Greetings and salutations from the land of prescription medication.
Before I dive into our day I want to recap a few more things I have forgotten to mention. The other day when we were walking in the mall Jacob asked me if I felt like average height here. I said I hadn’t really noticed. But once Jacob pointed it out it became clear he is kind of a giant here. When we were waiting in line for the train on New Years Eve, Jacob could see above everyone to the front of the line. He kept giving me updates on the progress and how far we’d gotten from the back of the line and the fights breaking out at the front of the line, etc. That’s when I noticed the people to my left and my right were both my height. It has got to be the Asian and Indian influence here. Today when we were walking around Melbourne I made sure to point out all the tall people to Jacob so he wouldn’t feel so out of place. 🙂
While we are on road tripping adventures we enjoy listening to the local radio to get a feel for where we are. It was kind of eerie yesterday because as we were driving through the smokiest areas we kept getting emergency alerts popping on the radio listing all the places that needed to evacuate. It continued on like that until we got closer to Melbourne and the smoke lifted and we saw blue skies once again. I’m so glad we decided to drive here yesterday. The main freeway we drove here now has closures due to the fires nearby.
Alright, on to today! I woke up pretty rested. I slept really well which is amazing since I’ve been so congested. I made a cup of coffee and we started researching the closest pharmacies. Before we traveled here Jacob had read that pharmacists here can prescribe medications, so you can just walk in and get the help you need. After staring at all the cold medicines for a while I walked over to the counter to ask for help. Literally, she asked what I needed and I said, “I need some help.” She asked me some questions about my symptoms and then said she could give me some prescription strength cold medicine which is a decongestant, cough suppressant and pain/fever reliever. There were two other people in line ahead of me getting the same thing. Jacob said I must have caught the Australian flu. I don’t know if it’s placebo effect or if the medication is just that good but I feel loads better than yesterday!
After the pharmacy we stopped by the grocery store to stock up again. We’ve noticed that all of our food is grown here in Australia. Our bananas, which are quite a bit more expensive, are grown in Australia. My avocado was grown in Australia. Our blueberries and potatoes. And the salmon we’ve had twice now is Tasmanian. Pretty cool and tasty!
We dropped off our groceries at the apartment, then we both took a little break and some naps. After our break we looked outside and saw the beautiful sunshine and blue skies. I was feeling much better and the air quality, for the first time since we were in New Zealand, was actually good!
Our hotel is right in the heart of downtown so everything is close to us. Our hotel in Sydney was about a 40 minute train ride into downtown so this is a big change for us. We decided to take a leisurely walk to the botanical gardens walking along the south bank promenade. It was so beautiful! The air was so clear! I just kept breathing it in and telling it to heal me!
As we were walking along the river there are all these picnic benches and public barbecues for people to use. It was while we were walking by one of these that I saw what I thought was a red ball rolling down the hill, I instinctively put my foot out to stop it from rolling off the path and into the river. When it got closer I realized it wasn’t a red ball but it was a tomato! The group thanked me for saving it. 🙂
We arrived at the gardens shortly after that and took a break on a bench. People kept commenting on how cold it was, mid-60s, but we thought it was quite pleasant! At some point during the trip I started pointing out every dog and calling them a dingo. During our walk we passed a woman and her dog. After we got passed them, Jacob said “Oh good, I was worried you were going to improperly label her dog a dingo.” To which I replied, “Well not within earshot.” Shortly after that we saw a dog and I couldn’t help but crack up. All dogs will now be dingoes in my mind.
We only scratched the surface of the park because by this point I was getting really tired. We commented that Melbourne is so nice its almost unsettling. No wonder the population is booming here.
We are now back in our hotel watching a soccer match between Adelaide and Sydney. Jacob told me the temperatures in Sydney today were well over 100. We got out just in time!
We have no set plans for tomorrow. We may go see a cricket match later this week.
Until then!