Australia Day

The 26th of january was Australia Day. We spent the day in Cronulla, a suburb south of Sydney. We were woken up early as some people were already around their bbq, cracking open a beer at eight am. The beach was jam packed with people. Everyone was going around with at least one flag on them, either oz flag shorts, or tshirt, or hat, or swimsuit, or painted on etc. 

We stayed at a friend's place and followed tradition, we had beer and a bbq. Went to the beach for a quick swim a few times during the day, and listened to a big radio station's top 100 countdown (playing in stereo since everyone around was listening to it). In the evening we went to see the local fireworks. We had top spots since we went to see them from a friend's place, who lives on the 6th floor of a building just in front of the beach. so all in all, a very good day.

We've now made our way down to Melbourne. On the way, we spent a night in the Kosciuszko National Park. In the evening we went for a drive, very slowly, to try and spot wombats but we only spotted kangaroos. So wombats are still on the "to see" list. the next day, for some mysterious reason we still havent discovered, our battery had run out. Impossible to start the car. And we were all alone in this camping. We were parked just a few meters away from a little slope so we tried to push the car down the slope to get the engine running. the problem is we were a good 30 meters away from the slope and very slightly uphill, and a van is bloody heavy! we managed to push it a few meters and then it would just roll back down again. grrr! but no worries, we called our roadside assistance. at least now we can say we used it. About an hour later a guy came down to jump start us and we were off again.

So, Melbourne. Everyone told us that it was much more like a european town, that there was a much more important cultural scene compared to Sydney. Well it's true. Melbourne definitely has a european feel to it. Little cafes here and there, with tables out on the sidewalk. Little alley ways. We haven't seen much yet but we like it so far.