I Like Vegemite

I recently got to go on a pretty amazing trip to Australia.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to take any of my family along, much to the dismay of my lovely wife who has always dreamed of visiting Australia.  Therefore, officially, Australia is boring and drab with nothing interesting to see.  Unofficially, it was awesome!

I long for the days of slide shows.  Everyone sitting around a carousel of illuminated memories and drowsily listening to the descriptions of somebody else's experiences associated with every picture while the slide machine periodically awakens the crowd with a clickety-click of changing slides.  With that in mind, I've got a few pictures...

So absolutely the hardest thing for me to get used to was cars driving on the other side of the road.  I didn't think it would be so hard but for some reason it never did sit well with me.  It took three full days before the sight of oncoming traffic didn't make me fear for my life.  Not to mention that every time I rode with anyone they had to wait while I tried to get into the drivers seat.  

 

I guess it only makes sense but even the bicycle riders were on the wrong side of the bike path.  Australians are known for being very laid back and easy going.  As you can see, even the graffiti in Australia is laid back.

Apparently this is how you say "Yield" in Australian.  Most other words are the same as English.

I work for a company called Rubicon and this is their manufacturing facility in a town called Shepparton.

This is the kind of stuff we do.

This is how they used to measure water flow in this part of Australia.  For all of my fellow water wonks out there.

Scenery.

More scenery. 

More scenery and a flock of cockatoos.

This is a cool building in a little town we went through.  Lots of neat architecture like this.

A delicious meat pie from an Australian bakery.  I took a bite.  It didn't come like that.

I got to attend a couple of sporting events while I was there.  This was a local soccer game in Shepparton.

This was at an Australian football game.  Australian football is sort of a mix between rugby, soccer, basketball and mixed martial arts.  It's played on an enormous field with about 1,000 players and other random people running on and off the field.  I'm also in the picture.

This was at a place called the Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne.  This was just a small section of the market area.

This is how you say "Burger King" in Australian.

Some buildings in Melbourne.  

These trams go right down the middle of the road.  Makes traffic a bit congested.  But it's a cheap way to get around town and they kept me from having to drive which was safer for everyone.

This was a cool train station in Melbourne.

The monstrous aircraft that carried me to and from Australia.  

I even went to church a couple of times while I was there.

It really was an amazing experience.  Next time I'm taking Melissa with me.