We decided to do a 13km hike today in the steep Cathedral Ranges – as the name itself suggests. As we were lazily finishing up breakfast, Daniel appeared with his backpack punctually (ok, actually 10 minutes early – Swedish Style). We planned to start the hike at around 10:30am or so (ok fine, we started it 10 minutes late - Polish style). Although we turned the 2 day hike into a 1 day trail, and thus avoided some of the sections labeled “hazardous”, “dangerous” and “very hard”, we still struggled doing a steep ascend and descend – the pain was clearly felt the next day. Some of the views were nice from the very top. The weather was great. We’ve also seen a lyrebird pass by our trail, and I miserably failed to capture a photo of it. Booo. The walk itself was tense with the ups and downs, and at the end of the hike we came to the conclusion that it was an average experience – just because most of the walk demanded higher concentration to look down on the trail (away from enjoying the surroundings).

Oh, and once we got to the car park we found our tire to be flat. The tire that once took a week to deflate now deflated in less than 24 hours. It turned out that the car dealer in Sydney screwed us over – since when we were inspecting the car, we checked for a jack, and on the day of purchase it went missing. Hmm - bastard. Anyhow, Daniel saved our ass by letting us use his jack to change the tire. Next week we’re getting the rest of the car fixed up properly (along with getting extra equipment: jack, fuel and water canisters) for the lengthier trip ahead – no worries. I’m happy we’re noticing this stuff before we drive out into the desert.

We drove out to the Yarra Ranges this weekend. 100km north east of Melbourne has some mountainous terrain which asked to be explored. We made little stops along the way, finding a polish restaurant in Warburton; driving up a mountain to a lookout tower for a nice view of Melbourne in the distance; seeing the Yarra Dam Reservoir which provides drinking water to Melbourne; stopping in Cambarville and its rainforest (including the tallest tree in Victoria); seeing Marysville; and finally for the night making our way north to camp out at the Cathedral Ranges.

We decided to visit the Werribee Mansion Park. A nice little piece of history. Afterwards we stopped by Point Cook.

Did our laundry and went to the Melbourne Museum to see a Great Wall of China exhibit. Enjoyed it. There was plenty of mixed media: a super wide slide show of photographic images about the wall, film stations, real artifacts, text descriptions, and a bit of history. Afterwards, we went to koko black for another hot chocolate tasting. How does it compare with the rest of the hot chocolate? Not the best experience. We waited probably 25 minutes just to get a spot to sit, then we waited another 15 minutes before the order came through, and then we paid a large sum of 5.50 for an alright hot chocolate - not worth all that time and money. For a way better chocolate go to san churro - 4.50, thicker chocolate and in larger quantity.

We closed off the day by visiting a pretty interesting African Restaurant - Nyala. We were lucky to get a spot by walking in. All the other tables were reserved in advance. The atmosphere was very warm and welcoming. The food was good. : )

A fourth generation lady by the name of Lois Airs, an islander of French Island, gives tours and advice to those that visit. Some stay for longer, others are here for only a day. All of them she greets, even the shy ones. She recommended a 30 km bike route that we could take. On this route, we spotted koalas in trees taking their time, sleeping or eating. We continued down the road that is very bumpy, at times sandy (careful breaking!). Close to 12pm – LUNCH TIME, we stopped at the farm lands that belong to Lois’ great grandfather. Lois showed us the kitchen, where we can make some tea/coffee and help ourselves to scones. One drops in the money for these goodies into a koala bank. We sat and chatted with Daniel, a Swede working in Melbourne, which has also come out for a bike ride on the island. We ended up biking the rest of the route together, through the fields and hills we went. We explored the Blue Gum Forest very closely indeed (we kind of got sidetracked because we could not find the road that was marked on the map). What a lovely sunshiny day. Back on the ferry to mainland and then the Toyota back to Melbourne (lots of traffic, could have been due to Mother’s Day).

Mornington Peninsula.� First off a coffee in Flinders – I got a Baby Cino.� I didn’t know what it was before ordering, but it’s frothed milk in a small glass (would have ordered something else if I knew – ask ahead).� I drank it with a double chocolate brownie.� On we went to see view on the south and north side of the peninsula and rode our bikes to the tip called Point Nepean.� There are old batteries located throughout the point and the army still trains here.

Red Hill is a town on the peninsula.� Here we treated ourselves to delicious handmade cheese (first tired a platter to choose what we like, all we so good).� AND Jakub bought a six-pack of Red Hill micro-brews.� In the evening we settled down to a nice ‘retreat’ place where we camped, ate our goodies (named above) and relaxed by a fire in the lounge.

Happy One Year! � After work, Jakub and I met up downtown on Lonsdale in the Greek District.� The restaurant we had intended to go to was closed, but we wandered around the area to find many more.� We landed on a fairly fancy one with good food and a weird slogan on the receipt “keep coming back until you get sick of us” (wtf?).� Then it was off to the opera.� We had been very excited about going to see this opera named Rusalka.� Rusalka is a Czech Opera by Dvorak off a water nymph wanting to be human to have emotions and be able to love.� The witch (Jezibaba)� grants her a human body under the conditions that she is mute.� Rusalka accepts…

PS our official one year is on May 9^th.� On this night, we had some candle-light dinner at home.� I made French-onion soup and goulash, since I finished my work day earlier.

In our Lonely Planet Walking Australia book we found a short 8km day hike at the Werribee Gorge - an hour drive outside of Melbourne. We found the place alright and had a fun time walking through the trail nearby the river. Best thing about it? We finally saw a wild koala sleeping in a gum tree. :)

Ewa likes stamps and so as her collection grows, this week she found a running exhibition about stamp engraving at the main postal office in Melbourne. We jumped in our Toyota and drove downtown, stopping at Carlton Gardens for a short walk. The exhibit was pretty cool. There was actually one engraver present with his family taking pictures in front of the stamps he designed – made the experience a bit more real. We looked at some of the oldest Australian stamps, watched a short film about the stamp printing process, and even found a reference to Czeslaw Slania – a polish engraver.

After we were done with the stamps, we made our way in the direction of San Churro – a Spanish restaurant / chocolate shop. We had to order hot chocolate to continue our hunt for the perfect mug of liquid coco (so far Wedel Cafes in Poland are ranking at the top). And of course we had to grab a churro. I think Ewa will agree with me here that this was super close to the authentic churros we tried in Madrid last November. Mmm …