As I sit here, blankly staring at my computer screen, my mind is sluggishly contemplating how to proceed with this post. I suppose I will begin by explaining that I am more exhausted than I have ever been in my life, but though my face is too tired to smile, I am beaming inside. And so I begin my story. I'm going to share the briefest version, which will still be long...
Sunday morning, I woke up at 6:30 am to board an 8:15 flight to Melbourne. There were about 130 of us going on the trip, so we divided into two groups, and I was lucky to be on the earlier flight. From the minute we boarded the bus, I knew the trip was going to be one of the best of my life. Jeremy, my friend, gets extremely nervous when he flies, which he reflects by rapping and dancing in his seat (his nervous tick). This was quite entertaining to everyone involved. The minute we landed, we boarded a bus to our hotel, which was absolutely gorgeous and situated on the edge of a park on Exhibition Street. I'll interject and mention that Melbourne is a grid-city, which made it unreasonably easy for us to learn the city in just a few days.
Our first excursion (still divided into half the group) was to the Victoria markets. I'm a huge sucker for markets, so this was especially exciting for me. I split off from my friends for a while and wandered through the food sections for a few hours. Fresh fruits, vegetables, breads, chocolates, jams, candies, and other delicious edibles were abundant in every direction. I was in heaven. I succumbed to two treats: a white chocolate champagne truffle, which no words can describe, and a jar of passionfruit butter. Who knew such amazing things existed?! After my sugar fix, group two of the travelers arrived and we met up to press forward through the city.
From the markets, we walked to Brunswick Street, which was recommended to us by RA Dan's Australian cousin. We explored a number of cool holes-in-the-wall and sat down for a refreshing crushed apple cider at the Black Cat Lounge. Brunswick Street is located on the outskirts of the grid, so it's very quiet and removed from the bustling city life.
After our rest, I split off from the group again to check out St. Patrick's Cathedral, pictured below. It was breathtaking, both inside and out. It is set in a sort of courtyard/garden area and surrounded by a low stone and iron fence. The crystal clear sky brought out a blue undertone in the church's grey stones, which only added to its majesty. I sat inside for a while and then walked around the perimeter, all the while in awe. It was too big to capture entirely, but this photo shows the entrance.
At this point, it was mid-afternoon and I was eager to head over to the St. Kilda festival. St. Kilda is a really cool town outside of Melbourne that's on the water and has a bunch of cool restaurants. Jeremy and I stood way out on a sand bar and watched the clouds roll by for about an hour. There wasn't really a sunset, as it was pretty cloudy, but it was still gorgeous and great to be on the water.
That night, we explored several laneways (alley ways) with cool bars and pubs in them. We capped off the night at the Supper Club, and indulged in some fois grois and delicious white wine. RA Dan and I came up with a great system; I provide the snack and he provides the wine! We all lounged on the rooftop of the bar until the wee hours of the morning, feeling like royalty. It was wonderful.
On Monday morning, RA Dan and I tore ourselves out of bed early to go to a famous pancake spot. I will say that though it took a LOT of willpower to crawl out from under my covers, it was beyond worth it. A great start to the day. After this, we all met up at the RMIT (a university nearby where we were staying) and split off into guided tours of the city. Mine explored the art of graffiti in Melbourne and compared it to Sydney. I had never been very interested in graffiti, but after this tour I find it so fascinating! I learned that it is a legitimate, established art form and there are rules and codes among artists...not to mention about a thousand laws regulating where and when you can paint. Here's an example of one of my favorite pieces we saw...
The tour was so eye-opening for me. I used to think of graffiti as a means of marking territory, in a sense, but now I understand that it is some artists' preferred means of expression. Very cool stuff.
After the graffiti tour, I shared a quick dinner with some friends in Melbourne's Chinatown. Though it's small, they have dozens of restaurants to choose from, so it took a while. After exploring a few new and interesting bars, we settled on another rooftop lounge called Cookie, which is located in a building called the Curtain House. The floor of the roof was lined with turf, and there were lawn chairs sprawled all over the place for people to lounge in and check out the stars. I was introduced to Pimms for the first time- which is an English drink that has cucumber, fruit, and other tasty things in it. Yum! It was a relatively mellow night, but still a blast nonetheless. A good portion of kids from the program showed up, so it was fun chatting with everyone in a new place.
On Tuesday, we woke up at 7 to tour the Great Ocean Road! I was more excited about this than anything else in Melbourne, and I'll say right off the bat that it was a mind-blowing experience. The only downfall was the amount of bus time it involved, but it was worth it to see the 12 Apostles, London Bridge, and lots of wild animals!
Our tour guide, Natalie, was fantastic. She was excited to have a group of youngsters with her, as she usually endures a bus full of elderly tourists more interested in the free tea than anything (so she said). She had a lovely, soothing voice and woke us up with a soft, "We're home, darlings," when we arrived in Sydney. On the contrary, she blasted our choice of music and passionately sang along to "Piano Man" with us. All in all, she was amazing and made the day very special for us.
This is a photo of some of the 12 Apostles. Google them- I'm sure Wikipedia can explain the rock formations better than I can!
London Bridge- which used to be connected to the mainland until, you guessed it, it fell down!
Can you spot the jellies?
Wednesday: the shortened version. Woke up, shared more amazing pancakes (this time hot buttered walnut pancakes), went on a tour of the theatre district of Melbourne with my economics professor. The Melbourne Arts Centre is SO COOL! It looks like the Eiffel Tower on top of a big pebble. See below...
The first floor is actually the sixth floor of the building. It extends five floors below ground level and houses three theaters. That's right, THREE! There is a smaller theatre for more experimental, independent works; a grand state theatre for big-scale productions, and a middle ground theatre for smaller commercial shows. The fourth theatre is in a separate building about 20 seconds away from the main one, and it's made for symphonies and all things acoustic. They were all beautiful, and designed by an ingenious architect. Photos were somewhat prohibited, so I decided to be safe and avoid taking them altogether.
After the tour, I ate some of the best and cheapest sushi of my life with a few friends. I then walked up and down Collins Street, went to the Melbourne Museum, and St. Paul's Cathedral. All were stunning. Later in the day, all 130 of us loaded onto the buses, hearts heavy to leave, and headed back to Sydney (I know, life here is really hard). We got home at about 10 pm, and I was asleep with in a minute of walking through the door. Hands down the best, happiest slumber I've enjoyed in a long, long time. Stories from Byron Bay to come.....
