Goodbye Grampians, Hello Sydney

After another not-so-long night, we enjoyed our last breakfast at the cottage in the Grampians. We had good company: the kangaroos were having breakfast right in front of the house (the big grassy ones, the little ones with their mothers) - amazing! Unfortunately, still no koalas in sight - I'm already experiencing withdrawal... 🐨 🐨🐨🐨🐨 (at least there are some here on the blog)

Today, Uschi wanted to drive again and she safely took us back to Melbourne airport. On our way, we made a short sightseeing stop in Ballarat and admired old, beautiful houses from 1850 with wrought-iron balconies. Truly worth seeing and worth the short detour from the highway.

Before arriving at the airport, we filled up the rental car with fuel (this time without needing to refuel and with a nonchalant tick on the form) and then drove to meet my new friends from Hertz to drop off the car. 1 3/4 hours before departure (now here comes a narrative loop), which means limited time for dropping off the car, checking in, going through security, and even having another bathroom break before boarding... if you don't have to explain to Hertz that Uschi was really silly and didn't want to play with us, I mean, drive with us (we got a full refund for the GPS) and then discuss the extra charge for dropping off the car 3 hours later than originally booked (not that it was all already clarified over the phone and Madame wanted to enter it directly into the system... 'you just pay 10$ extra', confirmed three times). They really wanted to charge me 93 bucks on the spot! So, I had to have a little discussion with the supervisor (yes, dear readers: I should have written down the name of the lady on the phone, but I didn't...) - eventually, it worked out with the 10$, and they waived the rest... but by then, it was already 1 hour and 20 minutes before departure and we hadn't even checked in, let alone reached the terminal...

So we rushed to the check-in, dropped off our bags, went through security, and then casually strolled to the gate: we arrived 1 hour before departure. Not only were the staff at Virgin Australia super nice, they were also very quick - I like that!

We have already been in Sydney for 6 hours, had a chat with the taxi driver from Bangladesh on the way to Surry Hills, settled into our apartment, completed our first big grocery shopping, and already made plans for tomorrow morning, Tuesday evening, and Wednesday (the entire day). Tony, a friend from ancient times of Ursula, lives here and is really looking forward to seeing us.