Day 1: Thursday, April 5
We arrived in Melbourne bright and early at 8am after spending the night on the bus. Since my friend's uni was quite a bit outside of the city, we had to get a train, then 2 buses to get to her dorm. After this weekend I gained an extreme hatred for public transportation. It took us twice as long to get anywhere, and we were always relying on several different train/bus/tram routes to get anywhere. Not to mention, I got the door shut in my face twice. We got to Kristy's and settled in and gathered some recommendations of things we should do in the city. We decided to check out the Queen Victoria Market this afternoon and take a walk around the city. So we bussed and trained back downtown to the market, which had everything from fresh fruit to fish to cheap souvenirs. Then we walked around Federation Square where part of the international comedy festival was taking place. We decided to end our day early after hardly sleeping the night before and head back.
We made plans to get up early and head to Saint Kilda beach for a laid back day in the sand and check out the amusement park, Luna Park. Since it was considered a "public holiday" admission tickets were abnormally expensive and we decided to pass on paying for any tickets. We got at least 4 hours of solid beach time though, and walked around the fun beach side boutiques and shops. As it started to get dark we headed back for a shower before deciding to hit up the casino for the night. I played the slot machines, because I didn't know how to do anything else, and ended up winning $16, which I'm pretty proud of for my first time gambling. I decided to stop while I was ahead and go back to the train station to make what we thought was the last train back, but it turns out we were 30 minutes off and missed the train entirely. My $16 winnings quickly went towards our $60 cab fare back to where we were staying...
A day of shopping was definitely in order for our trip, so we bussed to the Chadstone Mall nearby, after missing the bus by 30 seconds and waiting 45 minutes for the next one (once again- public transport problems). The mall was huge and after spending 3 hours and still not covering the whole thing, we decided to call it quits and head back. Little did we know, we had an eventful ride home in store for us. An older man got on and proceeded to harass a few of the passengers for the duration of our ride-- ranting about disrespect to our elders, no knowledge of Australian culture, and treating women with respect... all the passengers stayed quite and we tried our best to ignore him, as he was obviously not in clear state of mind. Yet another reason I despise public transportation. We then packed our bags and headed towards the hostel we would be staying in for the next two nights. Unfortunately, we took the wrong bus and went 30 minutes in the opposite direction of our destination, altering our intended schedule. Once we finally arrived at our hostel we sought out a Mexican restaurant for dinner, something very rare to find in Australia. The hostel was fun and hosted a lot of young travellers such as ourselves-- we roomed with a girl from the UK and another from Ireland. However, the cleanliness of the bathrooms and hallways were disgusting. The hallways reeked of smelly feet and the showers were dirty and covered in hair. I guess you get what you pay for?
Day 4: Sunday, April 8
Finally the Great Ocean Road tour! This road is 263 km and follows the southern tip of Victoria, starting in Melbourne. This road is said to have some of the most beautiful views in Australia and is notorious for it's amazing rock structures, gorgeous beaches and massive waves. We took the one-day bus tour (they also offered 2 and 3 day tours) which covered 90% of the length of the road and made stops at the majority of the famous ones. We skipped over the Bells Beach stop due to an international surf competition that was going on and went straight to the Memorial Arch, which is a popular photo spot. We stopped at a few beautiful lookouts before stopping at a destination notorious for wild koalas and native birds. For lunch we ate at a local restaurant at Apollo Bay along the way. Next we went on a bush walk through the temperate rain forest to look at some of the tallest trees in Australia, almost comparable to the ones I remember seeing in San Francisco. Then we got to move onto to the coolest and most miraculous sites-- The Twelve Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge, and London Bridge. All of these destinations included magnificent rock formations creating beautiful views. The London Bridge was especially beautiful since we arrived to this spot just at sunset. Finally we embarked on the 3 hour drive back to Melbourne and went straight to sleep after a long day.
Day 5: Monday, April 9
Our last day in Melbourne, but we made sure it was a busy one. After checking out of the hostel and storing our bags, we went to seek out a district called Prahran, where Emily's cousin used to live and opened a restaurant. It was a cute, artsy district with lots of cafes, boutiques and shops. Unfortunately since it was the day after Easter a lot of the stores were closed, including the restaurant we went down to eat at. After spending the morning in Prahran we headed back to the city to take the free tourist shuttle bus tour around the city which showed a lot of the historical sites and other tourist attractions. We stopped at the Eureka tower to get a look of the city from 88 stories up. After returning back down to Earth, we hopped back on the shuttle bus and went to the Bourke Street shopping district complete with high end stores way too expensive for my budget, but window shopping was entertaining nonetheless. For dinner we decided to go to a pub for $5 pizzas and ended up making a much further journey than intended. Finally we sprinted (it was so cold and windy at this point) back to the hostel to collect our belongings and make our way to the bus station for our trip home. 4:00 AM we finally arrived back in good old Canberra... Home sweet home!
Melbourne was a beautiful and exciting city, with some of the most fascinating architecture I've ever seen. However, I don't think I would enjoy living in the hustle-and-bustle environment of such a big city. I'm content with the atmosphere Canberra has to offer and have enjoyed calling this place my home for the past few months. I leave this amazing country in a little over a month now, so I hope I can make the best of my time remaining here.
Here are some other words that Aussies have a special way of prounouncing...
Oregano = oh-ray-GAN-o
Aluminum= al-oo-MIN-ium
Idea= Idear
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