The Weekend of Facing Fears....Melbourne (Week 11)

G'day from Melbourne!

This weekend was great! I spent it in Melbourne with two friends, Rachel and Marni whom I have known since Dor L' Dor (Israel) in summer 2005. Both are Camp Tel-Noar girls and good friends of mine.

DAY 1: FRIDAY APRIL 30

The journey down to Melbourne began on a very hungover Friday morning. Let me back track first and tell you that when we were booking our flights there was a deal with Jetstar. Though we all sat via Skype from our computers in our rooms booking the flights, I was the only one to click and get the real deal for an 11 am flight. So, off I went flying alone. The only problem was, Marni and Rachel weren't arriving until  5 hours after me.  Needless to say I hired a driver to get me to the airport and I left, my first time ever really flying alone! I made it though safe and sound! I got myself a sandwich and coffee and got cozy with my book while I waited for my friends. They finally got there at 5pm and all was good. We took the Skybus from the airport into the city and took a tram to our hostel from there. We wandered a bit, just long enough to eat dinner at a hidden Thai place. Not too bad, but we were quite full after, stopping at 7/11 just to get some water and Pizza flavored Shapes crackers of course!

Our accommodation was Vic Hall. To call it a hostel would be lying, but to call it a hotel would too. Therefore, it is simply a classy Hall. We had a double bed and a twin bed, a big flat screen TV mounted to the wall and a private bathroom. Classiest hostel ever? It was pretty nice, and the beds were comfy as could be! Great for the relaxing and the sleep we all needed!

DAY 2: SATURDAY MAY 1

Saturday we were up and at it early, as Autopia Tours picked us up at 7 am for our Great Ocean Road tour, the EUREKA Package! To start we headed to a few great surf spots with beautiful views! The entire day was picture perfect, and I sure did take over 100 pictures of it all! At Bells Beach we had our morning tea and biscuits. From there we went to see wild koalas and parrots on our way down Great Ocean Road. The place we stopped for lunch was a quaint little town where we sat on odd rock formations, and bought a woman's homemade baked goods. It was cute! 

There was even an old Asian woman who had no idea how to use a restroom, she left the stall door open, and came out of the stall just to pull up her pants- very strange! After taking fun pictures we were on our way, we saw all of the touristy spots along Great Ocean Road, focusing on look outs and our favorite the Twelve Apostles. This is said to be a wonder of the world.. but I am not quite sure. At the lookout for the Twelve Apostles the three of us took an awesome helicopter ride along the coastline to see the 8 remaining apostles from an incredible viewpoint. There are only 8 left, as the most recent to fall was in 2005. They are rock/limestone formations that over time rot away due to the crash of salt water in the ocean. It was absolutely gorgeous, and being my first helicopter ride that was very cool as well.

From the Twelve Apostles we went on to see other rock formations individually, the Lock and Gorge was pretty, we were basically inside a cave of limestone rocks. Then London Bridge was nice too. The story behind it is that London Bridge fell down, literally. In January, 1990 a couple was out on the far flat area of London Bridge rock, when the connecting piece fell into the ocean. It took 3 hours for the couple to be rescued, giving the media plenty of time to get there and show it live. Having all of this media attention it came out the next day that the couple was actually having an affair! Wrong place at the wrong time or karma? You tell me. 

After seeing that we were headed back to Melbourne. We didn't follow Great Ocean Road back, instead we took the highway to a little town for dinner. There was a huge accident involving an Asian tourist bus and a car colliding. We ended up turning around and delaying dinner to go a different route. Needless to say, dinner was Maccas- nothing special. We were so excited to be dropped off at our accommodation and not have to leave that the second we got back I showered and we watched a movie in bed, passing out soon after.

DAY 3: SUNDAY MAY 2

Today we met up with Marni's parents! They are so sweet. We woke up late, went wandering..and sat at an spresso bar for a bit before meeting marnis parents to go to lunch in federation square. From there we went to the 88th floor skydeck saw the whole city and did the edge ride that sticks out of the building and the floor goes clear so u look straight down 88 floors to the ground- so scary!! I hate heights :( :( and then we went to this ally with tons of street art- soooo  cool, I toook so many pics. Then that's when rach and I split from them and ended up eating meat pies at a great place called Pie Face and went wandering. After realizing how early it was we walked towards our backpackers and decided that instead we'd go for drinks. We considered saki bombs but changed our mind and went to this bar for happy hour. Low key- very low key. We just had a  drink and then came back here. I showered and we laid in bed watching yet another movie, though both tipsy- not at all motivated to go out.

DAY 4: MONDAY MAY 3
So today was pretty cool. Went on a free city tourist tram that takes you all over and explains where you are and such as you go. We ended up getting off in Federation Square but not before seeing a "man" that's no longer a man, but surely a woman jump on the bus with some interesting kids. Rachel and I tried pretty hard not to laugh until we looked at Marni and couldn't hold it in any longer. After wandering for a bit and seeing the ACMI (Australian Center for the Moving Image) which was pretty neat, we grabbed lunch at a little cafe and headed to the hotel to wait for our tour. When the tourguide arrived we were in a private tour being driven in a mini-van style Mercedes benz. It was silly...but off we went. We went to a couple gorgeous surf spots took tons of pictures of course. Also saw wallabees and then went to a koala reserve and saw kangaroos too. We were so close to cows and bulls too, they were practically coming up sniffing inside the car. Then we had afternoon tea, and then came to phillip island to see the 


penguins!! The penguins literally come up to shore at sunset in what's called rafts, or big groups of 100+. They travel quickly up the beach and waddle their way into their burrows. They made a ton of loud noises and you could clearly tell who was mating and who looked lost. They were just adorable and It was a shame we couldn't take pictures. (The flash hurts the penguins eyes). After that cool experience we had a great dinner (swordfish) and headed home. We went for dessert at Pie Face once we were back in the city, and left her parents after they walked us back to Vic Hall.

DAY 5: TUESDAY MAY 4

Today we had to be out of Vic Hall by 10am. In doing so, we found out that for 15 dollars each they would provide us transportation to the Airport later and give us a free place to lock up our bags, very clutch! We left and walked all around. We started at Queen Victoria Market where we didn't get much other than food and I bought Steve a present :) However it was cool to see, and if I lived there- I'd definitely get my fruits and veggies there- SO MANY CHOICES! We spent a few hours there wandering it like it was a flea market in Florida, before walking towards a new part of town. We were determined to shop! Not before we got delicious crepes though! It was pretty out at this point, cold but nice. We wandered in and out of stores going into Aussie's biggest department store where I felt like I was in Chestnut Hill at Bloomies! It was crazy but we all had the self control not to buy any clothes or anything! I'm proud of us! 

We then had to head back to our accommodation to wait for the transportation to the Airport. Security flew by and then we were waiting to board the plane. It was rainy at this point, but we had to walk across the tarmac and up stairs to board the plane for what was a bumpy and boring flight. Not only that, but when we landed in Goldie, the guy we had hired to pick us up told us he had to wait for the next flight to land in 10 minutes, and gave us each a $5 bill discount for the wait. Only he had a $20 so he gave Marni that, and said to split it. Tacky. Then it turned out I got a little grumpy because AN HOUR later we finally left the airport. Lame. Finally getting back to Griffith Village was nice though, I got to catch up with my girls and shower and I even put some pictures up because I couldn't sleep.

Now, after an amazing weekend getaway I am back on the Gold Coast and facing a bunch of roommate drama, more to come on that later- I'll keep you updated.

Until the next trip,

xoxo