I Like to Ride my Bicycle

After living in Melbourne for about a month, Snowy and I began to realize what a bike friendly (well kind of) City Melbourne is. At the very least a lot of people here get around by bike, plus we were finding we were spending at least $100 a week on taxis, so we set out on the task of finding two bicycles. Normally this wouldn't be a very difficult task, but we had some very specific criteria for our bikes; we wanted vintage bikes, that had to meet a certain degree of cuteness, and they also had to have a low price tag. What we discovered is cute, vintage bikes are very expensive and can sell for over $1,000. We were also bidding on e-bay so had to deal with the frustrations of constantly being out bid, by 50 cents. Finally, after about a month and half of searching we bought two bikes on e-bay with the buy it now function, both of which are adequately cute.
It was my job to pick up the first bicycle while Snowy was at work one day. I took a taxi to pick up the bike from the sellers house in North Carlton, a suburb that is about a ten minute drive from our house. The woman assured me over the phone that the bike was in great condition, except for a "little" squeaking and completely rideable, so I thought it would be no problem to ride the bike home. In hindsight I now see that it was pretty dumb to plan to ride the bike home, at noon when its 90 degrees outside and I know none of the road rules, but this was exactly what I had arranged to do. After paying the lady began my ride home, it wasn't but 45 seconds that I realized the tyres were completely flat and that I was basically riding home on metal rims. Also, the "little" squeaking was so loud and annoying that I could hear it while listening to my ipod with the volume turned all the way up. It wasn't a very pleasant ride, and it took about 20 minutes longer than it should have because I had to keep getting off my bike to walk since I didn't know the road rules and cars were honking at me, oh and I got lost. Now we just had to find another bike so Snowy and I could ride together.
We found another bike on ebay that was less than half the price and as it turns out was way nicer and didn't need any work, the only catch was that it had to be picked up in Noble Park. We knew that the train went there and that you can take bikes on the train, so Snowy went to pick it up while I was at work. She called me about an hour late telling me that she was lost in Noble Park, when I told some people they freaked out, telling me how dangerous Noble Park was ( apparently it's the ghetto of Melbourne), but Australian's have a bit of a jaded view of what a dangerous neighborhood is, and Noble Park is probably a safer neighborhood than where I lived last year in CT. The point is Snowy got the bike no problem, and now we ride everywhere and save hundreds on taxis. There have also only been minor mishaps while riding. Snowy almost crashed once when her tyres got stuck in the tram track, and my chain fell of once on the side of the road (I just threw a hissy fit until some man came and fixed it). The bike did cost a bit of a fortune to get it fixed and riding smoothly and I did hate it for that reason for a couple of days, but now all is good and I'm happily cruising around town.

A New Year, a New Blog...well not really a new blog I'm just going to actually update it regularly

It has been over two months since I last wrote in my blog, and despite pleas from my parents to continue writing I didn't actually believe anyone was following it, but enough people have appealed to me to continue chronicling my adventure down under, so here goes.
As I have wrote in previous blogs I am living in a suburb of Melbourne called Richmond. Laura and I are so lucky to live here because we had no idea Richmond was the best suburb (not that I'm bias now) when we first moved here. It's very close to the city, about a ten minute tram ride, and convenient to get to all of the other Melbourne suburbs. Richmond doesn't really have a stereotype as much as some of the other suburbs, for example we aren't all hipsters here, and there is a great neighborhood feel. We are living in a great little town house with a beautiful back garden where on nice days we enjoy a late breakfast or afternoon tea. I will put up pictures soon. We also just got tv in the house last week, so Laura and I camped out on the futon for a couple of days. I know its a little sick, and we really aren't that addicted to tv we had just been deprived for months.
As for work, we are both working as waitresses at a Greek restaurant in Richmond called Salona. It's the best Greek food in Melbourne so if you ever find yourself in Melbourne be sure to drop in for a leisurely dinner. We have come in for dinner and found ourselves still there sipping on wine 3 or 4 hours later. We love working at the restaurant, and have been so fortunate that the big Greek family that makes up the restaurant have welcomed us so warmly into their families, and now call us their American cousins and they swear we were Greek in a past life. Having them throughout the Holidays made it much easier when we were missing our friends and families from back home. I am also still working at the clothing shop, but only have two days left because I will be working at the Australian Open. I will be working as a Corporate Hospitality specialist, but still am not entirely sure what that entails, I just know it will be very long days for two weeks straight.
So much has also been going on in the past month or maybe even two since I last made an entry, but a lot of these things deserve their own post. For example, Laura and I both bought bikes to cruise around Melbourne this summer and that has been an adventure in itself. We also recently went on a wine tasting in the Yarra Valley ( a Christmas present from Mommy and Daddy, thanks). I will write about these in more detail another time. Again, sorry for the delay, but check more regularly for updates I will be better about it in the New Year.
Cheers,
Laura