adventures in the country.

Because of travel logistics, Ben was planning on staying in New South Wales over the weekend - but he still technically had the weekend off. So we saw it as an opportunity for us to visit some other parts of Australia, especially since we would have access to his company's car. I took a Greyhound bus from Melbourne to Gundagai for the weekend, and we went on a nice road trip.

We drove around Gundagai, Wagga Wagga and Coleambally, which are small country towns. The landscapes are cool - lots of rolling hills, trees and wildlife. We saw horses and cows and sheep - but unfortunately, the only kangaroos we saw were dead in the middle of the road, which is upsetting. Kangaroos are pretty much like deer in America, I've heard. Also, the flies are pretty aggressive out in the country - they're constantly swarming around your face, and a bunch of them always make it inside the car whenever the opportunity arises. Ew. We encountered some angry ant-swarms as well, and drove by some massive ant nests that look like entries in a sandcastle contest. We haven't come across any bird-eating spiders yet, but we haven't exactly been looking either...

Ben was great at driving on the left side of the road. I asked him about the biggest differences between driving in the States and down under, and this is what he came up with:

- Driving on the left side of the road is weird, but it's the orientation of the steering wheel that takes a while to get used to. Occasionally, Ben accidentally engaged the windshield wipers when he meant to use the turn signal. Which is pretty much what I did all throughout my American driver's ed test 10 years ago...

- Kilometers make distances seem a lot smaller, at least when you're used to miles. "200 k to Gundagai" is under two hours, when you're driving the speed limit of 110.

- People generally drive the speed limit here. In the States (especially in Seattle), the signs could say 60mph, and you could be going 70 mph, but people will pass you in the right lane at 80mph, shooting you glares of wrath in the process.

- The road cameras probably have something to do with speed limit obedience. Instead of just having cameras capture a car's speed at a particular point, there are multiple cameras along the highway that also measure your speed from one point to the next. So, if you drive at the speed limit for the first camera but arrive at the next camera within a timeframe that would challenge Superman, math will be done and you will get a ticket. At least, I'm pretty sure that's how it goes.

- In Australia, the word for "appetizer" is "entree." I know this doesn't belong on the list, but I just wanted to write about it anyway.

We spent Saturday and part of Sunday in Canberra, Australia's capital. It's home to the Parliament and a ton of museums, and the downtown area has a fun college-town feel to it.

We toured the inside of the Parliament building and saw some of the different embassy offices - including the South African embassy, where people had placed flowers, pictures and gifts in honor of Mandela. 

We also went up the Black Mountain Tower (also called the Telstra Tower), which has a really cool two-layer outdoor viewing deck. We took lots of panoramic pictures, enjoyed some breakfast at the coffee shop (bringing back many fond memories of my previous job), and even chatted with some nice people from Nepal who insisted we take a picture with them. 

Anyway, I'm back in Melbourne for the week, and Ben comes home on Friday. We both had a wonderful time exploring a little more of Australia together. Living in the city is pretty awesome, but sometimes it's nice to get away from it all.

CK