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Published: March 17th 2008
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Happy St. Patty’s Day!
This past weekend I traveled to Melbourne for my first trip that included flying, buses, accommodation, etc. It has probably been the most stressful trip but was still a pretty good time nonetheless. The trip began on Thursday morning at 3am when my alarm went off. We had to be in the maxi taxi at 4:15 so we could we could make our 6am flight! A group of 9 of us went and when we got there, we took a van to get to our hostel. Our hostel was called Coffee Palace and was in St. Kilda, a town in Melbourne. We walked in to check in and the lobby smelled like urine…gross. They gave us sheets for the beds and we went to our room. Melbourne is normally pretty mild, but this weekend they had a major heat wave. That room was like a sauna, it was soooo hot! We were on the 2nd floor in a room w/ 8 beds and a tiny little window, so naturally it was HOT!
Traveling in big groups makes it hard because it is so inefficient, so I did some research before we left so I could
actually make the most of our trip and see a lot. After we settled in we took the tram into the city to go the Queen Victoria Market. They had a section that was like a fruit market and another section for T-shirts, souvenirs, things like that. I got a lot of neat gifts for people using my bargaining skills. The market closed at 2, so then we walked to the Old Melbourne Gaol. “Gaol” should be pronounced like “Jail”. We took a tour of this place that temporarily held prisoners awaiting further punishment. It was really interesting. We also went to the actual prison next door where Ned Kelley had stayed.
Afterwards we just explored the city and had dinner. By this time we were exhausted and took the tram back to the hostel. We were almost back when one of my friends realized that she had left gifts that she had bought for people back in the city, so 3 of us jumped off at the next stop to go back for it. Then we realized that the place was closed, so we ended up just going across the street to this Irish pub and chatting it
up. We finally got back on the tram, and ended up seeing a whole Jerry Springer-like scene unfold right in front of us! It was all we could do to look the other way and try not to laugh. There were 2 drunk guys going at each other in slurred Australian accents. It sounded like the one guy was mad because his mom was spending too much with the other guy. I don’t know I guess he was jealous or something, but then the mom got up and walked up to them in her bare feet to try to break them up. I can’t really explain this situation properly, but it was quite a sight. When they got off the tram we realized we should probably figure out where we were. The nice old lady in front of us said our stop was 6 or 7 stops back…we were like, “ARE YOU SERIOUS?!” So we got off and tried to figure out where we were. 3 girls at night, lost in Melbourne- well we were kind of scared, but found it funny at the same time. We tried asking directions, hoping not to be mugged, but we kept getting conflicting
directions, so we finally stopped at this other hostel to ask for proper directions. We told the guy where we were staying and how we wanted to confirm we were going the right way. He said, “Yeah I wouldn’t trust what anybody tells you in St. Kilda- It’s like the Red-light district”. After that it wasn’t really funny anymore, we just wanted to get back. We finally got back safely. The next day we couldn’t figure out how we got all twisted around because we really weren’t as lost as everyone that gave us directions made it seem.
Friday morning was an all-day tour to the Great Ocean Road, a road that hugs the Australian coast for miles. It was really pretty and we saw the famous rock formations called the “12 Apostles”. Our lunch break turned into more of a 2 hour break because as we were all loading into the van, our tour-guide noticed we were missing somebody. Apparently he had come on this tour alone and was nowhere to be found. Nobody knew his name- only that he was middle-aged and wearing a blue shirt. We drove around the town for a bit looking for him
and finally had to leave. All day we just kept referring to him as “Blue Shirt” b/c nobody knew who he was. Later after an amazing dinner at a noodle shop, the tour guide called again to find out if they found any more info about this guy. The tour company was finally able to get ahold of him: He had taken a taxi back after he realized that we weren’t there, he was Russian, and didn’t speak English. Mystery solved.
The next day our tour group went to this wild life park AGAIN, where we got to feed kangaroos AGAIN and see koalas AGAIN. Haha, I think I’ve gotten my Australian animal fix by now. Later we went to Philips Island to see the “Penguin Parade”. All of these little penguins called “Fairy Penguins” come out of the water onto the beach every night at the same time to burrow.
Yesterday, Sunday, I went with a friend to the St. Kilda street markets and then we took the tram back into the city and went to the Crown Casino, the biggest casino in the southern hemisphere. Then we had lunch and attempted to go to the Botanical
Gardens, but we ended up missing the stop. It was 39 C, which is about 100 F and we were exhausted so we just went back to our hostel. Our flight was that night so we took a shuttle back to the airport (another long story) and flew home!
Overall it was a good weekend, just exhausting and I am starting to get homesick. But I am so excited for next weekend!! I am going to Sydney!!!
Have a great week!!
Love,
Kelly
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Kevy
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Arrested?
I always knew it would happen sooner or later. Did they rough you up in the slammer? Taze you perhaps? Don't taze me bro!