After a late start today, we decided to shop for provisions, to avoid the terribly high cost of food in restaurants here. Mary found a nice supermarket on her run, so we walked back up there and stocked up. We decided to skip the museums today, since it was already late and we had plans to meet up with my former coworker James (from Permabit) for dinner. So we walked through Fitzroy, which is an artsy part of town (somewhat like SoHo), Carlton (Cambridge meets the North End, as James put it), and Brunswick on the way to James’. We walked for a good 6 hours again today, which suggests that we've put in at least 30 miles already -- we need a pedometer!
We’ve been plagued by black flies here in Melbourne and today decided that they seemed to be particularly drawn in by the daypack we were carrying with us. The flies seem to be everywhere, and have made it difficult to enjoy some of the parks, where they’re even more concentrated. A quick stop at a laundry-mat seems to have alleviated the problem somewhat – we must have spilled something particularly good smelling (to a fly). The constant swatting of flies from the face is the Melbourne salute apparently.
Dinner with James, Anna, and their houseguest was superb; it was so nice to see James again, and they treated us to a great dinner. Sadly we missed seeing much of their son Daniel, since it was his bedtime by the time we arrived. We learned a lot of history about the area they lived in (formerly a mining town, now a very nice inner suburb, within biking range of downtown), Australia, and even some about New Zealand from their guest. Dinner was amazing (I know I already mentioned it, but it bears repeating), it felt like our first real meal in ages (4 days, in reality). Anna also gave us a great rundown on what to see in Melbourne -- nothing beats a local guide!
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