Melbourne.

Well, I figure I've put this off long enough...here's the deets of last weekend.

So I went to Melbourne with my friends Michelle, Kelly, and Robin. Our friend Andy was there too - he planned his trip alone though so he was in a different hostel than us. Basically, Melbourne wasn't exactly what I expected - when I was deciding where to study abroad, it was between Brisbane and Melbourne. I chose Brisbane because it is warmer here - but I'm so glad I chose it for more than just warmth. Melbourne feels like much more of an American city than Brisbane does. It also has deciduous trees, which were changing color and losing leaves, which was really weird. Our hostel was also in a kind-of-sketchy area, so that wasn't the best impression. We didn't have nearly enough time to see everything we would have liked either.

So here's the run down. Had a MARS exam on Thursday at 1, then peaced out directly after. (I talked to my Mom while she was in L.A. on her way to Sydney with the fam - I was so excited!!) We landed around 7 30, took a bus to our hostel, checked in, and did a little exploring. We saw Federation Square, and went to a few bars around the area. We went to this place that had infused vodka....including vegemite. Robin got it - I stuck with caramel. Good stuff. It was an overall good night.

Friday, we woke up early, and started at the aquarium. We are all bio nerds, so it was sweet. After, we went to the Rialto tower 360 view...basically a lookout over the city from the 55th story. It was cool...but it was a bit smoggy, which I wasn't expecting (photos on FB). After that we shopped around the funky/pricey area, which was pretty cool, but looking back I wish we had done some more sightseeing. We came back to the hostel exhausted because we were walking allll day, then headed out to find some dinner. We found this cute little street that had a Little Italy feel, and found some really good food. Only problem was that our waiter took forever and a day to bring our food, without any kind of apology or anything. So that was frustrating/a waste of time, so we ended up coming back to the hostel and watching a movie with some other people there. We watched Wolf Creek - about these kids that go on a road trip through the outback and get killed. It was based on a true story. I'm glad I'm not going to the outback now...

Saturday was a REALLY early morning for our Great Ocean Road tour. It was really cool - and our bus driver was hilarious, as most tour guides here have proven to be. The only thing that wasn't so cool was that it was a ton of driving, with little short stops. That's the only way to do the whole thing in a day though. So we saw the coast all day, last stops at the Twelve Apostles and the London Bridge, and we saw a bushfire on the side of the road!! It was MADNESS. Then, we got dropped off for dinner, and our bus wouldn't start back up. About half the people on our bus got put on buses with other tours, but my friends and I weren't so lucky. So basically we sat in this noodle place for an hour and a half pissed off without anything to do, until our driver got another bus and took us back. We got back around 10 30, pissed off and exhausted, so went to bed shortly after.

(Oh, and this whole trip happened without an iPod. Which blew. Mom's iPod arrived Monday, thank god. It has been absolutely killing me.)

Sunday we got up really early again because we only had until 2 to do stuff. We went to Max Brenner for breakfast - a chocolate restaurant. We all got Belgian waffles with melted chocolate, fruit and ice cream- which were amaaaazing. Then, we took the free tourist shuttle to the Queen Victoria Market. It's this huge roofed in market area with tons of vendors set up selling really cheap stuff. You can get lost in their for hours....which we obviously did. We planned to go to the Royal Botanical Gardens afterwards, but the tour bus took waaayy too long so we just rode that back for about and hour and a half or more, then it was time to grab lunch and head home.

Also, realized on Friday that I had 80 dollars left in my bank account, and made it out on Sunday with literally $ 0.20 AU. It was impressive.

So yeah...not the best trip, but I'm glad I went. The parents/Megan are coming on Saturday, and I CAN'T WAIT!! I've been talking about it constantly...I'm probably being really annoying. Whatevs, it's going to be bomb. And we're going to New Zealand.

I have crazy amounts of internet left (I didn't realize how little I was actually using)....so video chats are more than welcome! Miss you all....one month left! :(