I’ve been slacking on my blog recently because of the 19 day epic trip I took with my friends Meg and Morgan. We had decided early on in the semester to go to Australia and the two week “teaching recess” seemed the perfect time. We booked our flights into Melbourne and out of Brisbane, slightly unaware of how big Australia actually is. However, I think this actually ended up being a blessing because we packed in so much more than I thought possible.

On Wednesday 13^th of April, we headed up to Auckland and were met by Michelle, a friend of a friend from back a PSU. What a small world! Had a great Japanese dinner before heading to the airport to sleep before catching our 6:30am flight to Melbourne.  Michelle was so gracious and drove us to save us $80 in a cab fee!

Sleeping at the airport was not fun and even though we managed to snag some benches to lie down on, I only slept for about an hour the whole night. We also had some trouble going through security since we’d decided to take carry on only to avoid checked bag fees and all of our bags were overweight, a problem that plagued us throughout the trip. Due to sheer luck, Morgan and I managed to get through, although they made Meg check hers.

We landed in Melbourne to clear weather even though the forecast called for rain which boded well. We checked into our hostel and put our bags in the luggage room using a stuffed kangaroo as the key! First sign that we were actually in AUSTRALIA! Next to the hostel was a huge outdoor market, Victoria Street Market, which we obviously had to visit. Three hours later we had seem boomerangs, wigs, some (slightly creepy) actors putting on a tea-party from Alice in Wonderland and bought heaps of food for dinner, including a kilo of mushrooms. The mushroom guy told us that we could have mushrooms for $2 but only if we bought a kilo.

 Meg and I decided to go to the aquarium that afternoon and Morgan explored the city. We saw an enclosure with emperor penguins which were so adorable but I felt bad that they couldn’t actually live in real snow. They must have been so hot.

We were also suckered into becoming members at Crown Casino and they gave us five dollars which I promptly lost to the penny slots. It was a shock to us just how expensive everything was. It probably wasn’t as bad for Australians being paid in Aussie dollars, but our Kiwi dollars didn’t go far AT ALL. We would pay $8 kiwi dollars for a coffee and cake in New Zealand and $8 Aussie dollars for the same thing in Australia. With the exchange rate, that’s almost $11 New Zealand dollars! Robbery.

 That night we went out looking for nightlife and ended up joining with an underground bar tour group who took us to a couple of small eccentric bars down back alleys that we never would have found on our own. The guy who suggested we join them was from “Tazzie” or Tasmania which was surprising because I didn’t think people actually lived there. Apparently they do.

Obviously, we wanted McDonalds fries after the excitement of the night and when Meg came to sit down, she said that the guys standing by the counter said that you get free refills on your fries in Australia. I went up to the counter, a little skeptical, and inquired. It’s NOT true and the guys laughed at us, but I guess it was worth a try!

The next day, we went back to the market and picked up food for a picnic. SO much good stuff! Buffalo mozzarella, prosciutto, avocado and Turkish bread. After an hour of getting lost in the city, we managed to find the right tram and headed out to St.Kilda, a cute artsy town by the beach and ate our picnic and looked round the shops. They had some amazing little cake shops all in a row.

Graffiti by the rows of cake shops ^

When we headed back to town, we met up with Meg’s friend Sam who lives just outside Melbourne. We had tickets to a footy match which is sort of like rugby but you can kick and bounce the ball too. Really anything goes and it was really fun to get involved. Meg and I decided to root for Richmond, the underdogs, while Morgan supported Collingwood. For a few moments in the third quarter it looked like Richmond might make a spectacular comeback, but no such luck. Collingwood crushed them.  

FOOTY! ^

After the match we went out to a couple of bars and had some of the best mojitos I’ve ever tasted. The next day there was a comedy festival on, so we sat down and watched some of an act. The performers were doing all kinds of outrageous things, including dragging guys out of the audience. Surprisingly the guys went along with it instead of being embarrassed. There was also a Disney exhibition on at a museum so we went to that and learned all about the history of film and Walt Disney. Really cool! Sadly it was then time to head to the airport for out flight to Sydney. I really enjoyed  Melbourne, it wasn’t touristy but it seemed really cultured and had tons of information about bands and art exhibitions plastered around the streets. I wish we could have visited the Ocean Road and the 12 Apostles (or “stacky-rocky-things” I tried calling them at first) but there just wasn’t enough time.

Our Hostel > 

Location: Melbourne, Australia