Melbourne

Thursday September 29th:

Arrived in Melbourne and checked into the hostel Nomads. Freaked out. Checked into a hotel. haha good times

Once that was taken care of, we shopped around the city and checked out Queen, Elizabeth and Swanson Street. Melbourne is full of alley ways and secret streets full of cafes and good restaurants. We stopped and had a nice Italian meal outside.

Melbourne is also known for its graffiti-we found numerous alleyways covered in beautiful images!

That night we ate in the Greek precinct and hummus had and lamb! well, some people had lamb...

Friday September 30th:

The biggest day of our trip! We took a tour of the Great Ocean Road. Left our hotel at 7am and returned to the city late that night. 

We saw so many amazing rock formations and views of the ocean! This was my favorite day of the entire mid-semester break.

We Saw...

12 Apostles

London Bridge Formation

Razor Beach Formation

Bells Beach

Rainforest

Great Ocean Road Sign

We also took a helicopter ride which was absolutely amazing and got great views of the 12 apostles. While they are not yet one of the 7 natural wonders of the world, australia has petitioned to re-vote on the natural wonders and have the 12 apostles considered.

Saturday October 1st:

Traveled to the Yarra Valley for a wine tour. We visited 4 wineries and had about 10 tastes of wine per winery. Yikes!

Had a wonderful lunch-pork cooked in a vegetable pate type thing. delicious

when we got back to the hotel, we all napped (lawlz) and then we went out to an Ice Bar! literally, a bar made of ice. Our cocktail glasses were made of ice and I took a shot out of an ice luge! which was one of my drinking goals for australia, not that i set goals or anything...

Sunday October 2nd:

had a bagel and cream cheese! yes this is important enough to document.

visited St. Kilda Markets and bought some cute jewelry then travled over to the Queen Street Market which resembled Boston's Fanueil Hall. Had lunch and enjoyed the music

Then we went to the Shrine of Remembrance to honor the men and women who participated in wars and the Botanical Gardens.

That night we had dinner in South Bank and ate a tub of ice cream before bed

Monday October 3rd:

almost done I swear...

our final tour was a bus trip to Phillip Island. On the way we stopped at a chocolate factory and a few small towns to enjoy their cuisine and shops. We made a quick trip to a winery and enjoyed wine and cheese-didnt realize how much i missed cheese until now haha

After a long day of traveling we finally made it to the penguins at about 6:30pm. We saw on bleachers on the beach and waited in the freezing cold until darkness set in. Then, all of a sudden, a penguin pops out of the water! The penguins come to Phillip Island in order to make their nests and burrow at night-they leave their babies in the nests all day and come back to feed them and keep them warm at night. 

The first penguin came out and checked out the scene and then ran back into the water. And then 3 more penguins came out and ran back into the water. As the night continued, groups of penguins would stick together and slowly come out of the water. Once they made the decision to come out they would run (more like waddle) up the beach in a group and run into the grass to find their burrows. We were like ten feet away from them running up the beach and then a foot away when we checked out their nests. They were adorable!

That covers just about everything from my mid-semester break. Stay tuned for Cairns (the daintree rainforest) and the Whitsundays!