Me and Tom in Melbourne

G'Day Mates! I'm in Australia. I've never actually ever thought I'd come Down Under, but I had to come visit my friend First Class John. John has made several appearances on expatriatejen.com in the past in Beijing, London, Praha and Wien. Here's a John recap:


In Beijing with Cai.


At London Heathrow on my birthday.


In Praha on the worst river cruise in history.


On a overnight train to Vienna.


In Wien.

John also arranged for his friend Tom to show me around Melbourne.


Does Tom look a little familiar? YES, it's JOHN! (Yeah, I know, all white people look alike.) John surprised me in Melbourne Friday night. He had a business meeting in Tansmania and he flew up to visit me...and he flew BUDGET! *GASP* First class John flew on a BUDGET AIRLINE FLIGHT! He's still quite traumatized from the experience. Apparently there was a stewardess sitting in a jump seat right in front of him during take-off which disturbed him (He didn't realize before that flight attendants board the plane with you. He thought they were angels from the sky that just appeared from behind some curtain after take-off.) and they didn't give him champagne (how are you supposed to fly without champagne?!).

So Tom and I had a great time in Melbourne. We had dinner on Southbank at Number 8 and then watched the crazy flame torches that are along the river by the casino.


At Number 8.


Every hour there's a flame show with small flames like this.


But sometimes it's huge flames like that! If Melbourne ever burns down, I now know why.

Then we went into the casino and I bet my first $5 Aussie dollars that John gave me (well, actually, the first $5 John gave me in Beijing are gone because it was in my purse when it was stolen in the East End, but John gave me another $5 last winter when we were travelling Europe) on roulette. I thought I'd hit the jackpot, buy some magazines, start censoring like mad, and become the next Rupert Murdoch, but no such luck.

The next day, John and I took the tram to St. Kilda where we had breakfast on Acland Street and then John went from shop to shop getting gluten-free cookies.


Me and John on the beach.


Me!

John and I took the tram back to the city center or the CBD (Central Business District) as Aussies call it. We went to Swanston Street to David Jones, walked around, and walked back over to Southbank so John could get his bag and head to the airport since he had to go back to Brisbane.

Thanks for showing me around town, Tom. I think I like you better than John. ;D But of course I don't, because John flew BUDGET just for me!