Gold Rush Down Under

Hi All!

Hope everyone had a fantastic Halloween! Thanks to Liz for skype showing me the giant cauldron of candy that I'm missing out on eating. :( I guess it just means double candy consumption next year.

My Halloween was spent exploring good old Regional Victoria. My adventure began at Southern Cross station in the city. Very cool train station. After a stop at the candy station (it was Halloween, I had to) I boarded my train headed for Ballarat ( about 1.5 hrs north-ish of Melbourne).

As the train headed out of the city I enjoyed seeing the cites from a new view. Favorite view heading out? Costco! That's right people, Australia is enjoying Costco, too. Seeing Costco makes me feel at home and nostaglic for many a Saturday morning spent with Dad eating freebies and buying me cereal. :)

I was shocked and pleased to see that the Australian countryside is beautiful! Green, rolling hills covered in trees. Amazing! Some bits reminded me a bit of an Aussie version of Logan....lots of cows.

By the time we pulled into Ballarat station I was getting pretty ancy! One hour and 27 minutes later, I boarded a bus in central Ballarat headed for Sovereign Hill. Sovereign is like a historical buffs version of Disneyland, I imagine. The hundreds of tourists and I enjoyed it very much.

If you get the chance, you should all google it. Let's start at the beginning....quick walk through of the gold rush history of Ballarat then a few steps later and BAM! I fell into the 1800s and I loved it!

First on the agenda? Hope bakery for a Miners biscuit, otherwise known to us year 2000s as an oatmeal cookie. Yummmmy. After another round of sugar rush, I wandered the streets stopping off at the metal works shop, the library, the hotel, the candle shop, the bowling alley, the bank, the local grocers, the funeral shop, the fire station, the cloth shop, and I think that was mostly it...I then wandered up the next street through houses, gardens, giggled at some sheep and chooks, made a pit stop at the little girls room (indoors. flushing toilets. not authentic) and then wandered down to watch some goofballs pan for gold.

Later I watched a guy separate and pour lots and lots of GOLD! Oooo aaaahhhh. Didn't get to take any home. Then I walked about the Chinese camps and learned about how much harder they had it, watched a REAL fire emergency (!), then went deep down into the earth to mine some gold of my own (okay, not really, I wish).

On the trolley ride to the center of the earth I noticed (before it turned pitch black) that the man sat in front of me had a Moab, Utah hat on. Typically I don't announce these things, but I was curious. I tapped him on the shoulder and told him how I just happened to be from Utah. He and his wife explained they were geologists and had done a tour to Moab. Small world!

Deep in the mines I learned about how the other half, the cave dwellers, live. Cold. Humid. Dark. Dangerously. Many a man lost their lives (or limbs) trying to make a buck. Personally, I prefer my job above ground.

After re-surfacing I went to my all time FAVORITE stop ever. The lollie-making demonstration! Lollies, to you non-Aussies is another word for candy. No matter the word, I love it! I watched in awe as the boy tugged and poured and mixed and rolled until the final product- raspberry boiled lollies. Mmmm. Sadly, there was no taste test at the end. We poor saps just have to buy our own.

Oh! Oh! I forgot. I bought something. Soap. Coal tar, to be exact. After smelling all the fruity ones, I decided to go for the black one labeled "coal tar" and you know what? It was my favorite. It smells exactly like I remember my grandma's house smelling like. So I pluncked down the 1 pound 50 for it (we are in 1800's OZ and we are still under British rule, after all).

After about 5 hours and another stop in the lollie shop (only to look, not to eat) I decided to call it a day. I walked slowly towards the exit, contemplating whether or not to hide out in one of the tents until everyone had left and then reappear with Sovereign Hill all to myself....but since I'm not writing this from jail, I clearly decided to just go home.

Typically, this would be the end of the post....not in Ballarat! What happened next? The bus ride. The creepy creepy bus ride. Thank you to whomever left me alone on the bus with the creep-o bus driver who thought it would be fun to hit on me (Conversation- "Are you going to the train station?" "I'd go anywhere for you, honey." "Uh, so you are going there then?") Ugh. Vomit.

It gets better....he pulls up to a stop 5 minutes early, so his creepier than creepy bus driver with a pony tail buddy strolls over and decides he'd like to chat me up, too. Next words out of my mouth- "You know, I think I'll just get out here and see a bit of Ballarat." "No, why would you want to do that? Are you sure" "Oh, yes, I'm positive."

Ugh, more vomit. Once I had escaped the bus drivers, it didn't get much better. Ballarat is a dive. A scummy dive with lots of mullet-wearing techo-listening goth-dressing weirdos. NOT the highlight of my trip. Needless to say I made a bee-line for the train station and just in time to catch the 4 o'clock train back to proper civilization!

Back in the city I finally discover DFO, their version of outlet shopping. Sadly, I discovered it 15 minutes before closing time (remember things close at retirement home-times here). But don't you worry, DFO, I will be back to spend the remainder of the little money that I have left.

I had planned on catching up with some people for some old-fashioned Halloween fun, but I was wiped out after a day playing in a different century. So it was off to bed for me!

OH wait, side story--I witnessed this in the city.

Girl sitting on bench with obvious fake cut on head with fake blood dripping down and then on clothes.
Enter boy who was clearly a moron.
Boy to girl in all seriousness- "Are you okay!?!? Do you need help!?!
Girl- "I'm fine."
Boy- "Are you sure!?!"
Girl- "Yes, I'm positive....."


That's all for now! Hope you all have set aside some candy for me to eat when I get home! Til next time!