Day 1: Arriving
Last weekend (April 2-6) I took a trip to Melbourne. I really wanted to see the city because of it's reputation of being "the most cultured" in Australia. Because of my beautiful school schedule, I was able to leave Thursday morning and come back Monday night. Unfortunately, none of my friends have the luxury of going to school 3 days a week so it wasn't worth it for them to come with me. Consequently, I went solo.
I arrived in the Avalon Airport on Thursday afternoon. It was literally in the middle of nowhere. I felt like I was in the outback. I took an hour bus ride to the city where my friend, Juan, met me. I sat next to Juan on the plane from LA to Brisbane so in reality, I had only known him for about 8 hours (I was sleeping for the other 6). We had kept in contact since the plane ride and when I told him I was coming to Melbourne, he kindly offered to let me stay with him. Walking with Juan was his friend Christoph (German). On the way home, we ran into one of their friends. She was heading to a live drum performance and invited us. We accepted the invitation and got to see some really cool songs. After, we went back to Hawthorne House. That is where Juan and Christoph live. It's a 56 person share house with a HUGE living room. There is a counter with 3 sets of stoves, 6 fridges, 4 sinks and so much more. I got to meet a ton of really cool people from all over the world so it was awesome. That night, we went out for G's birthday. We started out the night in a club and eventually made our way to a chill bar. After drinking way too much champagne, we made our way back for the night. This picture pretty much sums up Juan's personality/ the night :)
Day 2: The City
Waking up the next morning was extremely difficult, but I wanted to make the most of my time in Melbourne. While Juan went to class, I went to the city. Melbourne is much different than Brisbane. It's bigger, dirtier, busier and there is so much to see/do! It reminded me a little of New York City. When I got off the train, I walked along the Yarra River to try to find something to eat. Here is a picture I took:
I didn't want to eat somewhere familiar so I made my way over to what I later learned was South Bank. It was one of my favorite parts of Melbourne. I picked up a spinach and egg sandwich from Espresso Run. It was delicious! All of the food in Melbourne was spectacular. This is a picture of some of the restaurants at South Bank:
After breakfast, I decided to go to the Melbourne Aquarium. The first exhibit I saw were the penguins from Antarctica! It was so awesome. Just getting to see those guys paid for the entrance fee. There was an entire cage of fake snow for them and they loved coming up to the glass and staring at everyone.
I really enjoyed the aquarium because I got to see some incredible animals. One of my favorite exhibits was the area dedicated to all the animals from Finding Nemo. I saw Nemo, Dory, the big scary fish with the light on its head, sea horses, puffer fish, ink, etc. Another favorite part was seeing the sharks get fed. There were GIANT, and I mean ENORMOUS sting rays in the cage. When the divers went in, the rays would put their mouths over the divers' heads to get their attention-the divers had to wear helmets to protect themselves. It was really cool to see, but kinda freaky. Here is the cage with all the fish:
Lastly, this is a picture of a really cool jelly from the jellyfish exhibit. They live in Australia-eek!
When I finished touring the aquarium, it was pouring. Luckily, I brought my umbrella but with the wind, it didn't do much. I walked around the city taking more pictures. This was a pretty cool bridge. It's called the Prince's Bridge, and lining the sides are plaques of every country in the world. It has cool facts about each one on there.
I made my way over the Federation Square, just as my camera died. I was able to snatch this one picture before heading back to Juan's place to recharge. Federation Square is one of the most famous places in Melbourne because it has heaps of cultural events, classes, music events etc.
I met Juan back at his apartment and w
e left about an hour later to go explore more of the city. He took me on a fabulous tour of everything! The first place we went was the Victoria Market. It has amazing fresh food and cheap souvenirs. I bought some pretty sweet postcards that some of you may or may not get :)
After, we headed to China Town and got some yummy bubble tea. It had balls of tapioca at the bottom. Here is a picture of it:
We also went to QB Square, Victoria Library and Taco Bill (NOT Bell haha). It was $5 margarita night or $20 Pancho Villa night (1400 mL) so Juan definitely wanted to take me there. We met up with about 10 people and had an awesome time. Here is me with my pineapple margarita. I was freezing (who brings warm clothes when they come to Australia?!) so Juan lent me his jacket. I can't even tell you how many people were staring at me because of the horns. It was hilarious.
Day 3: The Great Ocean Road
The next morning, I left for my tour of the Great Ocean Road. This trip, I did completely on my own. I got to meet a lot of people from all over the world (Spain, Brazil, UK, Netherlands, China, etc). Our trip started at 7:40 am. There were 18 of us total in the van. We drove 3 hours to Tower Hill. I got to see some wild kangaroos, koalas and emus there!
From Tower Hill, we drove to the Bay of Islands, Bay of Martyrs, The Grotto, and London Bridge. It was FREEZING cold at all of these places but I was able to get some incredible pictures:
Later that night, we went to the 12 Apostles. I actually didn't think they were anything too special because it was super foggy and raining!
The next day, we saw more of the Great Ocean Road and also went into the rainforest. Here is me inside a tree!
Notice what I'm wearing? Yeah, it was bloody freezing!!! And pouring. I got back around 8 pm Sunday night, absolutely exhausted. It was an amazing trip, but a little too long for me.
Day 5: Half-day in Melbourne
Today was my last day to see Melbourne (probably ever) so I wanted to make the most of my time. I said goodbye to Juan in the morning and made my way to the Australian Moving Image museum where I took this awesome picture:
The architecture in this building was so amazing. I just loved it! After looking around, I went to the Victoria Art Museum. It was free and naturally, I got bored after 30 min so I left. But it was cool to see some art! After, I got some gelato (lamington flavored-it's Australian) and sat along the Yarra River and talked to Megan on the phone. I also walked like 8 blocks to the Victoria Market to find out that it was closed. Dangit. For lunch, I ate Pad Thai in Chinatown and quickly finished to make my way to Southern Cross Station. From there, I took my hour-long bus ride and arrived at the airport. I ran into Jorge and Camila (2 people from my tour of the Great Ocean Road) and talked to them for awhile. Then, I heard over the loudspeaker that my flight was going to be delayed 4 hours. FOUR HOURS! I didn't get back into Brisbane until 10:30 that night. It took me 8 hours to get home-I was not a happy camper but very relieved to be in my bed.
All in all, I really enjoyed traveling by myself. I met some really awesome people because I was forced to branch out. As for my future travelings plans, expect a huge blog entry about the next 2 weeks of my life-Megan is coming to visit and we are going all over Australia.
Until then, g'day :)