Steak! (an exhaustively researched post by marvin! and nathan)
by Nathan
Steak! We* ate three pounds of it. For dinner. It was a great success. There were other things that happened today. But mostly we just ate. But, for those who came here for the rundown, we resume our regularly scheduled program:
After a night of drunken revelry at the pub eurotrash and spending way too much money on beer, we headed off this morning for a journey to the beach. We went to St. Kilda, which Matt realized is just like Santa Cruz.
It was a small district south of Melbourne with a busy main street and beaches. I (nathan) managed to lure the others out of their Cube-Runner-induced stupor long enough to convince them that going to St. Kilda was a great idea for two reasons:
1. beach!
2. cake!!! According to the website, Actura street had a variety of cake shops, most of which would accept our currency in exchange for delicious edibles. We took full advantage of this.
That being said, we took the #96 tram out of downtown Melbourne, rode for around 30 minutes (during which Ben discovered that there's a football team called the "Socceroos." amazing.), and got off around lunchtime. Incidentally, this was about the time that Marvin and Ben were feeling hungry. We ended up having lunch at a strangely sensible shop selling fish, fish & chips, and sushi. Then, we grabbed some cakes and headed for the waterfront.
When we arrived, the beach was deserted**. After Erica finished mostly missing her mouth with a cream cake and Sam got most of his cake out of his mustache, we wandered the shoreline, narrowly avoiding getting stung by a dead jellyfish. At that point, we realized that the beach was probably empty due to the ubiquity of poisonous things...everywhere. Dangerous stuff seems to be a recurring trend on this continent.
Sam really, really liked this jellyfish.
This seagull liked the idea of cake almost as enthusiastically as Ben himself.
Although the beach may have been great, it pales in comparison to the collective genius that came up with the idea of grilling steaks for dinner. While we were at the grocery store, I tried channeling Ben by saying "be reasonable," as we proceeded to buy 3.3 pounds (2.343 metric tons) of steak. It was ridiculous.
Anyways, our hostel-cooked meal included:
- Steak with mango-onion-cilantro chutney
- Grilled Garlic Bread
- Roast Potatoes and butter(mmmmm...butter)
- Raw Passion(fruit) for dessert
and Marvin! was still hungry! To be fair, he had already had dinner. Nonetheless, it was an awesome day. Tomorrow, it seems that this tourism madness will end as we gear up for this whole solar car thing.
*Marvin! and Ben still seem to need to prove their eating abilities. I accept this....they do not. It's something I'll recommend to their therapists.
**I'm very proud of this pun
Melbourne!
by Ben
Almost all the team is now assembled in Melbourne. The most recent member to arrive was Marvin! who showed up while we were having dinner at a Chinese dumpling restaurant. Completely without warning. And without any apparent means of transport. Which leads us to believe he wasn't actually in Portland like he had been telling us. Either that or he can teleport, which is far more likely, as our sources indicate Marvin! would immediately turn turquoise if he ever told a lie.
D minus 4 and counting until the car arrives. We decided the most efficient way to prep for the race was to head straight for a church and pray, so we arrived at Melbourne cathedral and took photos.
Melbourne cathedral
Later we ended up in a filmy arty museum thing with the most awesome version of pong ever created. It was black and white and amazing.
Even later we wandered around Melbourne, ate, bought a pair of Kawasaki*s, ate some more, randomly found Marvin!, and crossed a bridge in an unlikely manner...
Crossing Yarra
Team photo
In Australia At Last
by matt
This morning (and a few days ago in the case of Ben and Marvin), we arrived in Australia.
More specifically, we mechanically arrived at the Melbourne Airport. When we were going through customs (with lots of extra solar panels), we met a man. Said man was a drunk military contractor. Said man told us to put thin film on top of our array and enquired about the relative merits of "nitrogen bearings." Said man also did a bad job of scaring us of "drop bears."
Drop Bear Attack
Upon passing through customs, we had some trouble with our solar panels. The customs officer asked what the large box had in it (it was already labeled). I told him that there were solar panels in the box. He replied, "What panels." I answered, "Solar Panels." Also, we had some trouble in the Sydney Airport when the guys behind the x-ray saw a grenade in Nathan's backpack. Nathan took the grenade apart and tried to explain that it was a LEMO connector, with pins for both power and data. They asked him to repeat, but were still confused, so they had him take it apart. He then said the magic word ("World Solar Challange") and they let him through.
The flight was really and long cramped, and interrupted at random intervals by meals in a completely illogical order: Dinner, Lunch, Breakfast. I asked the waitress and she mumbled something about the international date line.
Here's the sun rising on Saturday/Sunday, we're not sure which day because of this arbitrary line that enables time travel:
Sunrise Over the Pacific