy had never been. Danielle suggested we take a ferry there. So we checked it out and just a few minutes later and a few dollars poorer we were on the boat to Williamstown.

Judy, Me, and Danielle at the Market

(thanks Zane for taking the picture)

The ride was quite lovely until the waves got choppier and the water started to spill onto the deck.

View of the Central Business District from the Water

Judy and I on the Boat

(Yes it is sunny but the wind is COLD)

More views....

Still more views...

We arrived in Williamstown about an hour later. We snooped around a bit, walked to the beach, and snooped around a bit more.

View from the Pier in Williamstown Looking Back at the City.

Williamstown Cafe Street

More of Williamstown

The Water

(The official Williamstown Beach was just to the right of this photo)

We ended up in the Coles grocery store so that I could pick up my necessary items for my lunches this week. In the grocery store I showed Judy the dog food that is sold in the meat section of the store in refrigeration. I don’t think we have ANYTHING like that back home (but then I could be wrong and D. I’m sure you’ll let me know).

The Dog Food Section in the Meat Department

More Proof

We then headed to the Williamstown Train Station. This is where the journey home fun began. NOT!! When we visited the Williamstown Tourist Information Booth we were told that they were doing some work on the Williamstown train line and so they had busses shuttling passengers between stations. I asked about the time of the busses and so Judy and I were sure to be at the station on time.

We arrived at the designated bus stop and waited. We asked the people at the bus stop if we were at the right stop. All was good until a bus FINALLY arrived and we found out we were ALL on the wrong side of the road. This pissed us off because we saw THREE busses go by in the opposite direction. So we all (there were eight of us at this point) crossed the road and waited another twenty or so minutes until we could flag a bus down going in the right direction.

The bus ride to the “working” train station was uneventful. We headed onto the platform and boarded the waiting train to find out moment later that the train was damaged. We had to leave the train because this one was cancelled. The next train was scheduled to go 30 minute later. Needless to say we were upset. Connex (the train operators) tried to put out some fires and by getting us a bus and taking us to Footscray station instead of making us wait 30 min for the next train.

It seemed like a great thing except by the time we got to Footscray station we just missed a train into the city and had to wait another 20 minutes for the next train. I’m sure the train we missed must have been the train that left the other station 30 min later. So needless to say by this point Judy and I are tired, hungry, and grumpy.

Our train finally arrived and we headed to Southern Cross station. We decided on the train that we were going to take the 112 tram directly to the Moroccan Soup Kitchen and HOPE that it was open and that we could get a table. We RAN for the tram and made it (yah a small victory during this transit hell commute), and arrived at the Moroccan Soup Kitchen TWO HOURS after we left Williamstown. Thankfully they were able to provide us a meal as long as we left within an hour. The meal, as I already knew it would be, was fantastic. My second great vegetarian meal of the weekend.

So now I’m home. I was working on my report cards for a bit while Judy watched some of Australian Idol. I’m not too motivated to write the reports though which isn’t so good. However, I know they will get done eventually.

I have a shorter work week this week because on Tuesday I need to head back to see the Gastrointerologist here in Melbourne and the appointment is smack in the middle of the day. I guess it worked out nicely though because it will allow me to spend a bit of time with Judy before and after the appointment.

Until then have a great week.

Oh a couple more photos for a couple of people. The first is a picture of the new school construction going on at Footscray North Primary School. The second is for one person in particularly and they know who they are.