Alright here we go! the next installement in my adventure. if you havent read the new zealand one maybe give it a shot first, who knows? you might like it. So after arriving in Melbourne we hung out at the train station and ate noodle soup from a lady that diddent speak any english and kept handing us back money. maybe she saw how sleep deprived we were and felt sorry for us. we took the train to warrnambool where my cousin steven lives and once we got off the train platform i looked at him, and he looked at me, and we just knew. we ran up and hugged (its amazing how much he looks like my dad and my uncle) and he drove us back to his lovely home where we met his wife jennifer and his 3 kids my second cousins, daniel, jaqueline and catherine. they are 12 13 and 15 right now. we had an amazing time with them checking out all of the amazing shopping and just getting to know everyone. it was so generous of them to take us in especially daniel who let us have his room for the week. we stayed for a couple days just relaxing and learning about the essondon bombers and aussie rules footy (another new sport i love) and waiting from a call from shealin. eventually it came! we picked her up at the train and we all reunited! it was a great feeling having everyone together for the trip after what seemed like a long time without, now it was finally fully complete!
Spending the week at steves house was just what calla and i needed, we detoxed from all the alcohol and constant moving about. after being on the move so much just being in one place for a week was great! the next day we went to a nature park and saw koalas and kangaroos for the first time! they werent vicous or wild, the koalas ignored us and kept eating and the kangaroos just stared at us then hopped away,
we drove past my grandfathers home town of colleraine and that i guess is where the tippetts pretty much started in australia :) we did not have time to see it all but i can always come back. it diddent feel like long but soon we were off to melbourne! i am eternally grateful to steven, jen, katherine, jacqueline and daniel for thier hospitality as it helped us out soo much! i hope one day they can come to canada and i can repay the favour.
moving onto melbourne was easy, a quick train ride and we were there! we shopped and stayed in a hostel called coffee palace. very laid back but had the LEAKIEST faucets and taps ive ever seen! this island is very environmental and big on conserving water so many people would be horrified. but they gave us free coffee and tea all the time and our roommates were 2 english guys that were really nice. we hung out with megan and her boyfriend and she gave us a list of great bars and shopping. its amazing how much artistic graffiti there is! i filled up my camera with it and spent lots of time on chapel st and brunswick st
