Hey all! I'm back in Sydney with my friend Alex, and I have time for a quick update. We got into the city yesterday, and checkout out a bit of the city. We also hit up this crazy market in Darling Harbor called Paddy's Market, and picked up a few souvenirs for back home. I also met up randomly with an old friend from high school that I saw was in town for the weekend, and we grabbed some sushi together, Danielle, Alex, and I, over in Chinatown.
The plan today is to go up north to The Rocks neighborhood, and maybe take a ferry over to Manly Beach. I'll keep everyone updated about the next couple days as much as possible.
Later days!
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Melbourne Trip and the End of the Semester
First, I want to apologize to the people reading my blog about the lack of updates. I know I said that I would hope to update more often, but those updates did not happen. The simple fact was, in between my trip up to Cairns and the Gold Coast a few months ago, nothing really interesting happened. On weekdays I would go to class, maybe grab lunch on campus, and on the weekend I would be working on my multitude of projects while occasionally going out with people for drinks. The one time that I left the Newcastle area was to go to Sydney, and even that was for an assignment I was working on.
Luckily, all these major projects meant that I did't have a single final exam to worry about, and I was left about three weeks with which to travel. And that's how I got out to Melbourne.
I was lucky enough to travel with two friends of mine, Kate from Missouri, and Lauren from Saskatchewan. We left Newcastle Airport way, way too early in the morning of the 14th, and it was a quick hour and a half jaunt down to Melbourne. After getting some caffeine in our systems, we were on our way to checking in at Cooee!, our hostel. Yep, our hostel was actually named Cooee! Not a bad place, though. We set ourselves up in one of the ten-share rooms, then went out to explore the nearby suburb of St. Kilda.
Melbourne is mostly known as the artier, more trendier of the cities in Australia. We were not dissappointed in this aspect during our explorations of the city. In our short time in St. Kilda, we had a phenomenal breakfast, took in a art faire/market, checked out Luna Park (that's the place with the giant freaking face), walked around the beachfront a little, took in a movie (State of Play, in case you were wondering), and turned in early.
The next day, after decyphering whatever maps and schedules we had, we took a tram into downtown Melbourne. The city itself is, simply put, breath-taking. There were skyscrapers, squares, fountains, memorials, antique buildings, parks, bridges, statues everywhere you looked. We started out at Federation Square, then went south over the river to the Queen Victoria Park. We then spent most of the day aimlessly wandering the city, being thouroughly impressed by the sheer beauty and character of Melbourne. So great was it, that when we walked by the university at the heart of the city, Kate and Lauren spent about thirty minutes checking out post-grad programs there.
The next day we had another early start, as we were to spend most of the day touring the Great Ocean Road. During the thirteen-odd hour trip, we were granted stunning views of the coastline, as well as a number of interesting monolithic rock formations, like the Twelve Apostles.
We left for Newcastle the next day, but, needless to say, we were all sad to leave that magical city.
Just a heads up, I should be posting pictures soon to my Picasa site as soon as I can hash out a few problems that I'm having with the system right now.
Luckily, all these major projects meant that I did't have a single final exam to worry about, and I was left about three weeks with which to travel. And that's how I got out to Melbourne.
I was lucky enough to travel with two friends of mine, Kate from Missouri, and Lauren from Saskatchewan. We left Newcastle Airport way, way too early in the morning of the 14th, and it was a quick hour and a half jaunt down to Melbourne. After getting some caffeine in our systems, we were on our way to checking in at Cooee!, our hostel. Yep, our hostel was actually named Cooee! Not a bad place, though. We set ourselves up in one of the ten-share rooms, then went out to explore the nearby suburb of St. Kilda.
Melbourne is mostly known as the artier, more trendier of the cities in Australia. We were not dissappointed in this aspect during our explorations of the city. In our short time in St. Kilda, we had a phenomenal breakfast, took in a art faire/market, checked out Luna Park (that's the place with the giant freaking face), walked around the beachfront a little, took in a movie (State of Play, in case you were wondering), and turned in early.
The next day, after decyphering whatever maps and schedules we had, we took a tram into downtown Melbourne. The city itself is, simply put, breath-taking. There were skyscrapers, squares, fountains, memorials, antique buildings, parks, bridges, statues everywhere you looked. We started out at Federation Square, then went south over the river to the Queen Victoria Park. We then spent most of the day aimlessly wandering the city, being thouroughly impressed by the sheer beauty and character of Melbourne. So great was it, that when we walked by the university at the heart of the city, Kate and Lauren spent about thirty minutes checking out post-grad programs there.
The next day we had another early start, as we were to spend most of the day touring the Great Ocean Road. During the thirteen-odd hour trip, we were granted stunning views of the coastline, as well as a number of interesting monolithic rock formations, like the Twelve Apostles.
We left for Newcastle the next day, but, needless to say, we were all sad to leave that magical city.
Just a heads up, I should be posting pictures soon to my Picasa site as soon as I can hash out a few problems that I'm having with the system right now.
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