bumper8

0254 EST Friday 23 April 2010 (Melbourne UTC+10)...

Hello! Can anyone recommend where the best places in Australia are to see the stars / constellations at night? Spent 9 nights in...

Hot air ballooning in the Yarra Valley outside Melbourne. The dirt path is actually for the North-South pipeline, bringing water to Melbourne.

Dumb Travel Moments (30.9.2009)

#1. Not keeping up much of a journal while on holiday in Melbourne, Victoria. So many activities, so little in the way of log entries. In my very poor defense, I was always catching a tram or a train in Greater Melbourne. At any railway station, I would peruse the area for a pie kiosk and buy a sample. Australia and meat pies, what a combo! Then it was time to catch another train or tram and off I went. A lot of travel in Melbourne to be had with a Metcard which tends to cut down on journal writing time.
#2. Not sampling enough meat pies in Australia. Bummer!
#3. Leaving Melbourne to go home to Philadelphia. I always hate going home. Wanted to get lost in the Yarra Valley but I think the local people would have "helped" me to Tullamarine Airport. Think about it: Melbourne or Philadelphia - where would you rather go home to? They don't allow surfboards on the SEPTA trains in Philadelphia.
#4. Thinking that things (food, situations, people) in Germany can be applied to in Austria. Did my faux pas big time in Salzberg province in 1987. Fortunately, the Austrians are a forgiving, kind people and understood that I was just a dumb American tourist who accidentally stuck his foot in his mouth.
#5. Eating anything with meat, having been near meat or looks like meat, in Kathmandhu Nepal. Take my word on this: no matter how iron-cast you think your stomach is, It Isn't!