Best City Yet....MELBOURNE!!

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Hi Everyone,
Ok, so I'm really sorry I haven't written in forever!! Ever since I got back from Melbourne I have been crammed with exam after exam and report after report. I'm finally stress free for awhile until my final exams in late June. I went to Melbourne with 2 other girls from April 30 to May 5. I knew that Melbourne would be one city I would not want to leave without visiting. I didn't really know what to expect; you either like Sydney better or Melbourne. In my case, I loved both cities, but I really really loved Melbourne. Melbourne is, after all, the sports capital of Australia, so that could have definitely helped with my liking of the city. We did so many awesome things while we were down there, from touring the Great Ocean Road to seeing and AFL (Australian Rules Football League) at the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Dome).

Thursday April 30th, 2009:
We departed for Melbourne out of Brisbane airport at around 1:45pm and arrived approximately around 4:30pm. One of my friends who was travelling with me (Kirthika) new someone who went to University of Melbourne, and she offered to let us stay with her during our stay. Worst came to worst, if we couldn't all fit in her dorm we would just book a hostel. After we took a bus from the airport into the city, we got off and met up with the girl Kirthika knew (I wouldn't really call her a true friend of hers as you'll find out later). The weather was significantly cooler from Brisbane. From there we walked about 20 minutes to her dorm and just put our stuff in her room. We noticed all three of us would be sleeping on the floor, but we'd worry about that later on. We grabbed some pizza for dinner, which was weird because they didn't have tomato sauce on their pizza! We got back to the the girl's dorm and figured out how we were going to sleep. I made a pillow out of my sweatshirt and jacket and had another jacket as my sheet to cover me (I didn't think it would get cold...) We were exhausted and tried going to bed after we were all set up on the floor. We had to be up at 7am the next morning for a 13 hour tour fo the Great Ocean Road. As the night went on it got colder and we were all freezing! We kept getting up in the night grabbing whatever clothes we could and putting it on. I'll just say I didn't get much sleep that night and neither did my two other friends.

Friday, May 1st, 2009:
We got up that morning pretty quickly and got ready to head out to where we were going to get picked up for the Great Ocean Road tour. I was so excited; I have only heard that the Great Ocean Road was amazing. The view was absolutely breathtaking. The road is literally right next to the ocean! We made a couple stops on the way before we hit the big spot and turned around. At one point we stopped at this place where you can see some wild koalas as well as cool birds. We did spot one koala up in a tree all burrowed up, so cute! And then there were these birds that were like parrots I think, not exactly sure. But they literally flew onto my head, shoulders and arms and wouldn't leave! It was so funny! This one bird would not leave my head at all until on of my friends had to shoo it away because we were leaving. We also stopped at a rainforest which was pretty cool too. We drove along the Great Ocean Road and stopped at the famous places at the end before we turned around. We saw the 12 Apostles, which are these big rock structures formed from the weather (storms, rain etc) over the years as well as sediment. We also saw 'London Bridge' which was a rock structure shaped like London Bridge only part of it collapsed in the past. Overall the Great Ocean Road was so amazing and definately worth all those hours in the car. If anyone goes to visit Melbourne, you have to tour the Great Ocean Road-simply amazing. Once we got back around 8pm, we were on a hunt to look for sleeping bags because we could not bear another night freezing while trying to sleep. We went to about 4 different places that were closed before finding one last place that was open and bought sleeping bags on sale for $60, we really had no choice at this point. We had slept so much better that night, never got cold!

Saturday, May 2nd, 2009:
Today we decided to go to Sorrento which was located at the southern tip of the Mornington Peninsula. It took us awhile to get there..about and hour and a half on a train, then a 2 hour bus ride. It was a really neat place. It was was of those places that is not really touristy and just very remote and relaxed. We had a nice lunch at a restaurant that overlooked the ocean. We then hiked up to this lookout point where we could see an amazing overview of the ocean and in the back we could see the bay in the distance. Afterwards we walked over to the other side (the bay) to catch a ferry to the other side of the Peninsula called Queenscliffe. It was actually pretty, but a really quiet town. We also got there after 5pm so not much was open or going on, but it was still neat to see an older town. We managed to get some ice cream which was delicious. I got a cone that was chocolate with sprinkles, pretty sweet. We then started to make our journey back to the city, catching a bus that took us to Geelong, then took a train from Geelong to the city of Melbourne. Once we got back to the city, we found a place to eat dinner at either a chinese or japanese or thai restaurant; I really don't remember. It was really good, I ordered a chicken teriyaki dish 😊. However, during our dinner, Kirthika makes a call to the girl we were staying with telling her we were at dinner and that'd we'd call her when we're done and walking to her dorm because she had to let us in with her student card. About 5 minutes after getting off the phone with this girl, she sends a text, mind you, a text, to her phone pretty much saying she had a crappy day and wanted us to try and find a hostel for the rest of the weekend (3 nights). We were all like, what? We were all really upset with her, especially Kirthika, because she had been talking to (Tallie) awhile before we came to Melbourne making sure it was ok we'd stay with her because Kirthika offered about 5 million times that it was ok we stay in a hostel. Then she had to sent this text message after getting off the phone with her that she wanted us to stay in a hostel because she had a bad day. I mean I would understand having a bad day, but really, a text at 10pm at night saying we couldn't stay with her, after we bought our $60 sleeping bags? So we quickly went hunting for a hostel which wasn't hard to find and luckily the first one we went to had space for 3 people. It was just quite awkward going back to Tallie's dorm and gathering our stuff, we really didn't say a word. It's already stressful enough traveling in city you've never been to in the first place. It was fine though, we all just forgot about it later. We ended up going to one of the bars in Federation Square that night which was really fun! A group of guys came up to us while we were in line to get into the bar and asked if they could be part of our 'group' so they would get into the bar. Apparently they are strict on who gets into the bars depending on who you're with; I guess better odds if you're with females 😉. The guys were cool though, we all hung out and talked in the bar. We were there for a few hours then eventually headed back to the hostel which was really close, compared to probably a 25-30min walk to the dorm. We got inside the hostel and just as I was about to go up the stairs to our room some random guy like peaks his head through the door from the outside and says hi to us or something then says something along the lines of "You're really beautiful". My two friends look and I'm further back so I just stood there. The guy goes, "I'm sorry, I mean her in the back", pointing to me. I was like "Umm thanks?" Then I turned around and was going to head up the stairs and he was like "I bet you have a boyfriend, don't you". And I was like "Umm, yes I do", even though I didn't but this guy was being weird, I just wanted to go to bed! And then he goes, "Oh he is a very lucky guy" and I said something along the lines of "Yes he is". I'm sorry, but I just had to retell the story so I can remember it; it was just quite funny and an end to my night. I actually slept really well that night; there was only one other girl besides us in the room.

Sunday May 3rd, 2009:
Today, we woke up decently early to get a head start at exploring the city of Melbourne before we were to see an AFL game in the afternoon at the MCG. The first think I actually did was call my dad to get the results from the Kentucky Derby because it ran early in the morning our time and I couldn't watch it. When my dad told me 'Mine that Bird' won, I was like who? I had no idea that this horse would win it, but it's nice to see a long shot win. We started off the day by going to Federation Square where there are some restaurants, museums and cool things to see about Melbourne. After that, we proceeded to walk along the Yarra River throught the gardens (which was beatuiful) and headed to the Shrine of Remembrance. This was a big place where the soldiers were remembered for fighting in the wars and such; it was really pretty and a great view of the city from it was well. We left the Shrine of Remembrance and walked through the gardens and planned on heading into the direction of the stadium. Walking through the gardens was so pretty, the leaves were all turning colors; it really reminded me of home. Melbourne has all four seasons, doens't snow really, but gets cold. We were there during the fall and leaves were changing and it was just so pretty. Up here in Brisbane it's sunny a lot more and warmer so you don't really see the change in leaves here. Anyway, as we were walking I saw some big stadium in the distance in front of the MCG. I got a better look and it said Rod Laver Arena. I was in awe. Rod Laver Arena is was the Australian Open (tennis) takes place every year in January. It's host to the Australian Open, one of the Grand Slam tournaments. I like to watch and follow tennis, especially the Australian Open, and it was just so cool to see the stadium. We had about a half hour until the AFL game was to start, so we were going to try to see if Rod Laver Arena was open just to go inside quickly and see. We finally managed to find the pro-shop instead and I managed to by myelf and Australian Open sweatshirt; I at least wanted something from there. It was so cool. We went to see inside the locker rooms and all. The tennis complex is amazing with at least 12 main courts outide the main arena. We finally headed to the huge MCG where we were to see the Geelong Cats play the Melbourne Demons. I was told to root for Melbourne, however, this year Melbourne is kinda bad and Geelong was undefeated. The MCG is this huge stadium that can hold up to 100,000 people!! This was my first AFL game to watch and I didn't really know what was going on at first, but once I started watching and really paying attention to what the players were doing and how many points were given for what they did, I began to figure it out. I really like watching AFL, moreso than Rugby I believe. AFL combines football and soccer together pretty much. Rugby is cool too, but the whole backwards pass stuff bothers me. Everyone's different, but to me, watching an AFL game is more exciting, especially seeing it at the MCG. The fans are awesome too, they get so into it! Geelong ended up winning, but it was a good game. I would go back to see a game at the MCG in a heartbeat; definitely one of the coolest stadiums I've ever seen! When the game was over, we walked back along the river again (so pretty) and ate dinner at this cute restaurant in Federation Square. After we ate we just sat there for a few more hours just enjoying the view. It was pretty much at this point when I realized how much I loved this city and that I didn't want to leave at all. For one, it's got four seasons, two, you've got a gorgeous city with the river and beautiful gardens right beside it, and three, it's such a sport city, and I love my sports! Later on that night we just walked along the river getting an amazing view of the city at night.

Monday May 4th, 2009:
Today I woke up quite early because one of my friends Emily was leaving that morning to go to New Zealand while Kirthika and I were headed back to Brisbane the next day. I offered to wake up early to walk Emily to the bus station that would take her to the airport. After she got on the bus I walked back to the hostel to make sure Kirthika was up and ready for our last full day in Melbourne. Walking early that morning, I caught a lot of the business people heading to work that morning. I don't know why, but I just enjoyed it, maybe becuase one day I could work in Melbourne, yeah right, maybe in my dreams. I've never seen more coffee shops than I did when in Melbourne; they are literally everywhere!! Once I got back, Kirthika and I headed out first to Queen Victoria Market where there were a lot of cute little shops. A lot of the places were closed, I don't know why, but some were still open including this one place where I bought this goregous necklace at; it was definitely calling my name. The whole store reminded me of my mom. I could definitely see my mom spending hours in that store and wish she could have been there with me. Queen Victoria Market had a lot of little uniquie shops that you can't just find anywhere in the city. After that adventure, we took the train to St. Kilda, another suberb of Melbourne that had pretty beaches and cute shops. I managed to find another jewelry store and spent about and hour in there. We just walked along the beach, and into and out of different shops. We grabbed some lunch and dessert on one of many bakeries along the street. After heading back into Melbourne, we told ourselves it was our last night ant that we wanted to go to a nice restaurant with a good view, and we did manage to do that. But before we ate, we visited the Melbourne Aquarium and saw penguins!! We also so sharks, fish, turtles, sting rays and other various cool sea creatures. We then ate at an italian restaurant that looked over the river and the city. It was really pretty and the food was really good. After that we got gelato at this really good place we saw the previous day and said we'd get ice cream on this night. After we ate our ice cream we walked around a little bit more and then we totally forgot about the Skydeck 88 tower we wanted to see. This tower took you up 88 floors up and you get an amazing view of the city. We didn't know if it would still be open or not, but we went over there and it was still open! We went up and it really was an awesome view of the city, and really cool at night with all the lights!! For an extra fee (of course) you can go on 'the edge' which we did. We went on to this enclosed cublicle room and it extended out 4 meters so we got to see everything around us including under us! Melbourne at night is awesome! After our Skydeck 88 experience, we headed back to the hostel, saying goodbye to the city, as we had to get up very early to catch the bus to the airport for our 9am flight back to Brisbane.

Tuesday May 5th, 2009:
We woke up quite early to catch the 7am bus to get us to the airport. I was so sad to leave this city. There have only been a few places in which I did not want to leave, and Melbourne was one of them. I felt like I connected really well with the city and would love to come back again someday. We managed to get back to Brisbane by 11:30am. I had a class I had to make it to by 1pm. After taking the train then the bus back to my apartment, it was about 12:30 and it takes about 25 min to walk to campus. I literally went up to my unit, dropped all my stuff in my room, grabbed my bag and notebook and walked to class. Of course I felt disoriented in class as I didn't want to be there and I just wanted to be back in Melbourne. But overall, Melbourne was an AMAZING trip and am so glad I got to see it. I can't wait to go back there sometime!!

The weeks following Melbourne were quite hectic. I had a scientific report due the Thursday after I got back. Then two scientific reports and a packet due the next week, and one of my final exams the following week. So that is why I haven't been able to write that much. Although two weekends ago I went with a couple girls to Mooloolaba, which is a few hours north of here on the Sunshine Coast. It was really pretty there. Last weekend I saw an AFL game at the Gabba in Brisbane (the Gabba is the stadium). We saw the Brisbane Lions play, and they're actually really good. Managed to by myself a jersey for the city I have been studying in. Brisbane (which is located in Queensland) really is the sunshine state; it's really always sunny here, and always distracts me from my work. Except the past couple days have been rainy. Of course the rainy days happen on day when I don't have much work to do. This coming weekend I'm going to the Whitsunday Islands. The Whitsundays are up north, and quite close to the Great Barrier Reef. So far I know we're doing a 2 day, 1 night sailing trip which should be a lot of fun, get to do some more snorkelling 😊. And before I know it I'm going to be back in the US of A. I only have two more weeks of actual classes left. Then from June 7th-13th, is revison period, where there are no classes or exams. From June 14th-27th are final exams. I have 2 final exams (I already had one this past week), one on June 19th and one on June 24th. I just made some changes to my return flight back to the States and now everything should be finalized. I leave from Sydney on June 26th to Fiji for a 5 night stay, then heading back to Chicago on July 1st, returning to Chicago O'hare Int'l Aiport at 11:05pm. I really can't believe it's been almost 4 months that I've been here. Time has really flown by and I'm not quite ready to leave. I feel like I'm not going to be able to see and do everything I want to in Australia, but more the reason to come back here some day and finish my journey, as well as go to New Zealand. But don't get me wrong, I am looking forward to seeing my family and friends when I do get back 😊. I will write more after I get back from the Whitsunday Islands!!

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Photos

We reached Melbourne!
Emily and I walking in the city after landing in Melbourne

Great Ocean Road
Kirthika, me, and Emily posing infront of the entrance to the Great Ocean Road

Crazy Birds!
This one would not leave my head!

Great Ocean Road
One of the many photos taken along our journey on the Great Ocean Road

Rainforest
me and Kirthika making a jumping photo

12 Apostles
me posing in front of the 12 Apostles

Pretty views
Emily, me and Kirthika

Great Ocean Road
the colors were just beutiful

Great Ocean Road
me, Kirthika, and Emily

Great Ocean Road
cool view

Great Ocean Road
me in front of the cool view from below

London Bridge
this rock formation was called 'London Bridge'

Sorrento!
me on the lookout tower while in Sorrento

Sorrento
view of the ocean from the lookout tower

Sorrento
me again with the beautiful view

Ice Cream
Emily and I with our ice cream! I was so excited about my chocolate dipped sprinkle cone!

Comments

[atmrtwbike]

Glad you had a great time in Melbourne and Victoria! Melbourne's my favourite Australian city. And the Great Ocean Road? I used to live just beyond the western end of it - in Warrnambool.