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| Twelve Apostles |
Last weekend was amazing! I survived driving on the left side of the road, but I wasn’t the one driving. Not going there for a while. The Great Ocean Road was beautiful and definitely worth the trip for anyone contemplating doing it. We left around 4 PM last Friday because that was the earliest we could rent our cars. There were 10 of us total on the trip (4 girls, 6 guys). My car was all girls plus Mark, but we definitely had the better vehicle. The other car had the GPS, but we made it with our own map-reading skills, plus I was the mom and provided tim tams (boss chocolate cookies) and the Kanye CD for all. They were jealous. The plan was to road trip up to the Twelve Apostles and then to Grampians National Park and make it back Sunday night in time for the first day of classes on Monday. Friday, we stopped at Bells Beach and took photos, went to Koala Cove and saw two wild koalas chilling in the trees eating, and watched the sun set on the Great Ocean Road. We eventually made it to Apollo Bay where we were staying for the night. By the time we checked into our hostels it was already around 9, so we had to rush to find a place to grab dinner before everything closed. Then we met up with the other guys and laid on the beach and star gazed. At one point while trying to find the other group of people, we were walking along the beach in complete darkness and out of nowhere this super creepy Elvis music started playing and one girl started running and I thought someone was chasing us…but really there were just random speakers on the beach blasting music. It easily could have been a scene from a horror movie. The star gazing was amazing though. It was definitely one of the top two places I’ve been for star gazing (the other being in the middle of nowhere on a boat in Turkey). There were millions of stars and you could even see the Milky Way. And within one minute of sitting down I saw two shooting stars. It was beautiful!
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| The guys ignoring the signs (see below) |
That night I stayed at the Surfside Backpackers Hostel with two of the other girls. Our roommate was a hippie Aussie who had, according to the owner, just gotten back from an ashram (straight out of Eat Pray Love) which made us wonder if she was in a vow of silence. She wasn’t, but she didn’t say much to us. She wore her lil knit cap to bed, tucked herself into her sheets like a mummy and then didn’t budge all night. We were out of the room by 8 AM ready to start the next leg of our road trip and she was still in the same position. I treated myself to a full-on breakfast that morning (French toast and a chai latte…yum) and then we were on our way to the Twelve Apostles. It only took about an hour to get there from Apollo Bay and there were hardly any tourists there yet so it was perfect timing. The Twelve Apostles are a group of rocks that were eroded by the ocean over the years and just randomly jut out of the water. There are only 8 actually left standing, but I prefer the name Twelve Apostles to the Sow and the Piglets (its former name). From there we drove a few more minutes to the Loch Ard Gorge where there was a famous shipwreck in the 1800’s. There we sat on the beach and explored a cave (true spelunking). I could have sat on that beach all day, but we moved on to see another cave, which ended up not being accessible. We were a bit disappointed, but we wandered around and looked at more ocean rock formations. We headed to Port Campbell for lunch on our way to the national park. I got a burger, but for some reason all hamburgers here seem to be made of some sketch mystery meat. It makes no sense because we passed thousands of cows on our road trip, but this was no beef. This one looked like a veggie burger and was full of carrots, but I am still uncertain as to what I ate (Roo? Lamb? Jack in the Box soy/dog meat?). I think I should just stick to ordering things that have clearer descriptions as to what’s inside.
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| Loch Ard Gorge (you can see the cave we explored on the right hand side) |
After all of our beach explorations, everyone wanted to relax for a bit, so we ended up laying on the beach there for an hour, but in that time I managed to get my first Aussie sunburn. Luckily it’s just a strip on my stomach, but the sun here is just uber intense, and I do not recommend getting burnt. My tiny burn hurts like no other, so I am definitely not risking any overexposure again. I’m just glad I didn’t relive the burn from sophomore year when my entire front was the color of a tomato. I don’t think I’ve ever recovered from that one…
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| Roo! |
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| Being one with the roos |
On our way to Grampians we had a bit of a struggle finding our way. We were informed ahead of time that the main road was closed due to floods, but we didn’t know that several other roads would also be closed. We ended up having a bit of an adventure though that involved seeing wild emus, cockatoos, and kangaroos, befriending random French people who were also lost, and driving down dirt roads. There were also tons of kangaroos outside the back of our hostel and I bonded with them a bit. I probably got a little too close, but the zoom on my camera wasn’t sufficient so I needed to push the limits for art. We ate at the only restaurant that was open, and then ended up watching Happy Gilmore with some random older Aussie men at the hostel.
The next morning we got up early, ate some brekkie and went hiking up one of the trails in the park. Several of them have been closed due to flooding, and someone recommended we come back in a few months when more of the paths (and hopefully the roads) are open. The hike was awesome though. We hiked to a waterfall and climbed up these big boulders and looked down on the rest of the park, but the most intense part was getting to the top. At one point you had to pull yourself up along this metal rail because the rock was just straight up and there was nothing to grab onto. I had already thought the area looked like something straight out of Jurassic Park, and when we got to the end of the path we were climbing up the rock on all fours like spider monkeys and the rocks looked exactly like dino backs. I wouldn’t have been surprised if I looked down and saw a raptor run by. It was definitely an adventure making it to the end, but it provided some beautiful scenery for eating our packed lunches. And it was one of the few places I had cell service the entire weekend. I would definitely go back again, especially if more trails open (and if the weather gets better)!
We drove straight back to Melbourne instead of taking the Great Ocean Road again. We stopped in Ballarat, a cute town famous for its gold mining, and grabbed some snacks. And by snacks I mean we went to the Pancake Parlour and ordered coffee and massive dessert pancakes. From this experience we learned that “hundreds and thousands” means sprinkles, and that Aussies like to put ice cream on everything. It was delish though. Overall it was a very successful road trip!
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| Becca and I having a "moment" |
I started class on Monday and haven’t done too many exciting things since then, but all of my classes seem interesting! Wednesday night there was a pub crawl for the Uni Melb exchange students. I went on that for a bit and then headed to the last night market of the summer. It was sad because it kind of represents the end of summer, which has been looming for a while considering it is pretty cold here. I stuffed my face with Indian Food, some Korean fried potatoes on a stick, and churros (which they call Spanish donuts and put powdered sugar on, but are still wonderful). It was a good way to say goodbye to the night market. Supposedly there is a similar market starting up in St. Kilda on Thursday nights now, so maybe this won’t be such a bad thing. The pub crawl was ending at Turf, so I went there at the end of the night. I ended up meeting three Aussies who are all freshmen at University of Melbourne who played drinking card games with us and it was entertaining. That was until one of them told me that women are meant to cook and iron, and things got awkward. He also tried to convince me that if there’s such a thing as second-hand smoke there is also such a thing as second-hand McDonald’s, and that eating McDonald’s in front of a child is worse than smoking in front of them. That was my cue to leave.
One last creeper story: I was back at the market yesterday buying supplies to make a recipe my mom had sent me, and the man I was buying onions from said to me, “You can either give me two dollars or 40 kisses on the cheek.” I started awkwardly laughing and trying to find enough change and was really struggling due to being uncomfortable. During this time he said, “You could have already gotten through 20 kisses by now.” I kept saying random filler remarks like “yeeeeah!” and just laughing. I finally found enough coins and he winked at me and said “Bye sweetie.” There’s something about the people who sell onions in the market. The dinner turned out wonderful though, and my friend Rose was kind enough to be my guinea pig in my first legit cooking adventure (the tacos didn't really count).
Tonight we are going to 90’s night at a club called Perseverance, which is supposed to be slightly sketch, but also a lot of fun. I won a $50 voucher there during the exchange student pub crawl. Hopefully they don’t make you spend it all at once. Could be bad news bears.
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| The end of our hike |
Last weekend was amazing! I survived driving on the left side of the road, but I wasn’t the one driving. Not going there for a while. The Great Ocean Road was beautiful and definitely worth the trip for anyone contemplating doing it. We left around 4 PM last Friday because that was the earliest we could rent our cars. There were 10 of us total on the trip (4 girls, 6 guys). My car was all girls plus Mark, but we definitely had the better vehicle. The other car had the GPS, but we made it with our own map-reading skills, plus I was the mom and provided tim tams (boss chocolate cookies) and the Kanye CD for all. They were jealous. The plan was to road trip up to the Twelve Apostles and then to Grampians National Park and make it back Sunday night in time for the first day of classes on Monday. Friday, we stopped at Bells Beach and took photos, went to Koala Cove and saw two wild koalas chilling in the trees eating, and watched the sun set on the Great Ocean Road. We eventually made it to Apollo Bay where we were staying for the night. By the time we checked into our hostels it was already around 9, so we had to rush to find a place to grab dinner before everything closed. Then we met up with the other guys and laid on the beach and star gazed. At one point while trying to find the other group of people, we were walking along the beach in complete darkness and out of nowhere this super creepy Elvis music started playing and one girl started running and I thought someone was chasing us…but really there were just random speakers on the beach blasting music. It easily could have been a scene from a horror movie. The star gazing was amazing though. It was definitely one of the top two places I’ve been for star gazing (the other being in the middle of nowhere on a boat in Turkey). There were millions of stars and you could even see the Milky Way. And within one minute of sitting down I saw two shooting stars. It was beautiful! 
That night I stayed at the Surfside Backpackers Hostel with two of the other girls. Our roommate was a hippie Aussie who had, according to the owner, just gotten back from an ashram (straight out of Eat Pray Love) which made us wonder if she was in a vow of silence. She wasn’t, but she didn’t say much to us. She wore her lil knit cap to bed, tucked herself into her sheets like a mummy and then didn’t budge all night. We were out of the room by 8 AM ready to start the next leg of our road trip and she was still in the same position. I treated myself to a full-on breakfast that morning (French toast and a chai latte…yum) and then we were on our way to the Twelve Apostles. It only took about an hour to get there from Apollo Bay and there were hardly any tourists there yet so it was perfect timing. The Twelve Apostles are a group of rocks that were eroded by the ocean over the years and just randomly jut out of the water. There are only 8 actually left standing, but I prefer the name Twelve Apostles to the Sow and the Piglets (its former name). From there we drove a few more minutes to the Loch Ard Gorge where there was a famous shipwreck in the 1800’s. There we sat on the beach and explored a cave (true spelunking). I could have sat on that beach all day, but we moved on to see another cave, which ended up not being accessible. We were a bit disappointed, but we wandered around and looked at more ocean rock formations. We headed to Port Campbell for lunch on our way to the national park. I got a burger, but for some reason all hamburgers here seem to be made of some sketch mystery meat. It makes no sense because we passed thousands of cows on our road trip, but this was no beef. This one looked like a veggie burger and was full of carrots, but I am still uncertain as to what I ate (Roo? Lamb? Jack in the Box soy/dog meat?). I think I should just stick to ordering things that have clearer descriptions as to what’s inside.
second hand mcdonalds!!!!!!!!!
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