Grampians NP are BEAUTIFUL...

Hiya..
Just got back from the Grampians National Park, about a 3 hrs. drive outside of Melbourne towards Adelaide. Will start at the beginning though.
When was the last time I wrote? On Friday? Yes, it must have been Friday. Marise and I went to visit the Queen Victoria Markets, the largest covered Markets in Melbourne. You can compare it w/ our Waterlooplein, only about 10 times larger. We walked around some, bought fresh veggies for the evening meal and I bought my tourist crapp there. Around 5-ish we went back to the hostel, chilled out and started cooking for the Scottish lads. We cooked the most wonderful pasta dish ever. Full of fresh veggies and minced meat. I had to keep telling Marise "no, it's not lamb, it's some other animal", because she kept feeling sorry for the lamb being minced meat. Actually, come to think of it, it is the first time in these 2 months I actually cooked. Almost forgot how to do it. Later that night we were to go out, but i was so very very tired. We went to this club, where the doorman insulted me in a way that made me walk back to the hostel. No need for that really to do that, I felt horrible and went straight to bed. It was because I was a bit home sick it made me cry, normally I would have given him some piece of Dutch smartmouth, but couldn't be bothered, I felt it was below me to even respond to him. Actually it felt good to go back to the hostel and go to sleep, I was knackered. Marise came back around 5 am and went straight to the airport. It must be the fact that she is only 22 to be able to go out all night, drink and then go straight to the airport to go to Bali......
So I had a good sleep in the next day, no one to bother me. It was Saturday and I had the whole day ahead of me. Rick had to do some more dad-stuff, so I left my bags in a locker at the hostel and went on a little Melbourne explorer tour. First I went to the visitors center, to find out what there is to see and do in Melbourne.
My eye caught the Apple Centre across the road though, and me being a little gadget girl, especially when it comes to I-pod things, had to go and have a little peek, you never know. AHA! What we don't have back home, because it's illegal is the I-trip. A little device you connect to your I-pod which allows it to play via the radio. Any empty FM frequency it'll pick up and you can play your I-pod where ever you are. That means I can finally play it in my car! For those who have absolutely NO idea what I am talking about... forget about it, it's not important, ;-)
So, yeah, skipping because i was so happy went into the visitors center and decided to take the ferry to Williamstown. It's across the Phillips Port Bay here in Melbourne, and supposedly a very pitoresque little part of town. The ferry ride is about 45 mins. and takes you down the Yarra River across the bay. It passes the big harbour w/ all the HUGE China line container ships, the yachtclubs, the Docklands (like our KNSM and Java eilanden) and much more. Williamstown itself is a cute little part of town w/ a small yacht harbour and little shops along the quay. I had a wonderful brekky/brunch and explored some of the shops. The ferry left w/in the hour, which is short, but otherwise I had to stay for 3 hrs. which was a bit too long. So went back on the ferry and I was so lucky w/ the weather. Sunshine, not too cold. Had my I-pod, so listened to my favorite music and just enjoyed the ride. When I came back to the city it was 3pm and Rick had phoned me that he was ready w/ dad-stuff and we could go to the Victorian Arts Center. BECAUSE..... the Dutch Masters are on display until September. The whole front of the center is a replica of the Rijksmuseum and it felt like being home. They had 6 huge display rooms which showed all Rembrandts, Vermeer, Jan Steen, Bakhuysen and many more. It was great. It didn't have the Nightwatch, i guess it's too large to ship it over, but we spent quite some time in there. It was fun to explain some of the painting styles and meanings of the paintings to Rick. Good thing I payed attention in arts history in highschool (maybe it had to do w/ my teacher, remember Hans??? ;-) ). Anyway, I explained what a "household of Jan Steen" is to Rick by looking at the paintings. He was in awe over the ice skating scenes and the houses on the Herengracht. We left and went to the the huge shrine (is that the spelling) which is built to honour the war heroes and the war victims. It's built for all the wars so far, and it's quite an impressive building on top of a hill, which looks out over Melbourne. After that we went in search of some food and went back to his dad's place to sleep. Sunday I just couldn't wake up and it was quite far in the afternoon when we finally got our asses moving to do anything. We were planning on visiting his dad in the elderly home, but decided to do that in the afternoon. At 1 pm we went to the Sunday football. This time in the MCG stadium, which can hold up to 100.000 people! There were only 32.000 here that day though. The game started at 2 pm and it was Essendon (Rick's team) vs. Hawksthorn (spelling correct?). We lost by 20 points, which was a bummer, but it was fun all the same. And very very cold!! Very windy and my hands were freezing, but it was great to be a part of something like that. After that I, actually we, had some laundry to be done and we went to visit his dad in the elderly home. Very nice place, and you can tell people are well taken care of there. Actually there was 40's music playing along all the hall ways! After that dinner and sleep. Monday we left at noon to drive to the Grampians NP. I really really wanted to see the Grampians after hearing so much about them. We arrived around 3pm (I got to drive again, which was great, not for Rick, it gave him about 5 heartattacks) and checked into a nice hotel (w/ spa bath!!). We went on a hike to see some waterfalls and bathe and ate in a very very nice restaurant. Next day we went on another hike to see more waterfalls and forrest. We were so damn lucky w/ the weather, sunshine and around 16 degrees, which is quite good for winter. There were roos in the carpark, I got to film them, so when I get back home, I have a little film of hopping roos. You'll get a kick out of that.... toink toink toink... like Skippy. Around noon had to head back to Melbourne for him to be able to do some more dad stuff (I remember the time when gran moved into the elderly home, there was so much to do for dad w/ the house, the furniture, dealing w/ the paperwork etc., this reminded me of that). I stayed at Rick's to update my weblog (I never go around to it, because I couldn't get my USB stick to work) and around 6-ish Rick dropped me off at Leanne's place in Fitzroy. Leanne, I hadn't seen her for 7 years!!! But it felt like yesterday when we saw eachother. She hasn't changed one bit. We worked together in Amsterdam at one of the ad agencies and we know a lot of people. So we spent a long time exchanging gossip and went out to get some Thai take out. Here I am now. It's Wednesday morning 10AM and she was kind enough to let me use here I-mac to update my weblog. I shall have my shower soon and head out. It's bright outside, blue skies and sunshine, I am the luckiest girl! I plan on visiting two things today. The Botanical Gardens and the Victorian Board of Education, to see what I have to do, where to start and how to go about getting a job in teaching here. There's so much information here on the internet, I am confusted. Do I have to get a job first, then apply for a visa, do I get the visa, then apply, do I register w/ the board then find a job? I am so confused, I decided to just go by the offices and let them explain. It's right here on Bourke st. which is in the main CBD (central business district). Leanne lives in this GREAT appartment in Fitzroy, the funky bit of Melbourne. I think this looks a lot like Amsterdam, w/ trams, funky shops, nice little bars and restaurants. I am lucky to be here w/ her. It's great. The appartment is just amazing and I have a mattress in the living. She still has some stuff from when she lived in Holland and we talked about her time there. So yeah, I'll be here until I leave this Saturday. I cannot believe it, and try not to think about it too much. I will upload some pictures later, I cannot figure out how to use my USB memory stick on this compture, so have to wait till Leanne comes back. OK< time for shower and brekky. Love, moi