I'm alive! That is a feat because I drove a rental car home this evening. I remembered to approach the vehicle from the right side, where the steering wheel and gas pedals are. The shifter and rear view window were on my left in the middle of the vehicle, while the windshield wipers were on the left and the turn signal was on the right. So backwards!!! The fact that it was a little drizzly on my way home spared me the embarassment of the 5-6 times I tried to signal with my windshield wipers.
It wasn't as scary as I expected. I just tried to stay close to the line on my right. I did make one error. In the city, cars make hook turns from the far left lane to turn right (across traffic). This is so that they don't block tram traffic in the center of the street. I was expecting to have to make a hook turn at a major intersection, but realized the lanes were marked with 'normal' turn markings, so I circled the block and got it right the second time around. I was so confident by the time I reached home that I backed into my parking space to make departure easier in the morning.
I have a (borrowed) Melway in the car to help me find my way should I become lost. This is a serious map BOOK. It's huge - maybe 300 or more pages!!! I read in my tour books this weekend that there are 3.6 million people in Melbourne, and everyone I talk to keeps telling me how spread out the city is, but 300 pages?! Wow.
By the way, all the cars here are OLD (many from the 80's and early 90's) and small. I have only seen a couple vans and one SUV. A bit different than Texas?!
