Happy Australia Day

It's Australia Day and somehow the country seems divided because of this holiday. Some are already celebrating (like our neighbors), others find it strange, and the rest completely reject it and call it Invasion Day...

We let the day be a day and had our last breakfast on the porch before heading to Brisbane.

The oncoming traffic was quite intense (similar to the start of our holidays, but without heavy traffic jams) and we had a pretty smooth ride.

Interestingly, right next to the airport is the DFO Outlet Shopping Center, which we conquered - totally worth it, and we went all out at Esprit, Volcom, and Converse (well, maybe the shops did...).

Just before check-in, something happened: a suitcase (my duck) fell off the luggage cart and is now broken. I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but I already noticed the first tear in Cairns and had to almost force the Virgin Australia lady to accept the sheep. Good thing I stood my ground: today the good piece finally broke and now I have to search through everything at home for the receipt, so I can get a refund... Luckily, Matthes had bought the green bag at The North Face, so I packed my things in there and left the broken duck behind...

The recommended 2 hours before departure have now shrunk to just over an hour, but we still managed to catch our flight.

The flight to Melbourne was normal and smooth, but it seems this city doesn't like us: it was 21 degrees upon arrival 🙁

Two-thirds of us went to the Docklands this evening to celebrate Australia Day a bit more and watch the fireworks (not without some excited security guards looking for someone who projected Invasion Day slogans onto the stadium wall...). So we got a bit of everything there.