Focus of the day - trip to St. Leonards. Since I’ve already mastered the art (huh!) of train travel in Sydney & memorized all the stations upto St. Leonards, getting there is a breeze.

Upon alighting at the station, the first thing I am greeted with is the ultra modern railway station that has a huge central circular thingie & is surrounded by little foodie places. I also see a really high building, which I later find out is called Forum I and is the suburbs tallest skyscraper 38 stories high. More impressive since this suburb apparently is known for it’s skyscraper clusters.

In the midst of all the activity, I almost don’t find my friend who is waiting for me right there. Two telephone calls later we are walking back to his apartment & I’m getting the whole low down on St. Leonards.

One of the main reasons, my friend assures me, that he moved to St. Leonards is because of the variety of clubs, pubs & restaurants, seemingly everywhere one looks.

Among these, is prize winning Indian restaurant (touted as the best Indian restaurant in Australia), Nilgiri’s. Which of course I’m not going to - I haven’t traveled half way across the world to eat Indian food!

St. Leonards is next to the suburb Crows Nest & we peacefully walk to Da Valentino for a rather late lunch by Aussy standards anyway.

On the way we pass ‘The Stoned Crow‘ a rather fancy place that I see later on in my Aussy trip.

Back to Da Valentino though, we sit outside & enjoy the rather chilly Aussy day with good Italian food - and a debate that I try to stop (to no avail) on the existence of God & the decline of religion. Well, at any rate, the food was good

Hung out with my friend until it was time to get back & I even manage to get him to pose for a picture for me (until then he’s been most un-co-operative & not let me be my usual camera-happy self)

All in all a good day. Finish it off by quick packing. We were due to drive to Canberra in the evening but changed plans & are due to go there tomorrow morning. From there it’s Myrtleford & then Melbourne & I’m quite excited to say the least!