Blogs from Swanston Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Oceania

Blog 1 Day 1/ Day 2 - March (Our 7th) - (Aus.8th) Our friends Brian & Lois picked us up and we left Waterloo with a light snow falling only to have it disappear as we got closer to Toronto. Finding the right area for the Cathay Pacific desk in Terminal 3 was a bit of a challenge. They don’t have many flights using Toronto so they don’t have a permanent desk location and therefore move around accordingly. We used one of the automated check-in kiosks and succeeded in: getting checked in, printing our boarding passes printed all the way through to Melbourne, and luggage tags. Then we set off and walked the length of the terminal once again to get our luggage weighed and sent on its way to the plane; we don’t have to ... read more

Making plans for my trip has been a long and at times unexpected process. I had my passport all sorted in May, and here i am now, only days before my trip, and it is only today that i am ready to pack my bags. Almost anyway. I must acknowledge how lucky i am to have this opportunity through my University. I applied in February for exchange to North America, and was accepted into the program. in partnership with the Australian government and CQUni, I have been awarded two full scholarships as well, which is allowing me to turn a great opportunity into the opportunity of a lifetime, and i don't intend to waste it. I am a bit of an adventure junky, so expect to see a lot of crazy stuff posted here over the ... read more

Oops just realised that I rushed to tell you all about Sydney and the Great Ocean Road and didnt tell you about Melbourne! We left Perth on the 28th March and flew from Perth to Melbourne and got to our hostel about 2am. We sneaked into our dorm and tried not to wake the other 5 girls and tried to get some sleep. We're in an 8 bed dorm and all the girls that come and go appear really nice and friendly. They are from all over including Scotland, Canada, Holland and Germany. On the 29th we headed to the backpacker travel company, Peter Pans. It was here that we said goodbye to nearly £1,000 :-( This did however pay for most hostels from now on, trips to the barrier reef, whitsundays, fraser island and much ... read more

I am a terrible, terrible blogger. Full apologies. Warning: I have seven minutes before this computer charges me another dollar, so that's all the time I'm going to spend writing this blog. Anyway... where did I last leave you? I believe it was prior to our series of epic failures throughout Indonesia. Prior to our 36 hour bus/ferry journey from hell, with multiple Indonesian vomiters, more screaming babies than I have ever experienced at once, stink bugs, and no sleep whatsoever. Prior to booking flights to Australia to visit friends we met in Bali. Prior to meeting an awesome group of people that we named "The Community." Also prior to deciding to say "Screw it" to Kuala Lumpur and checking out the east coast of Australia instead. ...And I believe that brings us up to date. ... read more

Habe ja doch noch ein paar Fotos mehr gefunden ;-) Die sind noch von Sydney, allerdings vom Zoo und vom Aquarium, beide haben mir sehr gut gefallen. Mit einer Ausnahme: im Zoo und im Aquarium ist Fotografieren mit Blitz erlaubt! Nicht ganz tierhaltungsgerecht und -konform mit unserem Zoo in Schoenbrunn. Ich habe mich eher an unsere Regeln gehalten mit den wenigen Ausnahmen im Aquarium, es gibt noch mehr Fotos, die eher unterbelichtet sind und nachbearbeitet gehoeren. Das wars fuer heute mal. Bis bald Peter... read more

Next stop on the journey was Sydney, where for a couple of days we stayed with Ritu and family (a cousin I'd 'met' when I was a 1 year old) just outside the city in the suburbs. Sadly it was the end of the road for Madge, so after giving her a bit of a scrub (aided by Amers and Kelly's little helpers) we dropped her off and headed into the city to catch some of the sights. This time around our jaunt in Sydney was only a whistlestop (coming back for New Year) so we only swung by a few of them, including: Botany Bay, the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, while also squeezing in a few swift drinks around 'The Rocks.' It all seeemed very nice but were of the opinion that it ... read more