Author Archives: ceg5155

End of Australia

Its hard to believe but tomorrow I leave Australia. 5 months has certainly flown past. I just finished my final exams up on Friday (yesterday), so it’s a great relief to have them over with since they were worth 40-45% of my final grade for each unit. Throughout this whole week people have been leaving to go home as they finish their final exams, its been hard to say bye to people that I’ve talked to over the past few months. Hopefully we can still keep in touch over Facebook and Skype. I would strongly recommend doing a study abroad in Australia, and making the trek to Perth. Even though its off the beaten path of Sydney and Melbourne it is really worth to experience the true Australian way of life.

My favorite city award goes to: Sydney

Perth is a great city that has the feel of a smaller town but I loved all that Sydney had to offer. The many sights and attractions make it Australia’s best city that I have visited. If you’re looking to travel to Australia make sure you check this city out.

I’m going to miss the great weather Perth has had. Its been raining as of late but even in the middle of “winter” its still about 65-70 for a high, can’t complain about that. Running along the Swan River toward the city and running through the scenic King’s Park were some of my favorite past times that I will surely miss in the future.

I’m not looking forward to the 24+ plane ride home but hopefully are goes smoothly and I arrive home safe!

Location: Perth, WA

Melbourne

Off to Melbourne, our flight took a little bit more than an hour to Melbourne, on Tiger Airways. I arrived in Melbourne around 11 PM, and we were off to the city. I stayed in a hostel, called the Mansion, which was actually quite nice.

The next days, the weather was not that great about 50 degrees and cloudy and very windy. The actual central business district of Melbourne is not all that large and I was able to cover a majority of it in 1 day. I toured the city, and the Australian Movie Cimena Industry museum, which was probably one of the most interesting museum’s I had ever been to. It chronicles the start of the movie industry to present day. Not only was it about movies but technology in general. Next to the ACMI museum was the Melbourne Art Gallery, which was free so I decided to take a look. There was a lot of modern art, but there were two pieces I liked a lot. One being a melted Macbook.

The weather in Melbourne is very changeable, I think it rained about 15 times in one day, every 15 minutes there would be a different season. I was able to go up on the Euraka Sky Deck, which is the highest Sky Deck in the Southern Hemisphere. It is 88 stories about ground and I got there right around sunset. It was a great way to see the city around sunset and the city lights at night.

Since I had explored most of the CBD in Melbourne, I was bought and all day transit pass and rode the trains and trams around the suburbs. I was able to go to the beach at St. Kilda, which is only about a 30 minute tram ride from the city. Also I went southeast to the town of Caulfield and north on the train lines.

Overall Melbourne is a very nice city, but if I had to choose between Sydney or Melbourne I would pick Sydney to visit.

Location: Melbourne

Sydney // Days 2-4

Throughout the next three days we found plenty of time in the beautiful weather to explore all around the city. I took a tour of the opera house, and learned about the struggle to build it. I was able to go to Bondi and Manly beach, I preferred Manly beach as it wasn’t as touristy and we had better weather when I visited. I enjoyed walking around the old part of the city. Everything was very clean and I never felt unsafe walking around.

Some of the most beautiful parts of Sydney were the Royal Botanical Gardens surrounding the city. I was able to go out to the rocks and view the sunset over the Sydney Harbor with the opera house and bridge views. I spent a few hours walking around the gardens as there is so much to see and many great views of the city and of the harbor.

On the last two days I went to the aquarium, which was neat because you were able to walk underneath the aquarium and get some great pictures of the various marine life. I also the toured the National Maritime Museum which was directly across from the aquarium in Darling Harbor which is a really great to just take it easy and view the scenery. We also toured a Chinese Garden in the center of Sydney, which was a real relaxing place to go in the middle of the city. I walked many blocks down St. George’s street which is similar to Broadway in New York as it is a very busy and fashionable main artery in the city.

I would highly recommend going to Sydney if you get the chance, I really enjoyed my time and even though I had 4 days, I didn’t get to see all that I would have liked.

Location: Sydney, Manly Beach, Bondi Beach

Sydney // Beginnings

I departed Perth at 10:55 AM Thursday Morning on Jetstar Airlines. The ride there was smooth and I arrived in Sydney at 5:10 PM, a 4 hour flight, there’s a 2 hour time change between Perth and Sydney. From there I was able to board a train into the center of Sydney. We stayed with a friend who lived on the northern harbor in Sydney. We arrived at the apartment, and looked at the view, from the front window we were able to see the harbor bridge and opera bridge. The apartment is so close to the city it is only about a 30 minute walk over the harbor bridge to city. We were very lucky, Sydney had a light show in the evening, called VIVID. This light show, lit up different places throughout Sydney, including the famous Opera House.

Location: Sydney, Australia

Exmouth Trip Part II

Thursday

After breakfast we arrived at Monkey Mia around 7:30 to meet Bottle Nose Dolphins. These dolphins come very close to shore and some people are allowed to feed them. It was very touristy as about 400 people were gathered on shore with their cameras to watch these dolphins. After this we drove for about 3 hours until reaching Eagle Bluff. We did see one shark out in the distance from this panoramic. We entered an area called Big Sky country and is home to longest straight road in Australia, that stretches for 100 miles without any turns. Tonight was an interesting sleeping accommodation, as we stayed in Outback Sheep Station. We arrived around 4:30 pm and were taken down to a private beach. The water was quite warm probably about 85 degrees, and the beach was pristine since it was private and our small group was using it. That evening we had a delicious dinner of chicken, corn, potatoes, and peas cooked by Darren. After dinner we sat around a campfire and toasted marshmallows. The cabins were twin share and very rustic, although they did have electricity.

Friday

We finally made it to the much anticipated Ninagloo Reef. We passed the Tropic of Capricorn on the way before we made it to Coral Bay. The Ningaloo reef is just feet away from the white sandy beach. You could go out for 200 feet and the water was only up to your knees. We went out on the reef on a glass bottom boat, which we able to snorkel on the reef. The reef is quite colorful, however the waves were quite choppy and it made snorkeling a bit difficult. After lunch on shore we decided to sit on the beautiful beach for the rest of the afternoon. Around 3:30 we got back on the bus to head up the Northwest Cape to Exmouth, our destination. We arrived in Exmouth around 6:00 pm at the Potshot Resort.

Saturday

Today was a later start, 8:00 as Darren took us to the Cape Range and Turquoise Bay. Some people snorkeled at Turquoise Bay but I just swam in the water which was quite clear. You could go out 2 or 3 feet and see some small fish swim in the water around your feet. The beach had a very strong current which meant you didn’t really have to swim the water would just take you down stream. We ate lunch at the visitor’s center. We looked at the view from a lookout point where a lighthouse was placed. From here we drove about 30 minutes to Cape Range. The view from these mountains was spectacular. The road going to them was quite steep. From here we headed back to the Potshot Resort. Tonight we went out for dinner to a local pizzeria, I split a Hawaiian Pizza with someone else.

Sunday

Early on the road, we drove for 10 hours stopping every 2 hours for a break to Northampton where we stayed in an Old Convent. Northampton is a small town and we explored around. Tonight Darren bought us fish and chips for dinner.

Monday

Another 6 hour drive back to Perth, we arrived back around 1:30 PM.

Location: Exmouth, Ningaloo Reef

Exmouth Trip Part I

Monday

The day started out early on Monday at 7:30 where we got picked up by Darren and the Red Earth Safari bus. In the morning we drove down the famous Western Australia Coastal Beaches on what is called the Sunset Tourist Drive.

We stopped at at Yanchep National Park where we went down in a cave for a guided tour that lasted about an hour. From there we went to the Greenough Wildlife and Bird Park to see koalas and kangaroo’s. I got to hold a baby kangaroo! About an hour late we had lunch, sandwiches and drove about 2 more hours to Cervantes where we stayed overnight in a backpackers. We got to Cervantes about 3:30 and the beach was only about a 5 minute walk away. We came back around 5:00 and headed off to the Nambung National Park to see the world famous Pinnacles at Sunset. The Pinnacles were formed when the area became flooded and water mixed with minerals to form these unique shapes. After that we headed back to the backpackers where we had a lasagna and salad dinner. Early to bed.

Tuesday

The next day breakfast was at 6:30 and we back on the road by 7:00 AM. We passed some unique horizontal trees before arriving at the Hutt River Province, a small breakaway country and the second largest on this continent.

There we met Prince Leonard and Princess Shirley and hear about their passion for their own country. In 1970 they found a loophole in the Australian constitution and now are their own country and don’t have to pay any tax. We traveled a few more hours having lunch along the way. We stopped at Kalbarri National Park where we saw the coastal gorges and saw a whale. We stayed in the town of Kalbarri, in a backpackers and had a delicious aussie bbq.

Wednesday

This morning after an early breakfast where we travelled deep into Kalbarri National Park. Here we travelled deep into the Z Bend gorge. The path into the gorge was very hot and in the summer temperatures can get as high as 122 in the gorge. Today it wasn’t too hot as we climbed down into the gorge. The water flowing in the gorge was very warm and some people went swimming. We drove for a few hours to the World Heritage Area of Shark Bay. We stopped at a beach that is made up entirely of shells and took a swim in the water, which was quite warm. We stayed at the Nanga Bay Resort tonight, where we had another good dinner.

Location: Western Australia

PROSHing

Work from uni has finally caught up to me. Within the next week I have 2 midterms and 2 essays due before the much-anticipated break! Over the weekend I went to another AFL game, the West Coast Eagles vs. Sydney Swans. We sat behind the goal posts which was an interesting way to watch the game. The game itself has pretty many rules but I knew how the basic scoring was done. There are 4 goal posts and if you get it the ball within the inner 2 you get 6 points and if you get it within the outer 2 you get 1 point. The game was pretty close until the Swans came from behind and shocked the home crowd by pulling off a 95-88 win. The fans really get into the game, there was a woman behind me who almost had a nervous breakdown when it went down the drain for the Eagles.

On Tuesday Night/Wednesday, PROSH was held. PROSH is student run philanthropy that sells satirical newspapers in order to raise money for charity. PROSH actually starts the night before, where people start to party all night long. Around 5:00 AM people head over to UWA and get papers and a tin then hit the busses to go all around Perth. We went to downtown Perth and sold papers for about 3 hours. Last year PROSH raised $143,000, the money goes to local charities like the food bank. Its different than THON because alcohol is a very large component to the charity event. Last year there was a rave at 4:00 AM but it was cancelled this year.

Tommy More PROSHing in Perth.

Back to work, lots to do!

Location: UWA

Relaxed.

This was the first week since I’ve been here that I haven’t traveled on the weekend outside of Perth. It was nice to relax and write postcards and just lounge around. I found out that Oprah was Australia earlier in the year. To the Aussies this was a really big deal, now there’s going to be a lot of American Tourists.

On Saturday I ran through a part of King’s Park, around sunset, which was really calm and peaceful. Saturday night I ate at McDonalds (they call it Maccas) for the 1^st time. Sadly there’s no dollar menu here, a Big Mac was $4.85. Also Subway’s foot-longs are $7 instead of $5. It’s so weird that everything here closes so early. On Friday’s almost all the shops downtown close at 5 and public transportation stops running at midnight. They don’t have any Wal-Mart’s so the only thing open 24/7 are the gas stations.

Its coming up on 2 months since I’ve been here, hard to believe. The weather is finally starting to cool off a little, its been in the high 80’s in the day and around 70 at night. The upcoming weeks are going to be busy, I have 2 exams and 2 papers due before Easter break starts on April 22^nd.

Location: Perth

Rottness Island and River Cruise

Wow! What a week! I saw the sun rise and set down under. River cruise at night around Perth and Rottness Island. Rottness was all it was hyped up to be for sure as eight of us from Tommy More went from Saturday to Sunday. The island is about half and hour from shore, and about 10 miles around.

To get there the ferries are not your typical ferries but luxury cruisers, that could be mistaken for the inside of an aircraft. Once on the island we rented bikes and went to our campsite where we pitched our tent, which we wouldn’t actually use. The island doesn’t have any cars so you can either walk or ride your bike. We biked about 7-8 miles stopping along the way to look at the beautiful scenery.

At night animals called quokkas come out all over the island, all over the roads, everywhere. They seem to like water and can be aggressive if they want to get food. These are only native to Rottnest Island, so you won’t see them out in the wild anywhere else in the world.

That night we decided to sleep under the stars out on the beach. I’ve never seen so many stars in my life, as you are really secluded and you can see the Milky Way Galaxy. The sand is actually pretty comfortable to sleep on while listening to the Indian Ocean. Sunday we drove our bikes around the island and went snorkeling.

It’s less than 1 month until our Australian Safari up north to the Ningaloo Reef!

(Perth at Night from the River Cruise)

Location: Rottnest Island, Swan River

Penguin Island – The Penguins and Rockingham

Time flies, its hard to believe that another week is over already! This week’s adventure entailed going south to Rockingham. Rockingham is a suburb of Perth and there’s an island located off the coast well known for its penguins. This morning we started out early at 7:30 AM and made it to Penguin Island by 9:00 AM. The ferry ride only took 5 minutes, so we explored around this island, which is absolutely stunning.

We thought we were going to be able to touch penguins but there were only 10 in an enclosed area, so that was a letdown but never the less it was fun to watch them. After that we went on a glass bottom boat that really didn’t have a glass bottom out to see some sea lions. Sea lions are quite lethargic they only move a few feet at a time on land and seem pretty slow in the water too.

Speaking of the water, it is so clear, there are areas where it is really green because of the algae. On the way home, we stopped in Perth to get something to eat. As soon as we sat down there was a rally for equal rights for Same-sex marriage. I don’t think you see too much of this in the United States outside of Washington D.C. and maybe San Francisco.

In my economics class my professor used a video made by students from Penn State! I went up to her after the lecture and told her that’s where I went to school and she said “wow that’s a really great school” so it just goes to show how many connections Penn State has.

Next week is gearing up to be a busy one, I have my first quiz, Tommy More River Cruise, and Rottness Island for the weekend, updates will follow!

Location: Rockingham, Penguin Island

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