Melbourne

Another day of the trip done! Today was alright. We went on a river cruise from Mildura to Wentworth (a 30 minute drive), but by paddle steamer it is a 6 hour ride. I'm honestly kind of struggling, it's feeling rather isolating being the only one under 18 and about 10 years younger than the next youngest person. I mean, although I sometimes joke about it, I'm not anti old people or anti adults. But it's hard to try and connect with people so much older than me. It's also shared tables on everything. Dinner, breakfast, 6 hour boat rides, everything.

It's also a bit of a struggle since the tour was specifically designed for adults, although not adults only. Everything revolves around drinking. Every morning there's complimentary champagne, every night before dinner there's pre drinks that run for about an hour. If you don't do pre drinks, you struggle to get a seat. Tomorrow we're spending 2 hours at a wine tasting place with no alternate activity available. I know it's not the end of the tour, but it's kind of a buzz kill watching everybody else drink for 2 hours straight while I get to stand in the garden and look at their grapes, maybe get a can of coke if I'm lucky.

I think I'm pretty set on not wanting to do big group tours again either. I mean they've chosen some good activities, and doing (or at least paying for) everything is the only way to go on the train, which is the only reason I was interested in coming. The train trip is fun, and some of the activities are fun, but the boat was not fun, and really formal group dinners are not fun.

Also a couple of people came onto the train sputtering and I'm starting to feel it too. I'm not sick sick yet, just starting to get a feeling. Most of the train was coughing and sniffling today, so I think I've definitely got something, and there doesn't seem much sense in dropping out of the activities since everybody else is already sick, but I'll still feel like a dick for it