Melbourne and My Big Friendly Family

I have fantastic family in Melbourne. People said I'd reach an age when my roots felt more important. I think I have. Its so neat to hang out with people that look like you and even have similar approaches to life. Really nice. I'm taking Karin back to "meet the fam."

Here's the international district in Melbourne. Here's my cousin Umut and my uncle Ibrahim.

I can call him Amca for now. They made me the most amazing lamb I have ever had!! They have an awesome restaurant that I can't wait to go back to. It's called Rumeli's.

My other cousins Can, Cihan and Candan live in Melbourne too. Man it was cool hanging out with relatives I didn't even know. Such a neat feeling. I was so welcome. Can and Cihan have a successful laptop business called MLN. Actually I had met them before when I was 16 back home on the farm.

Melbourne was really nice. I like Sydney a lot, but I was really taken with the parks and general openness of this city.

Their big cathedral is 20% bigger than ours.
So are their downtown parks.


Motorcycle parking in Melbourne is kindoff madness. Basically, it's on the sidewalk. Just about anywhere you think a cop isn't about to roll on by.

Also their version of basketball doesn't have a backboard! Talk about sporting. It's called "netball" I'm told. Nuthin' but net. Every time.