The rental car is due back today by 10 AM down in the CBD (central business district) which is in the heart of Melbourne (pronounced without the r). So we headed out a little earlier to visit the beach just 2 blocks from our house. Today is suppose to be about 18°C or something like 64°F, I think. So warmer than yesterday but being it was early in the morning, it was still pretty cold and being at the water, it was really windy. The beach was just being combed so it looked beautiful! We walked out onto the beach to get a feel for the water, which was mighty chilly, but that apparently didn't stop people from going in. We saw a handful of people swimming with wet suits on but there was this one guy that was just in swim trunks, now that's nutz!!
They're always on our mind.
Anthony had a little fun in the sand since it was newly undisturbed. And I picked up a few sea shells that didn't get crushed. There was quite a few people running already and some with dogs. Can't imagine how packed it will be when summer rolls around here.
Once we dropped off the car, we walked around looking for free wi-fi and found the McDonald's.
Here were three things that were astonishing to see.
17.43 Liters....about 4.5 gallons.
That's not even the most expensive!
So we stopped in to get online, finally after a few days of no internet access. And since I hadn't had a chance to eat at one, we went ahead and got lunch. The menu board apparently was all electronic with full pictures and prices but at about 10:30 AM, the screen completely changed to the lunch menu. Anthony got a chicken nugget meal, it only comes in a 6 piece instead of the 10 we get in the US. And I just got a cheeseburger meal. We both got smalls, I just had no idea how small it really was! The cheeseburger was tiny! I thought it looked like one of those mini-burgers. The first thing Anthony asked was if I got a kids meal! No Dr. Pepper so I settled for a Coke which actually is pretty good here since they use real cane sugar instead of artificial sweeteners, and I'm not a big soda drinker but it's good. Otherwise, the burger, fries, and chicken nuggets tasted about the same. Almost a little less greasy tasting though, like they used cleaner oil or something.
So after getting our internet fix, for probably the week, we went off in search of other areas of interest. Anthony took me to visit the Telstra office that he works at, which looked like a really old building that you walk into from an alley. Then he took me to the Cisco building, which apparently is THE building downtown. It had 40 or 50 something stories and when you walk into the enormous lobby, it was covered in beautiful marble and gigantic white columns. It even had a small art gallery display at the current time. Everything sparkled and shined and the elevators talked to you. What a difference between the Telstra building and the Cisco building!
Entrance to the building that Cisco is located.
In the elevator. It says Cisco Systems when we got to that floor.
Lots of elevators in that building!
Since we were already downtown, guess where I wanted to go? Chinatown of course!! Sadly, it was a lot smaller than I had expected and hoped for. Got a bubble tea though, pretty good but this one didn't use real fruit. I'll have to go back to see what else is around there.
The biggest event of the day though was visiting the bike shop. We got on the train to get to South Yarra to visit Bicycle Inc. Anthony had gotten his commuter bike there then brought two of his co-workers there and they got bikes too. The owner Craig was very cool and his shop was set up rather nicely with the upstairs as a workshop and downstairs as the show floor. He specializes in Giants and while we were there, he had quite a few customers come in.
Now keep in mind, it's been about 18 years since I last got on a bike so it was a really daunting thought that the bike would be a primary mode of transportation for me, second to the train. I already had horrible images of me riding all wobbly and stiff and of course the obligatory, crashing or falling off in an area full of people.
Keep in mind Anthony has more bikes than there are fingers on one hand so for him picking a bike isn't something he does on a whim. I think I sat on almost every bike in that store and every time Anthony asked how I felt sitting on it, my only response was, “I dunno.” Why? Because I have no idea what it's suppose to feel like sitting on a bike, they all feel uncomfortable. So after sitting on a couple road bikes and hearing that all the tires but the mountain bike tires easily slip into the tram tracks, we settled on a mountain bike for me. Plus being close to the beach some of the trails are gravel so it'd be easier for me to ride on them. So yay to getting my first bike in years and OMG what am I thinking getting on a bike???
- julie
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