http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/North-Melbourne/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Oceania , Australia , Victoria , Melbourne , North Melbourne en-us Fri, 01 Jan 2010 14:32:35 +0000 Fri, 01 Jan 2010 14:32:35 +0000 ldquoA traveler without observation is a bird without wingsrdquoMoslih Eddin Saadi.With those wise words in mind the first view of Melbourne over the wings of a Virgin Blue flight confirmed that this was a city worthy of itrsquos ranking in the ldquoBig 3rdquo.Sprawling in all directions and looking like a large jig saw puzzleit was a rather dramatic change from our small town meander http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/North-Melbourne/blog-411623.html There is something magical and almost mystical about great train journeys.Iconic associations spring to mindhellip..The Oriental ExpressThe Trans Siberian Expressour own Blue Train and of course some of those Inspector Hercule Poirot murder moviesone of which was set on a train.When planning our travels through Australia there was no real connect with their World class train journeys until S http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/North-Melbourne/blog-409734.html Well I know it's been quite awhile and everyone's probably wondering where the heck I went and what's going on except for those few people who've I already told. This past week was Oweek Orientation week for both Uni and the Village so it was quite busy and a lot of fun. On Monday there were several comedians performing but they turned out not to be that funny so we left early and decided http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/North-Melbourne/blog-377807.html hey so I totally forgot I said I'd update this it's been a crazy week so I'll try to go day by day so this will be a long one.Last Tuesday I hopped on several planes and went from Madison to Minneapolis and then to LA where I waited for a couple of hours. That was where I met Katie who helped keep me entertained until we found some more people. After that we boarded the plane for our super l http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/North-Melbourne/blog-374565.html Melbourne Heat Wave We woke at the ungodly hour of 430am to make it the airport for our first Virgin Blue flight to Melbourne. I promised Eric no more flights this early but we could not pass up the deal. It was twice as expensive to fly out after 8 am. After a quick and brisk flight to Melbourne we land hot and exhausted. As background there appears to be an extreme rivalry between Sy http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/North-Melbourne/blog-372216.html Melbourne hmmmm. It was a mixed bag to say the least. We arrived into Melbourne at 5 in the evening foolishly thinking that the hottest part of the day was around midday only to discover that the hottest part of the day during a heat wave tends to be dinner time woohoo letrsquos bake JWalking out of the lovely air conditioned airport into the evening sun felt similar to walking into a very http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/North-Melbourne/blog-371939.html Inasmuch that not even a technicolour troupe of allsinging alldancing munchkins were enough to keep poor Dorothy from pining for her dear Aunt Em and a way back home I was shocked and am sure youll be astounded to learn that after five months down under in a land affectionately known as Oz enjoying glorious sunshine golden beaches and phenomenal vineyards I involuntarily found myself cl http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/North-Melbourne/blog-363650.html G'day folksSo since our last blog about Fiji we packed up our stuff from our 3 month stay in a cabin in Brisbane and hit the road to make our way to Melbourne. It's about a 2000 KM journey so we thought we'd take about two weeks to do it and stay 1 or 2 nights at the places we liked on the way.Our first stop was Byron Bay. We stayed there two nights and we did the walk to the most easterly http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/North-Melbourne/blog-353478.html Hello everyone. Hows are you all Iv been upto all sorts of things im now out of the hostel and living with a girl i met throught temping. Its awsome got my own room and stuff and its cheaper than i was paying at the backpackers GREAT I was working with the same dentist for about 3 weeks and met her throught there. she needed help with rent before christmas and i needed somwere 2 stay p http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/North-Melbourne/blog-353284.html halloechen zusammen ich hab mich mittlerweile in melbourne ganz gut eingelebt. meine jobsuche war bis jetzt leider nicht so erfolgreich aber so schlimm ist das eigentlich auch wieder nicht. ich bin ja jetzt noch diese und die naechste woche hier und dann ist mit den grossstaedten erstmal schluss. dann gehts naemlich auf ins outback und dann hoch in den norden zu strand sommer sonne meer und n http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/North-Melbourne/blog-341811.html Ich weiss es ich bin bisschen spaet dran aber gestern und vorgstern war schlechtes wetter und ich wollte auf dem tower die bilder machen wuensch dir alles alles gute nachtraeglich vom anderen ende der weltRESA http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/North-Melbourne/blog-341527.html Die Busfahrt nach Lakes Entrance war schrecklich Man faehrt echt meilenweit durch nichts es ist endloser Busch die busfahrer hier rasen nicht schlecht und die strassen sind auch nich sooo gut. dementsprechend gut durchgeruettelt war ich bis ich ankam. ich wusste ja schon vorher das ich nachts um drei ankommen wuerde. die leute im hostel sind ja auch wach geblieben fuer mich und der bus hat mic http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/North-Melbourne/blog-340458.html Well that was one short week I am now at the airport waiting to return to Auckland. Australia was a wonderful experience and very different from my expectations. The people were very helpful and friendly no pomme bashing at all in fact the opposite was the case. Melbourne was vibrant and I could easily spend far longer here in fact I offered to stow away in Clare's flat go to the marvellou http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/North-Melbourne/blog-253165.html Hey everyone. Well itrsquos been a mental time being in Melbourne and finding my feet etc. itrsquos a really big city and havenrsquot really done as much as we should have but then again wersquove got 2 days left yet. The first couple of days we just chilled and got used to everything. Last Thursday we went up to Melbourne zoo which is probably the best zoo Irsquove ever been too the http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/North-Melbourne/blog-249889.html hey everyonewe are officially travelers now...wer cookikng our own food and doing our own washing although havnt actually done any washing yet lolwer staying in a really nice hostel... probably one of the nicest wel get to stay in tho thinjk most of them are pretty grimyesterday the weather was shit...cold n rainy but today its really gorgeous againso wer back into our shorts n tshirts again http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/North-Melbourne/blog-248490.html hey guys. well were in melbourne now and officially travelling. perth was great and it sucks to leave my aunt and everyone as we had such a wicked time there but onwards and upwards. the flight over to melbourne went really quickly and just before we landed we found out we were in the further away airport from melbournethere are 2 and a taxi would cost around 150 buck thats 75 quid for you pomm http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/North-Melbourne/blog-248486.html wc 4th FebruaryMonday 4th February FIRST DAY AT SCHOOL see piccy's. We're worried for the kids they seem to be taking it in their stride. We're late... the traffic is terrible on the freeway so we arrive at school as they are starting assembly so we throw them in and hope for the best... it seems to work and there aren't any tears or trantrums so we get out whilst the going is good http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/North-Melbourne/blog-243429.html We arrived..... 29th January at 9pm. As mentioned we stayed at the Hilton right outside arrivals for the first night.Next morning we went to get our hire car from 'rentabomb' and yes it is see piccy. We didn't expect much but this could be bordering on bucket on wheels never mind bomb Anyway it goes just and it gets us from A to B which I suppose we should be grateful for.... I http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/North-Melbourne/blog-243418.html What a weekWell this was the last week of classes here in Australia which is kind of crazy to think that an entire semester has come and gone so quickly. I think it seems so short because each subject only meets one day a week which means we only have 12 classes....as compared to the 30ish classes we have per subject at Bellarmine.I got my test back on Wednesday and I got an 87. I'm happy http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/North-Melbourne/blog-216565.html Hello viewers as you can see we are in HD now and have surround sound. Anyway since the last little scribe from my good self we decided that we better move ourselves to where we are flying out of Melbourne. so we had a few choices as the distance is over 3500 km nearly 2200 miles keep in mind that London to Moscow is 2508km 1558 miles we decided that the best way to navigate this woul http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/North-Melbourne/blog-204723.html