Aaron and I left Ashley to get ready, and headed into the CBD to pick up our car at Hertz. Matthew was super helpful, and arranged for us to have a Toyota Rav 4. I took over driving duties to start, with Aaron helping out as navigator. When you’re desperately trying to drive on the correct side of the road, it’s really helpful to have a navigator. I did OK getting to the apartment, though the left hand turns and clearance on the left hand side were clearly going to be my biggest enemy.

We loaded up the car and headed over to Evan’s for our caravan to the beach.

We were following Evan, but he fairly quickly lost us at a light and we were on our own. Fortunately, there’s only one way to go on the Great Ocean Road, and we ended up meeting up with him and Ellie and his parents at Jan Jak. On the way to the beach, we stopped at a little shopping center to pick up lamb souvlaki while Roy the dog begged at our feet.

We climbed down endless stairs to reach the beach where we played some frisbee and football, until I decided it was time to read and Ellie needed to study. The guys paddled out to see in their inflatable raft. Sadly, the weather wasn’t cooperating with our beach plans, and we got drizzled on a bit.

We said goodbye to the Melbourne crew and continued on the Great Ocean Road, stopping at a few scenic outlooks and seeing an echidna on the way.

We arrived in Apollo Bay in the rain and as it was beginning to get dark. We had reservations for a two room apartment at the Apollo Bay Best Western, but when we arrived, the reservations were no where to be found. The clerk didn’t look so surprised, and blamed it out a computer malfunction, but agreed to help us find another place to stay.

The other place turned out to be the Skenes Creek Lodge, about 15 minutes out of town. The only positive thing I have to say is that they had rooms. They showed us to our room, which was a family room, with one queen bed and a set of bunk beds on top of the queen bed. This did not work for us, so we were back to the Best Western to try and renegotiate. We ended up convincing them to give us two rooms at Skenes Creek. Before heading back to Skene Creek, we had dinner in town at La Vista.

Headed back out of town to Skenes Creek lodge, where they showed me to my room, which was pretty far down from the other room. We passed a long outdoor courtyard and passed a group of what I thought were sketchy college guys playing cards. After I dropped my stuff off, I went back to Aaron and Ashley’s room for a drink. We discussed the sketchy college guys — turns out it was a teenager and grandma. Time for bed.

It was an excellent decision.

Fiona from Epicurean picked us up at our door promptly at 9:00. We swung by the casino around the corner to pick up another couple — it would be just the five of us — and we were off to the Yarra Valley. Along the way, Fiona gave us time to relax while also providing plenty of information on the region and on the vineyards we would be visiting — I had no idea that fires in 2009 destroyed most of the crop.

Our first stop was De Bortoli Wines for wine and cheese tasting. Nothing better than a breakfast of wine and cheese. We started with a delicious sparkling, that I ended up purchasing. Each of the wines was paired with a cheese from the cheese shop, and we were entertained by the bearded cheese guy, who entertained us with his “spiel.” The cheese guy knew Murray’s cheese in NY and basically told us that us American’s had better access to cheese than Australians, though it was changing. We did taste one delicious cheese, a Meredith Farm goat cheese, which we bought and brought with us.

Next was Yering Station, where I was more impressed with the grounds than the wine, though Aaron bought a delicious cabernet sauvignon that we later enjoyed on Kangaroo Island. We wandered the grounds and gardens for a bit, lost Ashley in the bathroom, and headed to our next stop.

We had a lunch tasting scheduled at Domaine Chandon, the Australian outpost of the French Moet Chandon group.

Four pours, including a red pinot noir sparkling and a regular sparkling, a charcuterie platter, and a hapuka filet later, Aaron and Ashely napped on the lawn, while I wandered around the vineyard. I love all things sparkling and stopped by the shop on the way back to pick up a rose (drank in Tintinara roadhouse) and the pinot noir sparkling (Sydney Sheraton).

But we still weren’t done.

Next up was Coldstream Hills, where we had a delightful tasting and learned all about cricket and test matches and drunk cricket players.

As if we hadn’t stuffed ourselves enough, our final stop of the day was the Yarra Valley Dairy. More cheese tastings, beer, and some sweets to finish off the day led to serious napping in the car.

We managed to wake up to crawl into the apartment (along with 11 bottles of wine) for an extended nap and then met Evan and Ellie at Red Spice Road for dinner.

Since the weather was hot, but otherwise gorgeous, we decided to start the day with a walk in Melbourne’s Botanic Gardens.

We wandered around the gardens a bit, and stumbled upon the Shrine of Remembrance, a memorial to Australian servicemen killed in WWI.

After more wandering about and lazing around the garden lawns with our kindles, we wandered into the Central Business District where we picked up a mifi hotspot (solving our internet problem) and beach towels. We stopped for a late lunch on the river where Aaron had a gorgeous seafood plate, and I had a soba noodle salad. We shared a chilled bottle of white. Given the heat, and because it’s vacation, it was time to go relax with a book.

Dinner was at Cumulus, a trendy restaurant in the CBD, where we met Evan and Ellie and some other Australian friends. Delicious small plates with lamb shoulder as a standout dish.

The next day we set off to finish off our shopping. We wandered through the CBD and Collins Street, eventually ending up at the Victorian Parliament building and stumbling upon the Great Melbourne Synagogue. From there, we took a cab to Chapel Street for more shopping. I wanted to buy everything at T2 tea store, but since we were just beginning our trip, I decided to settle for a bathing suit at target. We explored an Australian sporting goods store, checking out the cricket and AF gear, puzzled at the availability of a White Sox hat.

After lunch at a cafe, we decided to walk to St. Kilda, where we were hoping we could find a bar to watch the Michigan game. Out of luck on both the game, and a bakery that Aaron wanted to find, we took the tram home.

On a lark, we decided to check out the sports bar at the casino, which sure enough, had the bowl game on, alongside lawn bowling. Ordered a beer and caught the last part of the game before heading home to refresh for dinner at the sushi restaurant in the casino. This time, I joined Aaron for gelato and we sat on a bench and planned our next move while watching the fire display along the river.

Continuing the tradition, we walked over to South Bank and Wagama’s for lunch. It had cooled off a a bit, and was gorgeous out.

We decided to wander the CBD with Ashley.

Flinders Street Station

We stopped for coffee/wine and DeGraves and continued up towards Collins.

Quite accidentally, we found ourselves on the street with Movida, a restaurant highly recommended by Evan. We only noticed where we were after spending time photographing the amazing graffiti outside.

Even though lunch wasn’t that long ago, we stopped for a bottle of wine (Thick as Thieves) and some tastes. I’m glad we did because the tapas was easily one of the best things I ate on the trip. Among the tastes were manchego, olives, a clay pot of rabbit, lamb and quail.

We stopped at home for warmer clothes and then went to St. Kilda to look for the penguins.

Melbourne From St. Kilda Pier

Because we arrived far before sunset, we stopped at the restaurant on the pier and had more cheese (probably not necessary) and the first of what would be many bottles of Chandon on the trip.

Apparently, for years, fairy penguins (little penguins or midget penguin) have been making there home on the rocky outcrop that makes up the St. Kilda pier. They swim out during the day and come home to sleep after sunset. It’s become increasing popular to go out at night and see the penguins and a group of volunteers now helps protect the birds. Shining red lights which don’t bother the birds and stopping people torturing the penguins with flashes.

It’s amazing to watch everyone wait for the first of the birds to appear. People, including us, arrive far too early, as the birds don’t make their appearance until well after the sun goes down (probably an hour). But come they do, and there’s nothing quite like seeing a penguin in the “wild” for the first time.

Then my brother decided to take some time off work and travel. http://blueelf.wordpress.com/wp-admin/edit.phpAnd since it was December and January, the Southern Hemisphere meant we could escape winter. And Australia is one of his favorite places. So Australia it was.

Melbourne is about 20 hours of flying time from Moscow, plus a layover somewhere. I looked at a lot of options, but the most economical/efficient choices were flying through the UAE or through China. Since China Southern was part of Sky Team, and I have elite status, Sky Team it was. I originally thought it would be a one stop flight (as listed), with a layover in Guangzhou for several hours, but it turns out, there was a second stop in Urumqi, which is in northwestern China.

I flew out on New Year’s eve, which was significantly cheaper than other days as it’s perhaps the most important holiday of the year here in Russia. Since I spent last New Years in Red Square, and have had historically bad New Years Eves during my life, I was OK traveling on this one. So, I arrived at the airport at about 9:00 pm NYE, and after finding the right line and negotiating an exit row seat with plenty of leg room, I spent the first part of my holiday in the Amber Lounge at SVO. Wasn’t particularly interested in lounge food or drink, but it was nice to escape the smoke and and take part in another Russian NYE tradition — watching the spectacle (variety show) on tv.

I boarded the China Southern plane, which was oddly decorated with laterns and garlands, and was pleased to describe that the middle seat in my row was unoccupied. The plane was filled with a mix of Russian and Chinese passengers. My row-mate, Tanya, was a woman in her late 20s/early 30s, traveling alone. I quickly saw that she had brought a bottle of Russian champagne for the flight. As the meal service began, and it approached midnight, she brought out the bottle of champagne and offered me some. I couldn’t refuse, and soon we were chatting in a mixture of English and Russia. Soon, the two guys in the seat in front of us got involved and they offered to share a sweet red wine and absinthe. Ick. Tanya also had homemade salad olivier and chocolates to share. Thanks to her foresight, we were having a New Year’s party on the plane. I felt terrible, as I hadn’t brought anything, but as we all counted down to what we thought was midnight, I was so thankful. After the meal service was finished, the flight attendants had a raffle for airline swag, followed by a champagne toast for all. We ate and drank until all was gone, and as the lights were dimmed, napped until we started our descent.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, I initially thought that it was a direct flight to Guangzhou, but then realized that we had a stop in Urumqi. At this point, I still thought that we would touch down in Urumqi and continue on, as we didn’t have to switch planes, and I hadn’t received another boarding pass. I was wrong. It turns out that because Urumqi to Guanzhou was a domestic flight, we had to deplane, taking everything with us, and reboard after an hour on the ground.

Chaos ensued.

Fortunately, Tanya and I, and our two friend in front of us formed a little group. As we exited the plane, we were given a little boarding control card that we held onto as we boarded the bus to the terminal. As we arrived at the terminal, airline employees were yelling “Guangzhou, guanzhou,” which we eventually deciphered meant that we were to approach them if we were going to Guangzhou. At this point, they labeled you with a bright green China Southern sticker. Then, before we passed from the holding area further into the terminal, they collected the boarding control cards. We were shuttled into the terminal and again came across someone yelling Guangzhou, Guangzhou. This time she gave us a customs form to fill out, which was very confusing and a bit nerve-wracking as I did not have a Chinese visa. We proceeded into the customs line, and came upon a control desk where they looked at our old boarding passes and stapled them onto new, pink, handwritten boarding passes.

Then onto the passport control desk, where I was sent to a second line as I did not have a visa.

Despite my nervousness, they let me through to the next step, where I had to put my carry on through an x-ray machine. For some reason the screener thought I had something in my bag and yelled at me — vodka, vodka? I was half asleep, but I think she thought I had vodka in the bag. We were corralled into a holding area to wait. Not enough seats and only squat toilets. Squat toilers with a backback and half asleep are a unique challenge. But again, Tanya was my friend and had saved a seat for me. I returned the favor by sharing the American magazines that Sam gave me. It wasn’t the I’ve ever been in an airport, but soon enough we were back on the plane, and about 5 hours later, I woke up as were landing in Guangzhou.

More chaos ensued. Again with the stickers. This time, red to indicate we came from Moscow. More boarding control cards. Purpose of it all never clear. We had to pick up our baggage from baggage claim, and then Tanya and I left together. She was staying in Guagzhou to shop, so I said my goodbye as I tried to figure out what to do next.

Various people guided me various ways, but I eventually found the check in counters, and thanks to SkyTeam status was able to avoid the lines. I was able to switch seats to bulk head and re-checked my luggage. I wandered about the airport a bit — luxury shopping upstairs and Chinese restaurants and tea shops downstairs. Eventually, I went through international security and ended up at a lounge where I would spend the next few hours (passing additional duty free shopping on the way).

The lounge was a nice respite from the rest of the world. Comfy chairs, plugs, free wifi and food. After I ate, I looked up to see the following:

Yes, after I ate, I saw the giant rat running around the door frame (if you look closely, it’s about halfway down the door frame on the left side by the tv). I tried to explain to the lounge staff what I saw, but they didn’t understand. Finally, I showed them a picture of the mouse on my iPad. They scrambled around looking for it and ultimately told me they found it under the cooler with the soda. I’m not sure what they did anything, but they found it. No more food for me in the lounge.

Finally it was time to board. A gorgeous, new airbus 330 awaited me. Not only did I have an bulkhead seat, I had an entire 4 (or 5?) across to myself. I took a sleeping pill as soon as the meal service started, ate, put on my noise cancelling headsets, my sleepmask, and stretched out in my silk sleepsack across the whole row. 6 hours or so later, I woke up for breakfast and in time to land in Australia.

Australia! So exciting to be somewhere English speaking. This time there were no stickers, we were just shuffled off to passport control. Apparently my ETA, didn’t exactly match my passport (no clue), but they let me in with a warning.

I quickly claimed my bags and exited, where a driver was supposed to be waiting for me. Unfortunately, a driver with my name was no where to be found. My Russian sim card was not working, and I failed in my attempt to purchase wifi. After looking for about 30 minutes, I eventually gave up and took the SkyBus, which I should have done in the first place.

I easily found where to pay and where to board. Twenty minutes later, I was in downtown Melbourne at Southern Cross Station. From there, it was a short shuttle ride to the Westin where I was going to meet Aaron.

It was surreal. 24 hours before I was in freezing cold Russia. All of the sudden, I was sweating in my t-shirt and yoga pants, and in my brother’s hotel room in AUSTRALIA! And there were Christmas decorations up, but it was hot!

We weren’t sure what happened with the driver. Apparently, he was at the airport, but they couldn’t find me. I showered (I love Westin showers) while Aaron got us coffee (the first of my many amazing coffees in Melbourne), and then we shopped a bit. Since I brought virtually no casual summer clothes to Moscow, I needed to shop in Melbourne, but easily found a Katmandu to take care of that.

From there, we checked out of the hotel and moved to our apartment near the Casino, but still in the center of town. It was a nice two bedroom in a great location — right near Southbank on Kavanagh Street. Only a couple of small problems. First, it was hot. Melbourne was going through a heatwave, and the A/C did not seem to be doing anything but blowing hot air around. Second, the owner was out of town and gave us a significant discount since we agreed to wash the linens ourselves. Except, we could not get the washing machine to work. Fortunately, Aaron had one set of sheets, and I had my sleep sack, and we had both already showered.

We decided to relive an old Fine sibling tradition and lunch at Wagamama (when I visited Aaron in London in 1999, we went to Wagamas at least three times). It wasn’t as cheap as I remember from London, but it was amazing to have fresh Asian food. After lunch, we walked across the river, but it was so hot that we gave up on outdoor pursuits and headed to the Melbourne Aquarium.

The aquarium was delightful, with two things really standing out. Penguins and rays. I loved the penguin sliding down the hill, and the cool dark interior was a welcome respite. After the aquarium, we headed back to the apartment for some down time.

Dinner was at Soutbank again, this time at the World. Started the meal with the first of many glasses of white wine I would drink in Australia and elotes. Continuing the Asian trend that would also last the entire trip, I had an Asian salad. Stuffed, I actually refused the gelato on the way back to the hotel.

On the second night of Chanukah my present to you is this special video.

Hillel Moscow wasn’t satisfied with a candle lighting in their building this year. Instead, they lit the first candle via a 4 mile torch relay around the Boulevard Ring in central Moscow. Adding a typical Russian twist, as evening fell, so did the snow — but this didn’t stop the girls in their heels.

A little bit of context — it was 20 years ago this month that the Soviet Union fell apart. Today, Jewish young adults are running through the streets of Moscow to light the Channukiah. A true Chanukah miracle.

Stay tuned, there may be a follow up video this weekend.

Happy Chanukah!

Lovely afternoon walking around Kharbarovsk. Slept through the protests here. Lots of gorgeous shots to post, but slow uploads from hotel, so for today, a self portrait from the banks of the Amur at sunset. The river is frozen behind me. I’m actually not too frozen!

Tomorrow I’ll get out there with my real camera, but wanted to share a few shots I took with my phone as I headed out to dinner.

Hotel Ali -- My hotel

I didn’t expect to see anything interesting at 10:00 at night, but in Lenin Square, the main city square, they were still in process of building ice sculpture, even though the bank sign said minus 17C.

Here’s a few shots of the sculptures and people working on them.

Worker at 10:00 PM in -17C