Melbourne: Thursday

Met Gwen, Josh and Gwen's dad at the Melbourne Central station, then traipsed through the Victoria Market for a couple of hours. One section is food shops--bakeries, cheese shops, butchers, whatever. The other section is mostly souvenirs and clothes, everything from Ugg boots to bikinis to biker leather, toy kangaroos to gemstones to digeridoos. Have to keep in mind that we can't take a lot of stuff back through Customs, so we keep looking at things like sheepskins or food items and saying "Oh wait, can't take that."

From there we went to Southgate neighborhood and had lunch at the Blue Train Cafe, named for the blue trains that go through Flinders Station across the river. In the same area as the Blue Train is an ice cave restaurant; apparently they provide parkas and gloves for the patrons.

Took a riverboat tour up the Yarra River as far as Herring Island and back, looking at the bridges and the stadiums along the northwest bank. Then we went shopping, bought Josh a winter coat which is less bulky than his duster, and picked up some kangaroo meat for dinner. "Australia is the only country that eats its national animal." Kangaroo is somewhat like beef, although tougher; it needs to be marinated and cooked more. I can't say much about the taste, because this particular example had a spicy/sweet marinade.

We took the train back but missed the last bus to Marguerite's place. Found a cab, although the driver was off duty, picking up a friend from the shopping center. Two nice Sikh guys, and they gave us a ride.