july 18... heading to australia

up at 3'30.. packed night before, checked weight of bags.. tore off dirty linens .. out the door.. by 4.. pick due 4'15.. nice lady driver.. she worked all night as a shuttle driver to airport.. her parner worked all day.. getting on flight easy but they send u to another line to pay 25 bucks for departure.. should be in aussie about 9..2 hr. diff from nz.. have tobuy food on plane .. brought biscuits nd bouth tea... will call pistachio guy today.. from quorn..getting close to outback.. and flinders nat's park.. got shuttle from airport to southern cross station.. raining.. we walked .. 30 min.. got to a blue bldg. near victoria market.. holey moley is that big.... city bustling..lots of people lots of suchi places .. good and pretty cheap.. the roll ups... back to the blue bldg.. got in.. smelled of lysol.. very strong to cover worse odors.. next to loud bar... i knew we were in trouble when i smelled that lysol.. girl running it was nice.. dipsy.. from nj in her defense.. she did ask if we wanted to see room.. advice to anyone.. always look... no place available in melbourne.. late tired...desperate... like the place dad and i had in berkeley.. when we escaped in middle of night..shoulda done that here.. but no car and no other place... the warnings about aussie hostel were not heeded by us.. we were spoiled.. a bad stay there.. walked around 8 or more hours to stay out of that place.. went to a great museum and an aboriginal gallery with aust. art.. visited cathedral.. listened to evensong.. very wary.. held off as long as possible.. creepy place, slept with clothes as covers.. then the loud music started.. up at 5 out at 6 .. market open ..coffee... gettin out of town sundown brown.....