What Happened Today? Friday 05/28/2004 Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia Day 3219 (Day 24 of 25)
Up at 6:00 AM. We are finishing our packing and preparing to leave. Neutron came to say good morning. We packed everything and took the luggage out front to wait for Ann and Phil. We didn’t want to wake up Jason and Sophie. Then Jason came out and Sophie brought Hunter who very much wanted his morning milk. We said another quick good-bye to Sophie and Hunter.
When Ann and Phil arrived, we stuffed the heavy suitcases into the trunk of the car. With a little maneuvering, they fit once again. Jason rode to the airport with us.
We checked into Rex Airlines. No issues with the luggage. We said our good-byes to Jason, Ann and Phil and boarded the plane. Scarf and goggle plane with 22 seats.
The flight left at 8:05 AM and arrived in Adelaide at 9:13 AM. When the plane came to a stop, the pilot asked us to let the passengers depart from the rear of the plane due to the heavy weight of the luggage. I wonder who contributed the heaviest luggage. We checked into Virgin Blue airlines and again had no problems with the luggage. I bought Kay a Cappuccino and me a Long Black. Around 11:30 PM, we split a focaccia ham and cheese and tomato sandwich, baked with black olives in the crust. We also enjoyed 2 Cascade pints. I finished East of Eden by John Steinbeck, 891 pages in Large Print.
The flight left at 1:05 PM for Melbourne. We set our watches 30 minutes ahead and arrived in Melbourne at 2:40 PM. We found our heavy luggage and walked across the street from the airport to the Airport Hilton Hotel.
It was too cold and too late to go anywhere in Melbourne, so we watched a movie and then went downstairs for dinner.
Some extra notes and interesting information:
Australia is home to around 19 million people, most of whom live around the coastline of a continent that is just slightly smaller than the US minus Alaska.
Australia’s original inhabitants are the aboriginal people who have lived on the continent for more than 50,000 years and constitute about 1.5% of the country’s population.
In 1779, with prisons in Britain horrendously overcrowded, Joseph Banks suggested the newly acquired land named New south Wales as a fine site for a colony of convicts. The first fleet, led by Captain Arthur Phillip, arrived to establish a penal colony in 1788, 18 years after Captain James Cook’s landing in Botany Bay. Life for new arrivals was tough. The crimes punished by transportation were often minor and the sentences of no less than seven years with hard labor were tantamount to life sentences, as there was little hope of returning home.
Since 1945, some 5.5 million people have come to Australia as new settlers. The essential character of Australia remains, but the new diversity has made the country more interesting, influencing everything from theater to cuisine. Australia’s largely Anglo-Irish population base has been enriched by waves of immigrants from Italy, Greece, Easter Europe, Lebanon, China and south Asia. Melbourne, for example, has the largest population of Greeks outside Athens.
We watched a 90-minute movie… Along Came Polly. Then we went downstairs for dinner. Kay ordered wok-cooked spaghetti with lamb and shrimp. I ordered sir-fried noodles and vegetables.
We went back to the room to watch American Idol. In bed around 10:00 PM.