Townsville ...

Hi everyone! Sorry I haven't updated my blog in a while. I haven't had much to tell. Since I arrived in Townsville a week ago, I've just been relaxing, hanging out with friends, going to the beach, swimming, reading and going for walks/hikes. Pretty anticlimactic after my Melbourne-to-Townsville ordeal last week. It's been lots of fun though. Since I was so drained from four days of train, bus and plane travel, I decided to extend my stay in Townsville by a few days; it's a good thing I made that decision because it really wasn't my decision to make. I called Queensland Rail the other day to see about getting on a later train (I was supposed to leave Townsville on the 6th) and the woman saw I was booked for the 6th and said I couldn't have left that day anyway. Because of the devastating floods in Rockhampton, Emerald and Bundaberg, they aren't even booking trains for this week or next week. The earliest train I can get out of Townsville at this point is the 15th!! I can't get a train out of Brisbane until the 17th (not because of the floods -- the trains just don't run every day from every city) so that puts me back in Melbourne on the 19th -- the THIRD day of the Australian Open. :( I'm going to call back in a couple days and see if the trains are going to be running any sooner. I'm hoping to leave here on the 13th so I can make it to the first (or at least the second) day of the Open. We'll see. Today I'm getting a day pass to a gym in Townsville so I can have a nice indoor workout. This weekend I'll probably go to the beach a few more times and also go to the Billabong Sanctuary so I can finally see some of those cute Aussie animals that are supposedly running around everywhere. :)