So the Italian place I went to was called Pelliginis and it was bomb. They served pasta and desserts, that's it. It's not a sit down per se, but more sit at a counter and order from a gentleman who spews out the menu at you. I got the days special, which was lasagna. I ended up chatting with the head waiter and owner who were telling me about Melbourne and chatting in Italian with me. My mad language skills got me dessert and coffee on the house. I had looked down and there was Italian ice, then the owner gave me a slice of panna cotta and then a scoop of spumoni. There was a sign on the door that says latte means milk, you want a caffe latte. So I ordered a caffe con latte e zucchero. The owner was impressed and chuckled that the American spoke another language. +1 to 'Merica! While this was happening, two women walked in and I happened to be sitting I the middle of three seats, so I scooted over so they could sit. Their names were Beth and Kate originally from Canberra, now living in the suburbs of Melbourne. Beth was around 40 and Kate was maybe mid 50s. As we chatted about things to do in Canberra and local spots to see around town, they invited me to see a comedy club with them. So we finished up dinner and went across the street to Spleen Central. Yes that was the real name of the club. Beth bought us a round while we watched a half dozen comedians perform. They were pretty funny, but the host Reece had me in stitches. Although the guy who referred to his sons as Satan and Voldemort was pretty funny too. As the night went on, we decided it was time to go. Beth pointed Kate to her train station and told me to take care and enjoy my holiday. Who knew going to a random place would lead me to meet two lovely women and a good, fun night out. I got a late start today and only got to go to the Queen Victoria Market for about 20 minutes before I had to catch the tram back to my hotel and get on the bus to go to Philip Island.
I went with greyhound and I kid you not, out of the 63 people on the bus, I was one of 8 English speakers. It wasn't really the environment I wanted to see the island, but gotta work with what I got. The penguin parade doesn't even happen until
8:45pm, so we went to a farm and a koala sanctuary prior to going to the beach. They were neat, but had a known how long of a day it would be, I would have just done the Penguins. So the Penguins are little penguins and at adulthood are roughly 10-12inches tall, so obviously they are the most precious things ever! They wait until the cover of darkness and slowly come onto the beach and work their way up the cliffs to their burrows which can be 2-3 kilometers away from the shore. They create these little groups, called a waddle of penguins, and go up the beach together. If one penguin is uncomfortable and turns back, the entire group will follow. So the first group out of the water came onto the beach 3 times before they actually got up on the beach. Then if they hear a noise, they panic and scatter, which turns into a little penguin stampede, which is absolutely adorable. Sadly they don't allow pictures because idiots leave their flashes on which frightens the penguins. They are wild after all. I got back around 1230 in the morning, dreaming of mini waddling penguins.
