I am so happy to be home. Travelling is exciting but by about Day 16, I was craving the familiarity of Melbourne. And my feet were sore from walking every day from 8 AM to 9 PM.

Being away made me appreciate Australia and Melbourne in unexpected ways. Oh, it was so nice to be surrounded by Australian accents on the plane trip back and to hear the broad, lazy Australian English being blasted over the intercom. I used to think that it was only the urban fringe and country dwellers who had stereotypical Aussie accents but no — we all have it! Even me. In fact, I got complimented on my accent by a Swiss salesperson who was trying to get me to buy some really expensive things.

“Excuse me,” he said, scruitinising me intently, “You have a really cute accent. Are you English?”

“No, Australian.” I was surprised by the break in the sales pitch.

“Oh, that’s great! A very cute accent.” He turned to my parents. “Your daughter here is very pretty. And I can tell she’s clever too. The American girls are not as down-to-earth. I’d go to Australia just for girls like your daughter. Can you leave her behind?”

Skeptical laughter.

Anyway, I suspect he got to us in the end because we left the store much poorer.

There is much to say and hundreds of photos to show you. I will begin a separate blog for the holiday and link it to this one.

Home! I’m hoooome!