Through fire and brimstone...

Sleep was not to be on my journey. My new mates proceeded to watch crappy camera phone videos of their escapades in canberra, mostly of them wandering around drunkenly in canberra, at full volume late into the night laughing hysterically. I counted street lamps as they passed, trying to nod off. The back of the buss was shaking alot, so when ever i would nod off and lean my head against the window it would bounce and rattle against it, painfully bringing me back to counciousness.
The moon was quite bright and you could see into the distance out of the bus window. Not much to see really, the hume highway passes through a fairly barren stretch of oz. Rolling hills and a bit of scrub brush bored me quite quickly.
Nod off.
head on window.
Back awake.
Looking out the window again.
As time passed i thought it was getting foggy out, but soon realized the fog went far too high. It wasn't fog. It was smoke. The bush fires, still burning had spewed smoke across the hills, and the full moon made visible what i can only imagine was one hell of a fire.
The farther south we travelled the thicker the smoke got, untill it obscured my view from the window. At one point you could just glimps light beyond the hills and the sky became orange just on the horizon. It may have been a town with orange street lamps, but we had passed a number of towns and i had yet to see that orange glow.
I wasn't concerned for my safety, obviously it would look terrible for grey hound if they drove a bus full of folks into the blaze and killed them all, but i was hoping we wouldn't be turned back.
At some point stupidly early in the morning we had a "dinner stop". More than any thing it was a chance for the driver to stretch his legs and down a 4 pack of redbull. I happily used the full sized, non-moving bathrooms, as bad experiences on egyptian busses have made me fear coach bathrooms, grabbed a meat pie and a orange juice at the stop point and boarded the bus again. the tiny girl who had the aisle spot beside me was still asleep, and i felt bad waking her for a second time.
We continued on down the road, most people asleep now, but i remained awake watching the scenery for a good few hours. All traffic was detoured off the highway at one point and we used a couple smaller roads to wind our way around, what i assume was a fire ravaged area. The smoke was thick here again; i wondered if the fires were still burning.
At some point i must have fallen asleep in the dark, because i awoke to sunlight streaming in under the brim of my cap and the driver saying we would be at the coach terminal in mere moments.
i stuffed my gear back into my bag as we pulled in and got off to grab my bags. Considering i was one of the last people to load my bags on, i was a bit annoyed that it was one of the last to come off.
Having glanced at my melbourne maps while on the bus i knew i needed to exit the south end of the terminal to get to my hostel, which if the map was correct wasn't that far off. I exited the central doors and started down the road, but my legs were pretty tired. A good breakfast and a coffee were needed, but the best i could find was a Hungry Jack's (Burger King in the mother land). To be honest, i didn't look hard. it was simply the closest, and i was a hungry andrew.
After my brekky sandwich and an instant cappu that i lingered over i set off to find my hostel.
I quickly realized that i was wearing the wrong shoes for the walk as sharp plantar fasciitis pain crept into my right foot. Damn you, stylish loafers. i also realized that the map was a bit misleading on the scale. It was taking me forever and it seemed i was only just making some progress into the walk. The numbers were passing by and my destination getting closer when i got a nasty shock: I was back at number 1. I though perhaps i had passed by my hostel, so i wandered back to check the numbers.
No, i hadn't past it yet, assuming my 2 year old guide book still had the accurate address. I then wondered if it was one of those strange roads that turns or stops at one cross street only to start up a block south, so i grabbed my book again to figure out what was going on. I sat on a park bench to consult my map and rest my foot. it had been over an hour of walking by this point.
My issue now was that i didn't have one totally accurate map. i had one map of the city its self showing major routes, which this road was, but didn't list any of the minor cross streets. A second map showed the city center and the start of the road i was on. the third map showed the end of the road and the section that my hostel was located on.
Being sleepy i decided to just keep on walking, assumiong that the road changedfrom street, to lane, or way, or similar and began counting over again. Later a sign confirmed my suspicions and told that i was now on "south" as opposed to "north", and thus why the numbers had started recounting. I trucked on.
The neighborhood seemed to deteriorate as i crossed one of the streets. Now away from the office buildings of the center, old buildings, some poor on the up keep, and townhouses now lined the streets. It had a friendly vibe though, and people smiled and said "g'day" as i passed.
I finally got to my hostel, checked in and carted my gear up. I flung of my stylish loafers and opted instead for my runners, as it was a bit cool for thongs. I scouted out the hostel and then sent a txt to flavio and dan. Flavio rsponded and we made plans to meet up in the city in the arvo. This time i opted for the tram.
We met up at flinder station, under the clocks. It is obviously a frequent meeting spot, as many groups and couples were greeting eachother as i waited for flavio.
Andreas, andother swiss bloke was travelling with flavio on the journey. We nabbed a spot on a terrace on the south bank of the yarra and gulped coffee while we caught up on what we had been doing in astralia and since we last saw each other in prague.
We opted for a wander around the south bank, taking in the sights, and eventually corssed and made our way to an asian pub, just across from the state library where dan was doing some research. Flavio and Andreas were staying with dan, and had said they would meet him there at 7pm.
We got duped into buying expensive jugs of beer, altough it was quite good. Apparently that was their day's special, so i would hate to know what it normally cost. We later realised they had much much chreaper jugs, and tucked into those instead.
It soon became apparent why these ones were so much cheaper, as we got one that was nearly undrinkably skunked. The keg was off, no doubt, but we were already half way through the jug and decided to power through.
It was andreas' turn to shout, and we strictly told him to get something else. He came back with a jug in hand and proceeded to pour for us. At first sip, i thought it was just a bad lingering after taste. I was wrong. He had inadvertantly purchased the same crap as before. We all had a good laugh and decided that, since we were men (rool eyes now), we'd just skoll them and be done with it.
At some point Dan sent a txt to flav saying he was done, we told him to come up, but he refused. After some pestering he told flavio to enjoy his night, and we wondered what was going on. turned out he had a group of people waiting for him. We stuck around for another jog and got a txt from dan later saying they all had gone to pub down the road, so we drank up, payed up, and headed to the lounge.
Lounge was a cool place, and we chatted and caught up with dan. Turned out that a swiss girl who was friends with one of flav and andreas' friends was there witha group of other swiss folks, so we formed one big table. We all spoke french and tutoured dan, who has a great love of languages.
I managed to escape a real goon the tram stop. He was really really drunk and seated, but i was standing, which gave me the advantage. I kept a close eye on his other hand, but fortunately he didn't even ball it up. with a well timed shove to the face he toppled over backwards into a garbage bin and i hopped onto the tram just as the doors were closing. it wasn't my train, but the bloke was still reeling about with the apple cores and cursing me out as the tram pulled away. It started out going the right way, but took a turn a few minutes up. I hopped off, walked back to my street and started the walk back to my hostel, now a bit paranoid that i'd just pissed off some guy who was about to be coming the same direction. The tram had taken me a good part of the way back though, so i was shortly home.
An interesting start to my time in melbourne, i climbed into bed and hoped the rest of my week would be less exciting.