Road Trippin' in Melbourne

Hey all!

In Australia, there are two main cities: Sydney and Melbourne. Between the two there is often a debate about which city is better. In this post, I'll give you my consensus on the topic.

When we arrived in Melbourne, we rented a car to do the most talked about road trip in Australia; The Great Ocean Road. This is a road that stretches along the coast of Melbourne going past many famous rock formations such as the 13 Apostles, the London Bridge, and many more. We split this part of the trip into a day and a half. The first day we were very lucky with weather and views, the other day was quite rainy, but lucky for us we had the whole place to ourselves.

Some cool beach with a bunch of caves!

Just happened to stumble
upon this lighthouse!

The 13 Apostles (unfortunately there are only
8 because of weather and erosion)

After our adventures along The Great Ocean Road, which truly was great, we headed into the city of Melbourne.

In the city there was tons of shopping, some markets, a few museums and lots and lots of graffiti art. And the first day, we did it all. We started with exploring the stores, which were mostly department-type stores, so nothing super exciting, although we all bought some warmer clothes because highs were in the low 50's!

We also went to an art museum and pretended to know what we were talking about and finally ended up walking down some streets adorned with graffiti. 

Reppin the Drexel Dragon

The next day, we did the most instagramed thing in Melbourne...the Brighton Beach Boxes. (p.s. this beach was much nicer than Brighton Beach, NJ). The boxes go all along the beach and are painted in awesome colors so we of course had to strike a few poses, especially in front of the Australia Flag themed box!

The gang!

One of my many posed beach box photos (view more -->)

Later in the day found a cool town called Fitzroy where we did some shopping while Courtney finished a group project in a cafe. After that adventure, we tried to rent bikes to ride through the Botanical gardens but got very lost and had to go back. But this time there was no falling off the bike and I even conquered some city riding. Guess I need to blame my bad bike skills on the wine tasting that accompanied the bike ride in New Zealand. Later in the evening we went to see the Penguins that come out around Sunset on the pier!

Very familiar bridge walk into the city of Melbourne

Overall the trip went by really fast, and although I don't regret studying abroad in Sydney, I LOVED Melbourne. The town was full of things I loved, shopping, coffee, and art. The entire scene was different and chill, instead of the upbeat fast paced city of Sydney. In US terms I would compare Sydney to New York. But Melbourne on the other hand was a nice mix of London and Philly and it definitely reminded me of the City of Brotherly Love where I will be headed in 24 days. 

Signing off for now...

Christine 

Deadly Activities Round 2

Hey y'all!

Ready for some more fun?

This past weekend Ashley and I did something crazy... A SHARK DIVE

This dive gave us another chance to scuba dive, this time with some awesome animals that most people use a cage to dive with, but not us.

I think these pictures will be quite self explanatory...

Oh yeah. Forgot to mention that this dive was at a safe little aquarium. But I think we are still pretty crazy seeing what happens with wild animals in captivity all the time.

We also ended the day with some crazy amazing food at this cute little italian restaurant at Manly Beach! I got some yummy pasta with crab and asparagus.

NOM NOM

Oh and also got this chocolate shake topped with a nutella filled donut that I swear had half a small jar of nutella on the inside.

Even too much for a nutella lover. I guess I'll be spending the rest of this week at the gym..

Tootles!

Christine

Last month Down Under

Hey hey!

I haven't been posting much...and someone keeps looking at the blog, so I thought I'd give them something to read. 

The last few weeks have been kind of boring because classes are starting to wind down and everyone has projects, papers, and exams. But, no worries. Exciting things are to come!

Next week, Ashley and I will be swimming with some sharks, and the weekend after Courtney and I are off to Melbourne. Once our Melbourne trip commences, that will probably be the extent of the Australian travels. :(

BUT NOT TO FEAR. Once we get back from Melbourne, Ashley and I are going to kick some booty on our Finance final and then hours later we are hopping on a plane to go somewhere exciting...stay tuned for that adventure....

Back to procrastinating my last paper in my least favorite class...psychology. 

Aussie out, 

Christine

The Nasty Camels of Aussie

Hi Everyone!

We are now down to the last two months in Australia and it is flying by. With lots of exams and papers coming up we don't have any exciting adventures planned until the end, but I will keep you posted on anything slightly interesting that is happening!

Last weekend my two roommates, Emily Courtney, and two of courtney's friends went on a road trip to Port Stephens. We rented a car and headed up there for the day. After the nauseating car ride, we finally arrives to lots of ocean, and huge sand dunes, and even some camels.

The entire draw to Port Stephens is sand boarding on the sand dunes. You sandboard by getting a snowboard looking thing, but unfortunately it is too dangerous to stand, so we had to sit. But being the daredevils we were we went to an unmonitored sand dune that was much higher than the one that the company was watching.

Here is a cool video!

We also met some of the nastiest camels I have ever met. Some were even mussled from how much they sit. And the trainer kept warning up that camels kick.

See? TERRIFYING

During this photo the trainer was warning me about getting
kicked and I was slowly trying to move away

Overall it was a super fun day, and although we chased the sunset and missed it, it was a fun adventure!!

Till the next aussie adventure...

xoxo, 

Christine