"Melbin" :)

I spent a week of my mid-semester/Easter break   (I have to be careful not to call it my Spring break, as it is actually Fall in Australia) in Melbourne, Australia. Melbourne is actually pronounced Melbin here :)

I traveled with my friends Autumn, Chris, and Andrew.

We stayed in St. Kilda, which is an inner southern suburb of Melbourne, located on a sandy stretch of Port Phillip Bay. It was only a short tram ride away from the central business district of Melbourne. St. Kilda is a quaint beach town that has a really cool vibe to it. There were “heaps” (lots) of shops, restaurants, and cafes all really close by.

Cake shop after cake shop temped us with amazing window displays of deliciousness.

Also extremely close by was Luna Park, a carnival that is home to the Scenic Railway Roller Coaster, a large wooden roller coaster that has the title of being the oldest continually operating wooden roller coaster in the world. We were right on the beach, which gave us easy access to the St. Kilda Pier, where we were able to see beautiful sunsets, a scenic view of sailboats and the city in the distance, and little penguins who appear after sunset. I loved St. Kilda and I am really glad that we chose to stay there.

The central business district of Melbourne was also amazing, but in different ways. It portrayed the hustle and the bustle of locals working in the area, tourists exploring the area, and anyone and everyone enjoying all that the city has to offer. The architecture was amazing, with such beautiful buildings all around. I often felt like I was walking the streets of Europe.

In preparation for this trip and asking around for tips/advice and must see/do places and activities, I had very high expectations. Not one person had a single bad thing to say about Melbourne. I was continuously told how much everyone loved the city and how much I was going to love it as well. I can confidently say that my expectations were not only met, but exceeded. Melbourne was an amazing place, I had an amazing time taking as much in as I could, and I would visit again in a heartbeat!

Here are some main highlights of my trip :) 

We arrived Friday (4/6/12) night after flying in on Tiger airways from Gold Coast airport. When first stepping out into Melbourne air, I was almost blown away (seriously!) I have never experienced such strong winds, it was so crazy! Melbourne is known to be a city where you can experience all four seasons in one day. I didn’t know it then, but that was the first experience of the weather mood swings (as I called them). We made our way to our hostel in St. Kilda from Melbourne airport and checked in and then walked around a little bit to explore our “stomping grounds” for the next week. We stumbled upon a happening Latin restaurant and indulged in some tapas for dinner.

The next day (our first full day in Melbourne) we rode the tram into the city to explore. Melbourne still uses trams that run along cable lines as a public transportation option. It was very easy and convenient to use. We walked blocks upon blocks discovering the area. We first walked around the Carlton Gardens outside of the Royal Exhibition Building.

We then came across Chinatown, which felt as if we were actually in Asia. It is a street packed with restaurants and shops, and it energetically displays the Asian architecture and culture.

We walked along the main shopping street and wishfully window shopped.

All along the streets there were live performers and entertainers, which we would occasionally stop to watch/listen and enjoy.

Some of the main buildings we continued to see, as they were along the main popular streets of Melbourne, were St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Forum Theater, Flinders Street Station, and Southern Cross Station. Federation (Fed) Square was also in this area. Fed Square felt to me as if it were the city’s meeting place. After walking around for quite a while, we decided to go to the Melbourne Aquarium and see what it had to offer. We had a lot of fun seeing penguins, various fish, sting rays, sharks, and many other sea creatures.

I learned some fun facts too, like:

After a long day in the city, we headed back to St. Kilda and went to Luna Park for a little while. While Chris and Autumn were riding the roller coaster, Andrew and I had fun winning prizes!

The next day was Easter Sunday. Autumn and I got an early start and found a local café that we fell in love with (95 espresso). We went back to this café almost every morning; they had the best latte that I have had yet in Australia. Melbourne is known for having great coffee, and Australians in general have such a talent in latte art.

Every Sunday St. Kilda hosts a market at the Esplanade featuring local artists and vendors. It was cool to see all the artwork and crafts that were being showcased. Autumn and I then took advantage of a slightly warmer (but still cold) day and walked along the beach and onto the Pier.

There was a lot going on at St. Kilda this day so we just enjoyed the area and the day. Later at night we went into the city and saw a comedy show, as the Melbourne International Comedy Festival was going on while we were there. We saw one show with five different comedians and they were all pretty funny.

The next day started early, with a 7:20am pickup by Wildlife Tours Australia. We had pre-planned a two day trip to tour the Great Ocean Road and the Grampians National Park. There were probably about 20 of us on this tour. Our driver/tour guide, Chris, was very knowledgeable and a lot of fun. We drove (in very tight and windy roads!) a lot, stopping often at popular and scenic stops along the way.

Our first main stop was at the Great Ocean Road Memorial Arch, then we saw wild koalas and King parrots at Kennett River, and then we stopped for lunch in Apollo Bay.

Next on the agenda was a bushwalk through the Otway Rainforest, which is home to the carnivorous black snail and some of the world’s tallest trees.

Our next stop was the one I was really looking forward to and most excited for; the Twelve Apostles! It was incredible and absolutely beautiful.

Just as beautiful were Loch Ard Gorge, London Bridge, and Bay of Martyrs.

This day I saw some more of Melbourne’s weather mood swings. It was cold.. VERY cold all day long, but it would go from being sunny to cloudy, then sunny again, to raining, to sunny, back to raining, and then we even got hailed on! The incredibly strong wind didn’t help this situation, as freezing hail bits were pelting us in the face. We were no where near cover when this occurred, so there was nothing to do but laugh and scream at the top of our lungs! The wind was so strong (as can be proven by my hair in all these pictures), at one point we jumped in the air and the wind actually carried us!

We ended our first day of the tour at Ned’s Other beds, in the heart of Grampians National Park. We had an early start again the next morning. Bright and early we went to see some wild kangaroos :)

This then led us into our hike up the mountains in the Grampians National Park. It was beautiful from the top. We made it to the Boroka & Reed’s lookout at the top. On the way down, I was growled at by some kangaroos.. luckily I survived.

We stopped at the Brambuk Aboriginal Cultural Centre, where we learned about the history and culture of the Jardwadjali and Djab Wurring Aboriginal tribes. Within Halls Gap we saw MacKenzie Falls, the largest waterfall in the Grampians.

We also tackled a challenging uphill hike to the “Jaws of Death” lookout point.

Our last stop of the tour was at Best’s Winery, where we were able to try four different wines that they produce.

On our way back to St. Kilda we made a pit stop at the Giant Koala. 

Despite the freezing weather, we had a great time on this tour. We saw some of the most beautiful and memorable sights.

Wednesday we went back into the city to cross more things off our “must do/see list”. We went to the Eureka Skydeck, Melbourne’s tallest building, and saw the city from a different angle. We made it to the 88^th floor in 36 seconds! This was a great way to see how large and beautiful the city really was.

I had researched a place called Belgian Beer Café before we left and had been keeping an eye out for it while walking around the past couple of days. Today was my lucky day, as it was right next to the Eureka Skydeck! We stopped in for lunch and I enjoyed a Bluetongue Pilsner on a beautiful day in Melbourne :)

We went on to explore the State Library, as people had recommended that we see it. I am so glad that we went, as this library was so beautiful. The architecture was amazing, and each level was filled with historical information, as if it were a museum.

Thursday morning we traveled back into the city to go to the Queen Victoria Market. Every week, vendors come and set up at the market and sell their products. Basically it was like a flea market. There were a lot of souvenirs (but nothing authentic), bags, rugs, make-up, etc. for sale. Anything and everything basically, but what was most impressive to me was the fruit and vegetable section. Isles upon isles of fresh fruits and veggies; I was in heaven! I indulged in some strawberries, grapes, and a pear.

We finally went to the Crown Casino, which is the largest casino in Australia, to play a few “pokies” (slot machines). After roaming around the city some more, we made our way back to St. Kilda. We wanted to be back before sunset to watch it over the pier and see the little penguins that come out on the rocks. It was just absolutely beautiful, and gave me one of those “this is unreal, and I am so lucky” feelings.

A few penguins came out once the sun set. One in particular was not shy at all. He stood right up on a rock and enjoyed every moment of everyone taking his picture.

Friday (4/13/12) wrapped up our amazing trip to Melbourne, as we had to check out and head back to the airport. We had an easy flight back and jumped right back into life on the Gold Coast.

If anyone is interested, there are hundreds of more pictures on my Facebook page :)

Next trip to look forward to: Sydney! I leave in just a few days for my next adventure. Stay tuned :)

Gloucester

I spent this past weekend in Gloucester, New South Wales, Australia. This is where my roommate, Tamara is from, and she invited Autumn and I to go home with her for the weekend. Gloucester is about 9 hours (driving) away from where we live on the Gold Coast, so we prepared ourselves for a road trip. We left Friday morning and arrived Friday night. It was a very beautiful and scenic drive down. We passed The Big Banana, which is a popular tourist rest stop. We even got to see the sunset, which was really pretty. We had a time change an hour ahead when we crossed the New South Wales border.

Tamara took us to the local pub Friday night for a little bit, as it closed at 11pm (and always does!).

Gloucester is a very small town out in the country. It is the kind of place where everyone knows everyone and there is one of everything; one grocery store, one doctor, one pub, one post office, etc. Tamara’s graduating class had only 40 people in it!

I tried a famous Gloucester "thick shake", which was delicious :)

Saturday was the Gloucester Show, which is a big event in town. People wait for it all year long. It reminded me of a carnival or a fair. During the day there was horse jumping, wood chopping contests, etc.

It had rides and food stands with typical carnival food.

Fun fact: cotton candy here is called fairy floss!

One of the farmers let Autumn and I take a picture with his bull. He was huge (even though it doesn’t look like it in the pictures), and he was still young and not yet fully grown. He had a ring in his nose and everything.

We spent a good portion of the afternoon at the show and then Tamara took us around town to some lookout points to see the views. It really was beautiful up in the mountains; there was so much undisturbed land and everything was so green.

Later that night we went back to the Gloucester Show with Tamara’s whole family. In addition to everything they had going on during the day, they also had car drifting, the smashup derby, etc. The smashup derby seemed to be the most anticipated event by everyone. The show was wrapped up with a small fireworks show.

It was nice to visit another town, especially one out in the country in New South Wales.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I spent this St. Patrick's Day exploring the city of Brisbane, Australia! It has been on my list of cities that I want to travel to, and since Autumn and I had no plans for the day, we made a spur of the moment decision to just go. Everyone had been telling us how easy it was to get there so we figured, "why not?!" Brisbane is located about an hour north of Ashmore. We figured that we would take this opportunity to, if nothing else, learn how exactly to get there.

We thought it would be simple, but boy were we wrong! We woke up at 7am to get an early start and hopefully have a full day in Brisbane. We left our apartment with enough time to walk to the bus stop and catch the bus to the train station. As we were sitting and waiting for it, we saw a bus pull up on the other side of the road.. our bus!, and before we could even react, it was pulling away just as fast! We certainly would have caught it if we had just been on the right side of the road. However, I am still not sure how you know which side of the street a bus is going to pick up and drop off. We looked into when the next bus was going to come, and since it was a Saturday, it wasn't coming again for another two hours. We agreed that we couldn't sit around waiting for it and waste all that time, so we decided to call a cab to take us to the Nerang train station. When we got there, we weren't sure exactly what to do. We got in line to ask if all we needed to do was swipe our 'go cards' (which we had done) or if we needed to buy a ticket for the train. Once we got to the front of the line and asked what train to catch to get to Brisbane, the man smiled and pointed to the train that was right next to us that was just leaving! So now we missed the bus and the train by seconds. All we could do though was find the humor in it and laugh. We had to wait a half hour for the next train to Brisbane. Once we caught it, it took about an hour, making fairly frequent stops along the way. The last stop was at a town close to Brisbane; everyone had to get off and then you were bussed to your end destination. We were let off at Central Station. At this point we were tired, hungry, and feeling a little defeated, but as soon as we took a look around, we realized how awesome the city looked and we became super excited again! We were let off right by a memorial building with an eternal flame inside. There were also lots of statues around this area; it was really pretty. We decided to grab some lunch and a coffee at a cute cafe across the street. After the perfect pick me up, we asked to be pointed in the direction of shopping! We made our way to the main streets and we spent the afternoon browsing through numerous outdoor shops, as well as stores inside the mall.

It was really cool that we were exploring Brisbane on St. Patrick's Day because the city was filled with festive people, dressed in green, celebrating the Irish culture. There were Irish music performances going on as well. It gave the city a really cool vibe.

The weather turned on us later in the afternoon, and making our way back in the rain was not fun. We had to catch a bus to get back to the train station, and then catch the train back to the Gold Coast. Since it was raining, and "the tracks were wet", we had a very long delay on the way back. What should have taken about an hour, ended up taking two hours. Since we were so delayed getting back to Nerang train station, the busses were no longer running. We had no choice but to call a cab again to get home. I don't think this would have normally been a problem, but since there was a local Rugby game that evening and since it was also St. Patrick's Day, there were a lot of people waiting for cabs. It also wouldn't have been a problem if the cabs were consistently coming and going, but none were coming at all. We called a couple of times for one, as did other people, but no cabs were really coming through. After over an hour's wait, we finally got one!

We ran into unexpected delays and setbacks, and some bad weather, but we still had an amazing day and I am so glad that we went! This spur of the moment day trip gave us an experience, some good laughs, and the chance to explore a new city. We plan on going back to Brisbane again and staying for a few days and nights so that we can see and do more of the city. Now we know how to get there and back, and hopefully we won't run into the same problems next time; although it made for a funny story and great memory :)

One Month Mark

This past Wednesday (March 14, 2012) was Autumn and I's one month mark of arriving in Australia. I can't believe how fast the time has gone already! We had uni all day and then we made a nice dinner to celebrate.

On Thursday (March 15, 2012) I was finally able to meet up with my friend Erica from back home. Erica did the same exchange program two years ago that I am doing now. She loved Australia and also met and started dating a guy while over here. After the program was over, she went back to Orlando to finish school and she eventually moved back here and is now living with her boyfriend in Mermaid Beach, Australia! She picked me up and took me to Broadbeach, which is an area that I hadn't been to yet, but had been wanting to check out. We walked around for a bit and then grabbed some sushi for lunch. A lot of sushi restaurants here are based around a conveyor belt of small plates that just go around and around, and you grab what looks good and what you want. You then pay per plate at the end. It is a cool concept and it was fun, but the sushi wasn't as great as it is back home.

Exciting news: Autumn and I have booked our flights to Melbourne (pronounced "Melbin" here) during our mid-semester break from uni. Our American friends, Chris and Andrew, that also live at Nexus Place, are coming too. Melbourne is apparently a really "rad" city and everyone here has such great things to say about it. I am really looking forward to it!

"Uni"

While everyone back home is enjoying Spring Break, I am just finishing up my second week of classes in Australia. Everyone here calls school/college/university simply "uni". I was finally able to put together a pretty awesome schedule. I only go to uni two days a week, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. They are long days, but it is worth it to have five day weekends!

The classes that I am taking are International Food and Beverage Management, Special Interest Tourism, Tourism Operations, and Event Marketing and Sponsorship. In Australia, for each class, you have to go to a lecture and a tutorial. Lectures are an hour and fifty minutes long, and tutorials are only fifty minutes long. The lecture sections are much larger and you basically listen to the convener of the course go through powerpoint slides. The tutorials are much smaller and much more interactive. Tutorials are taught by the section tutor and you discuss readings, work on assignments, etc.

Something else that is different here is their grading system. They don't go by A, B, C, D, and F. They instead go by High Definition (HD), Distinction (D), Credit (C), Pass (P), and Fail (N). I am aiming for all HD's :)