oooh! that sun is melbourne-ing! no? i tried to come up with a pun. it didn't work.

Hello!!! So right now I'm in Alice Springs, but I spent the last two weeks in Melbourne. What did I do?? Museums! Some other stuff too, but Melbourne is a major center for arts and culture, so obviously I was a little overwhelmed. Lauren and I spent the first weekend with a family we contacted through Lauren's sister, then we moved into the city. Unbeknownst to us, the Australia Open (tennis championship) started right when we arrived so everything was booked solid! We spent one night in a lovely hostel but then had to spent one hilarious evening in a dodgy hostel because of the booking situation. It was like a backpacker factory, the kind we usually try to avoid. Because there were so many people looking for a place to stay in Melbourne, I think there were a lot of traveller's crashing there illegally so we had to share one bed together or sleep on the street! And we paid $15 each for the privilege! But no worries, as they say, it was more funny than anything else, and then we got back into the good hostel, "the Nunnery" which had a very funny faux religious theme and a cat named St. Francis.

I visited as many nerdy Mara places as I could: the National gallery, the Ian Potter Center for Australian Art, the Australia Center for the Moving Image, the Koorie cultural heritage center, the immigration museum, the melbourne museum...oh! and a gallery showing artwork by a two year old. Melbourne was an awesome city, and I even got to check out the Australian Open one day, you can get a pass to see most matches except the really famous ones. I settled for watching Serena Williams on tv. We met some cool fellow Yankees at our hostel (LA and Seattle)and ended up going to this really funny event called the "Bye Bye Bush Ball" in South melbourne, it turned out to be organized by this group Democrats Abroad. It was the Friday following the inaugeration and was a mix of students and older ex-pats all looking to party down in the name of Obama. There was lots of disco music and Americans letting loose--so much so that there was a conga lina at one point, I almost died! We also spent a ridiculous amount of time negotiating visas and whatnot for our journey further north into south east asia, we had some problems because of an embassy being closed for Chinese New Year, but I think we've worked it all out.

We also went to see the Great Ocean Road with some Israeli friends that we met in Queenstown, NZ, which was very fun. the Road is kind of like the Australian equivalent of the Pacific Coast Highway, its very beautiful. It was really nice to hop in a car for once and not take the bus, especially with Israelis that know how to cook! Then we flew from Adelaide to Alice Springs, and here I am now. Tomorrow morning we head out for a three day tour out to Ayers Rock (Uluru) and other highlights of the desert around Alice Springs. I'm a little concerned I'll die of heat....Must go out and restock the sunscreen supply. Thats all for now, lots of the Love from the OUTBACK.....

Mara