April 21st - Great Ocean Road
Today we drove the Great Ocean Road! The guys in our group rented a BMW for the day (because they are fancy and classy men) to drive the road and see the 12 Apostles. The road is on the southern part of Australia's mainland and is truly incredible. We left out of Melbourne and headed straight to the road. It was about a 4-hour drive there, but there were many stops to see along the road. It was nice just looking out our windows and seeing the beautiful views. We finally reached the 12 apostles and they were great. It is funny that they are named the 12 apostle's due to the fact that there only started out as nine of them and now there are eight. They were given this name in the 1920s by Victorian Tourist These incredible limestone stacks stand 50 meters high. After reaching the 12 apostles, we turned around and headed back to Melbourne (which Australians pronounce Mell-bin). We took a different route back, so it was a little shorter. We finally reached our hostel and then headed out to look around the city briefly. It was a long, but memorable day.
The 12 Apostles
Selfie with the Apostles
April 23rd - Melbourne
We began our time in Melbourne returning the BMW and picking up our campervan. We had a little trouble picking up our campervan so we chose to stay an extra day in Melbourne.
Our New Home!
After we did get the van, we walked around the city of Melbourne. Melbourne is a beautiful city. There are many pretty building and sculptures all around. The city has both modern and Victorian buildings that make up the skyline. . We even saw a street covered completely in Graffiti. While in Melbourne we went to a couple museums. We stumbled upon a Beatles in Australia exhibit at the Arts Centre, which was awesome. I really loved the Australian Centre for the Moving Image and The Ian Potter Museum of Art, and both were free which made them even better. Both were awesome and I highly recommend them.
We also enjoyed exploring Saint Kilda’s Beach and the area around it. We went to one restaurant called Lentil’s As Anything, which is run based purely on donations. We could pay whatever we wanted for our meal. We did not have the best experience since the meals took a while and were not very big, but I did love the idea of it and my meal was good. We ended up eating at a schnitzel restaurant after which was excellent. We also saw the St. Kilda penguins. They were so cute and there were so many of them. They also made a really weird sound, which made them easier to find in the dark.
The Pierce Brothers- They are fantastic. Check out one of their covers below!
Nico performing at the Art Centre in Australia
Melbourne's Chinatown
St. Kilda Penguin (courtesy of Google Images)
April 24th – Canberra
After waking up at 3 am and driving the rest of the way into Canberra, we successfully drove the night and arrived into the capital of Australia and were greeted by a beautiful sunrise and a stranger's shower. Yes, you read that right we parked the caravan at a stranger's house and used their showers. Erin met a nice family at her workplace and they said they had a home in Canberra and we were welcome to park outside it and use their showers. We were really happy for that because our camper sadly did not have a shower. They were very nice being that we came in at 7:30 am.
After getting ready we headed out to the city. The city is so different than the Gold Coast! I really wanted to go to the National Portrait Museum to see Prince William and Kate, but the others didn't want to wait to see them which is understandable. Instead we went to the Australian National Gallery of Art. I was very impressed with the gallery. It had an amazing collection with some of my favorite artists such as Lichtenstein, Pollack, Picasso, Monet, Nero, Warhol, and Close. The Gallery was huge and a tad overwhelming. While at the Gallery, we met up with a fellow UCF student and one of his study abroad friends. It was nice seeing a familiar face and he showed us around the city a little. We got lunch at a delicious Mexican restaurant and then parted ways for the time being. We then headed to Questacon, a science museum. We had a blast there and got in for free since we came right before it closed. They had this one area called free fall where we literally dropped from a pole and free fell for a second before landing on a slide and sliding the rest of the way down. It was a lot of fun running through the museum and playing with everything. After the museum, we went for dinner and then met up with our friend again. He showed us how the University of Canberra students spend their nights. We had a lot of fun hanging out with him and his friends. We didn't stay out too long because of heading to Sydney the next day. We had a great time in Canberra.
GO KNIGHTS! :)
The whole gang during an impromptu photo shoot
April 26th - SydneyI finally made it to Sydney! we arrived in Sydney on April 25th, or as the Australians call it, Anzac Day. Anzac Day is Australia's version of Memorial Day. We didn't celebrate too much, but we did go to a dusk service which was pretty cool. We spent the day walking around and seeing the city. We saw many cool buildings, including the Opera House, and some awesome street performers. One even swallowed my bobby pin! (I was a tad grossed out by that plus I never got my bobby pin back.) Sydney is an awesome city and I really enjoyed walking around and seeing it all. We went to the Rocks market and the Contemporary Art Museum. Sydney was a great place to end our Mid Semester break and we all had a great time exploring Australia's eastern coast.
Contemporary Art Museum
Anzac Service
One of the street performers
Had to leave my mark on the city.
Contemporary Art.......
The artist of one of the prints I bought working on a new print!
Sorry it took so long to post, but that was my mid semester break! I hope you enjoyed reading about it and I appreciate you taking the time to read about my adventures! Now here is a video by the Melbourne musician's The Pierce Brothers.
Bye for now,
Erica
