Sunday Josh, Alex, Madeleine, and I went to the War Memorial. I expected it to be JUST a memorial, like you see in DC, but the inside of it is really a museum… huge, exhibits for WWI & II. Full size planes and submarines. Tomb of the unknown soldier. We definitely didn’t even come close to seeing everything. It was really nice though. My favorite parts were all the aircrafts and one memorial which was a wall with pictures of all the Australians who died on the Death March (over 1700 died, only 6 survived). It was also interesting to learn about the landing at Gallipoli in WWI - that battle is pretty much what formed Australia's national identity. We had dinner at the Pancake Parlour. Yummmmm, nothing like banana cinnamon vanilla ice cream pancakes after a day of getting frustrated with the weekend bus schedule!
(war memorial)
(faces of those killed in death march)
SOOO three weekends ago was the start of our 2 week break. First stop was Melbourne, the most "European" city of Australia, known for its cafes, shopping, and black being in fashion.
We were going with a tour group called Extreme Adventures, who specialize in trips for international students. The bus picked us up in the city at 1am, and then we drove down the block... and they told us to get off the bus for our 20 minute break. The Macquarie and University of New South Wales had already been on the bus for 3 hours, but why did they pick us up before the rest stop?! Back on the bus, every seat was filled. I was next to a Mexican girl named Joselina. We were in front of the bathrooms and our seats didn’t recline. Plus the bus was freezing. I was MISERABLE on the 8 HOUR ride.
When we arrived the next morning, we checked into our hostel, Nomad, which was quite nice, and had a nice big breakfast at the café a few doors down. I roamed with Liz and Nell to our first destination, the Rialto Tower, the tallest building in the city. We saw a movie and went to the lookout for 360 degree views.
Then we were on our own, despite the fact that the itinerary said our guides were supposed to show us around. Girls and guys headed together to Federation Square. It’s an architectural landmark… unfortunately it’s kind of ugly and the establishments in the square aren’t too impressive, mostly food and drinks it seemed. The girls lost the guys though when we found the Pixar exhibit, so we took pictures with the Monsters Inc monsters and the Cars car.
After that, we walked towards the arts center and found an awesome interactive art exhibit called Playground Experimentia. After being amused by our morphing shadows and fishtank music skills, we hopped on the free tram that goes in a circle around the city (I wish every city had free transport!). We rode it most of the way around and listened to the narration about the sites. I would have loved to go check out the gaol (Australian for jail, weirdos) where Ned Kelly was hanged. We past lots of interesting buildings and statues (one of a cow in a tree?).
We got off at the Melbourne Museum. It was great! One of those museums I would have loved when I was little cause it was filled with stuffed animals and skeletons... including dinosaurs! We spent a good time there, so we didn’t make it to the famous Queen Victoria Markets, which is too bad considering they were so close to our hostel.
The funny thing is that they say Melbourne can experience 4 seasons in one day, or “If you don’t like the weather in Melbourne, just wait a minute.” It was so true on this day! We’d walk around and it would be sunny, cloudy, chilly, warm, cloudy, raining, sunny, cold, hot.
We were rushed to have dinner (at the hostel bar) and get ready to go because when our itinerary said “hottest night spots,” it actually meant wherever our tourguide Mick has a buddy who will let us in free, so we had to go early with 75 people going. We walked to a place that I forget the name of, but the crowd was too old for us (businessmen after work) and the music too quiet (I even heard a girl say, “I’ve been here before. It’s shit.”) Joselina, Steph, and I left early, intending to go back to the hostel, but instead we ended up in CQ, a club that didn't play bad techno and which no one else managed to get into. A group of Australians needed 3 more girls to even out their guy-to-girl ratio before being let in, so we got in for free and on the guest list. Good times!
We had to be on the bus the next day at 7am to start our Great Ocean Road tour. A beautiful scenic road but a LONG day. We didn’t make as many stops as we all expected. We stopped at Bells Beach to see the beautiful cliffs and watch surfers and apparently this location means something if you’ve seen the movie Point Break. We stopped at a little town called Lorne and at another called Apollo’s Bay for lunch. The bus driver wouldn’t stop, but we got to see WILD KOALAS! That was one thing I didn’t actually expect to see in Oz, but there they were, about 20 of them hanging out in the trees where a river comes out to the sea. One was even hanging upside-down. Jess got the only successful picture of one… of course, she took it through the bus windshield, so there is a nice squashed fly right where the koala’s head should be.
(hahaha)
One thing that ruined the scenic quality of the trip was one of the Macquarie girls. She must have never seen the ocean before or something because she kept screaming about waves and how big they were. She also screamed her lungs out at the koalas, running back and forth to both sides of the bus. She also asked Mick and the bus driver a lot of very dumb questions, such as “Is that wave big?” and other equally irrelevant or obvious questions. Needless to say, the next day I was happy to hear that a bird pooped on her shoulder.
Our last stop was the 12 Apostles. Only like 8-1/2 are still standing. They’re rocks… sand really… the remnants of cliff that once stood, but the ocean has caused the coast line to collapse so that these parts stand alone. It’s a really beautiful view and such a shame that it wasn’t a sunny day. Some people did a helicopter ride, but it was $80 for 10 minutes, so I passed.
By the time we got back to the hostel, it was after 7:00. We were supposed to have time to explore and get dinner on our own, but Mick encouraged us to get pizza at the bar. It was something like $7 for 3 slices and a drink, so we did that, but it was disappointing that once again, we didn’t get to do what the itinerary said and we were pressed for time. We got ready to go out to another of Mick’s buddy’s clubs. It was an improvement on the last one, but we ended up at another place in some old building in the city.
The next morning we headed out to the St Kilda area to check out the markets and shops. Some people made the mistake of spending their 2 hours being treated with slow, rude service at a café, but the rest of us went shopping! Had a delish Danish from a bakery and bought an amazing pair of boots that were only $30 at a European shop. My most fashionable purchase ever. The market was another great selection of crafts, jewelry, and most anything you’d want. We walked on the beach as well- we wanted to stay here all day!
(Some people I know and some I don't in St Kilda)
But we were off to the AFL game. Melbourne Kangaroos vs Western Bulldogs. Kangaroos won – good, cause I was cheering for them! I tried to learn their team song and sang along when they played it twice at the end. It was a sweet game, with its nonstop action, a few injuries, and guys running up other guys’ backs to catch the ball. It was also good to see a game in a big stadium… I think there were 30,000 people at the game (about 3x more people than the AFL game in Canberra).
After the game, it was back on the bus. Unfortunately, there were fights over seats, so Mick made everyone get back in their original seats, which for Joselina and me meant the ones in front of the bathroom which didn’t recline. Another cold, sleepless 8 hours. I did manage to finish a book (Life of Pi), so that was good. And props to the McDonald’s employees who handled 60 of us in an incredibly short amount of time.
Overall, I liked Melbourne, but I wish I could have had more time to see things in the city - I feel like I would like it more if I really got to experience more of what it had to offer. And I wouldn't do a tour with Extreme Adventures again.
Thankfully, Nell convinced Mick and the driver that we should be dropped off on campus instead of in the city. I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO HAPPY TO RETURN TO CANBERRA. I hopped off the bus and wanted to kiss the ground! I WAS FREE FROM THE BUS!!!! The funny part was, we were dropped off at a point on campus none of us had never been to. It was 1 or 2am and we just started walking. It was dark, unfamiliar territory. Kangaroos bounded around us (take that obnoxious Macquarie “I’m never going to see a wild kangaroo” girl!). After probably 20 minutes, we were finally at home sweet Arscott. I was super pleased to see my bed. I had a glorious 4 hours of sleep before getting up to start the first leg of my journey to Cairns in Tropical North Queensland…
More photos from Melbourne here:
http://gmu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2097751&l=f295f&id=15600311
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