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| The Nunnery |
We finally arrived to Melbourne Tuesday evening after a long day on the Great Ocean Road. We stayed at The Nunnery in Fitzroy, which as it sounds, is an old convent turned into a backpackers hostel. Seems to be a bit contradictory from what it was to what it became, but none the less it was a beautiful old building. We stayed in a 12 share dorm room that was humongous. I got sorted in the room very quickly and then went to meet Tim, our Dutch friend we met in Adelaide who is going to be travelling with us from Melbourne to Sydney. I needed to get some fresh air and walk around a bit. So Tim, his friend Monira and I went for a walk and ended up at a little pub for a good chat and beer. It was nice just to be out of the car, but also to be back into the city life. I enjoy nature and quiet, quaint little towns, but gosh, I sure to enjoy the city as well!
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| Dodgy alley in Melbourne |
Wednesday in Melbourne left me with much to do, see and explore! I met Tim and Monira for a lovely morning coffee on Brunswick street. I then left them to wander in and out of a lot of shops and snap some photos of the funky little neighborhood of Fitzroy. I then headed into the CBD to meet Kally, my travel mate from the very beginning of my time in Australia. I hadn't seen her since March, so it was quite nice to reunite and have some yummy cheap pizza in a hidden away place at the end of a dodgy alley in Melbourne. After lunch with Kally, I wandered around Melbourne in the rain for awhile until I got tired of being wet, then headed back to The Nunnery. I met one of my roommates and she invited me to dinner at a really neat place called Lentil As Anything, which was a really neat concept for a restaurant. Its a non-profit organization that serves up organic vegetarian cuisine that has no set prices, just pay what you feel it is worth. They support many different community project to assist refugees. And its just really good food and a great atmosphere as well, heaps of wonderful people.
Friday morning, we left Melbourne and headed down to St. Kilda, a suburb of Melbourne on the coast. It was here that I did a whole lot more photo snappin' and exploring. There were heaps of cute shops and fun things to look at. And then of course there was some sea. We wandered down to the pier at dusk to watch some little fairy penguins come into shore. They are so adorable and wiggly, I just wanted to squeeze and cuddle them, except they probably smell pretty bad. After the penguin viewing were reunited with some of our long lost friends and a new one, Sarah, Christopher and Jonathon. It was so good to see Sarah again and have a a girl to catch up with and share stories with. We all went out to dinner at the St. Kilda Lentil as Anything, then delicious dessert at one of the many cake shops in St. Kilda. We then went back to our hostel to enjoy a few drinks and the musical stylings of Casey Dean! It was a pretty fun night!
Saturday morning I found a nice little coffee shop to have a bit of quiet time and reflection time on the past several days. The weather since I had been in St. Kilda had been so much nicer than my time in Melbourne. I don't know if the sun even came out in Melb! After some delightful quiet time accompanied with some coffee and sunshine, I headed back to the hostel to meet Jeff and we drove a little way down the coast to Brighton Beach. There we enjoyed some nice views of the sea from the pier. It took a little while but we finally found the famous Brighton Beach Bathing Boxes. There are about 100 of the colorful bathing boxes along this beach. They are prime real estate, they do not go up for sale very often, but when they do they are pretty spendy!
The last morning in St. Kilda I spent some time at the Arts & Crafts Market killing some time before we head out. Jeff and I went to pick up Tim and then we headed down to Philip Island for a bit and met up with Sarah, Chris & Jon again for some afternoon laughs. They stayed for the Penguin Parade, but Jeff, Tim and I decided to hit the road as we had some miles to cover in order to make it Sydney by Tuesday. But I did have some time on Philip Island to squeeze a couple penguins before we left :) Right before we left the Island I had to make sure I caught a sweet wave. I had never been surfing before and have always wanted to, so I thought what better time than August at Philip Island and I even had the perfect outfit accessorized in boots and a scarf! We drove a couple hours down the road to the Lakes Entrance, where it was completely freezing by the time we got there in the evening. Thank goodness for heaters in the rooms!
Monday morning we got up and went for a stroll on the beach at Lakes Entrance. It was a lovely morning bursting with sunshine, ocean air and heaps of sand in my shoes. I have know idea why I decided not to wear flip-flops on this day. Oh well! We saw some playful seals swimming right in front of us. I think they were hungry for our attention because they stuck around for quite awhile. Glad we stopped here. Now, enough sunshine and sand, let's go to Canberra where its cold and rainy, woo hoo!!
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| Recording a commercial |
We only spent one night in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, and that was plenty. Thank goodness I had a friend to catch up with that night, otherwise, I would have gotten a perfectly good, full night of sleep! I went to my friends house and we ate popcorn, then went on a wild goose chase hunting for wood in the neighborhood to burn, so we could have a fire in his front yard...in a barrel of course. It was good fun and good conversation into the wee hours of the night. Tuesday morning we went to the National Museum of Australia, which was a really fun time. Tim and I got to make a "live" radio commercial recording and we just had fun taking goofy pictures and enjoying the learning experience. After that we went up to the hill to have a look at the well planned out capital city, Canberra. it was kind of cool, but now we are just ready to get to Sydney already! Just three hours to go...well, we stopped at Jervis Bay, but the weather was crap. We did manage to see a school of dolphins to entertain us for a bit, before it started raining again. Seriously, we are headed to Sydney now!
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| Three Sister @ Blue Mountains |
For the last time we are reunited with Sarah, Chris & Jonny in Sydney. They will be heading back home soon :( Tuesday night I had a long, much needed girl chat with Sarah and we tried to get to bed early (HA!) so we could get on the road early Wednesday for a day trip to the Blue Mountains. It turned out to be a nice day in the mountains, but very windy! This was our last day all together, Thursday I departed on my own to head back up to Brisbane. I had been contacted with some work available for me in Brissy on Saturday & Sunday and decided to cut the road trip a little short so I could try to make up for some of the spending I had done on the road!
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| 13,012 km travelled |
I hit the open road on my own for the first time in about 37 days. It was pretty freeing and just nice to have some quiet time to myself. I drove up to Newcastle and had a little wonder around the town for about an hour than continued on to Coffs Harbour for the evening. It was a nice, sunshiney day to drive with the windows down and the music up. On the afternoon of Friday the 13th of August is where this came to an end. Arriving back in Brisbane had never felt so good. I was home and didn't expect to have that type of feeling while in Australia. Brisbane has become my home and I am blessed to have this time to enjoy.
Wednesday evening after dinner, I returned to The Nunnery completely spent. It had been a very long, rainy day. I walked into my room and saw one of my roommates that I had not met yet had a Nikon laying on top of his bag. I decided to strike up a conversation with him about it. Two hours later, (it was a good conversation!) I was inspired and ready to go out and take some photos...but first I had to sleep and regain some strength for a very long day of exploring more of Melbourne. I spent all of Thursday alone with my camera and my ipod traipsing up and down and all around the city. I first went to the Queen Victoria Markets, which turned out to be a bad idea. I bought some food there and then had to carry it around all morning. It wasn't that bad, but I didn't realize until I got back to The Nunnery that my bananas did not have a fun time. They took a beating and a little smooshing :( After my morning outing I had lunch and a bit of a rest. Then headed out for what turned out to be a very fun afternoon/evening. I went up and down Lygon Street and found some fun little shops and things to snap, snap, snap away at. It started to get dark and I thought it would be a fun to experiment with some night shooting. I haven't done much, so it turned out to be a good time and I got a few not too shabby shots. 
Friday morning, we left Melbourne and headed down to St. Kilda, a suburb of Melbourne on the coast. It was here that I did a whole lot more photo snappin' and exploring. There were heaps of cute shops and fun things to look at. And then of course there was some sea. We wandered down to the pier at dusk to watch some little fairy penguins come into shore. They are so adorable and wiggly, I just wanted to squeeze and cuddle them, except they probably smell pretty bad. After the penguin viewing were reunited with some of our long lost friends and a new one, Sarah, Christopher and Jonathon. It was so good to see Sarah again and have a a girl to catch up with and share stories with. We all went out to dinner at the St. Kilda Lentil as Anything, then delicious dessert at one of the many cake shops in St. Kilda. We then went back to our hostel to enjoy a few drinks and the musical stylings of Casey Dean! It was a pretty fun night! 
Saturday morning I found a nice little coffee shop to have a bit of quiet time and reflection time on the past several days. The weather since I had been in St. Kilda had been so much nicer than my time in Melbourne. I don't know if the sun even came out in Melb! After some delightful quiet time accompanied with some coffee and sunshine, I headed back to the hostel to meet Jeff and we drove a little way down the coast to Brighton Beach. There we enjoyed some nice views of the sea from the pier. It took a little while but we finally found the famous Brighton Beach Bathing Boxes. There are about 100 of the colorful bathing boxes along this beach. They are prime real estate, they do not go up for sale very often, but when they do they are pretty spendy! 
The last morning in St. Kilda I spent some time at the Arts & Crafts Market killing some time before we head out. Jeff and I went to pick up Tim and then we headed down to Philip Island for a bit and met up with Sarah, Chris & Jon again for some afternoon laughs. They stayed for the Penguin Parade, but Jeff, Tim and I decided to hit the road as we had some miles to cover in order to make it Sydney by Tuesday. But I did have some time on Philip Island to squeeze a couple penguins before we left :) Right before we left the Island I had to make sure I caught a sweet wave. I had never been surfing before and have always wanted to, so I thought what better time than August at Philip Island and I even had the perfect outfit accessorized in boots and a scarf! We drove a couple hours down the road to the Lakes Entrance, where it was completely freezing by the time we got there in the evening. Thank goodness for heaters in the rooms!
Monday morning we got up and went for a stroll on the beach at Lakes Entrance. It was a lovely morning bursting with sunshine, ocean air and heaps of sand in my shoes. I have know idea why I decided not to wear flip-flops on this day. Oh well! We saw some playful seals swimming right in front of us. I think they were hungry for our attention because they stuck around for quite awhile. Glad we stopped here. Now, enough sunshine and sand, let's go to Canberra where its cold and rainy, woo hoo!! 
We only spent one night in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, and that was plenty. Thank goodness I had a friend to catch up with that night, otherwise, I would have gotten a perfectly good, full night of sleep! I went to my friends house and we ate popcorn, then went on a wild goose chase hunting for wood in the neighborhood to burn, so we could have a fire in his front yard...in a barrel of course. It was good fun and good conversation into the wee hours of the night. Tuesday morning we went to the National Museum of Australia, which was a really fun time. Tim and I got to make a "live" radio commercial recording and we just had fun taking goofy pictures and enjoying the learning experience. After that we went up to the hill to have a look at the well planned out capital city, Canberra. it was kind of cool, but now we are just ready to get to Sydney already! Just three hours to go...well, we stopped at Jervis Bay, but the weather was crap. We did manage to see a school of dolphins to entertain us for a bit, before it started raining again. Seriously, we are headed to Sydney now!
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