Melbourne Monday-Friday (***Long Post***)

When Monday (6/1) rolled around I was feeling a bit of mixed emotions. I set my alarm for early so that I could make sure I was ready by the time we needed to leave. Elizabeth wasn't ready on time and missed the first train. But that wasn't a big deal because she was able to catch the next one. I on the other hand got some extra time and got to travel up to Wollongong with Aussie. She works up in that area, and it's a little closer to Sydney so I just took the train from there. I was truly petrified when Aussie dropped me off at the Train station. Don't get me wrong, I was excited, but I was more scared than anything else. (When I got back and told Jersey Aussie how scared I was when she dropped me off, she told me that she had absolutely no clue. )

      I must have looked like I had been to the train station a lot because heaps of people came up to me to ask me about the next train, and it's stops. Eh, I'm happy I can pull off looking like I belong in a place I've never been before. Once on the train I found the one row of empty seats, made myself comfy, left room on the seat next to me and sleep for about 45 minutes, only looking up when a women sat next to me.
   After eventually hearing that we were getting close to central I started up a conversation with the women sitting next to me on the train. She was excited by the fact that I've been to New York City. It was one of her dream places to go.

    When we reached Central she pointed out a few different directions that I could go in for some touristy attractions. For a while I stayed in central with WiFi and called my family and a couple friends who had been begging to talk.
 I ended up just walking around the city eventually ending up at Darling Harbor. I stopped and looked in stores as I walked and even ended up buying a really nice $2 swim top.

    My day in Sydney ended up turning into a night in Sydney when my flight was canceled. This actually turned out well because I was able to switch to the airport in Melbourne that was MUCH closer. Jet Star also put me up in a beautiful hotel with a free expensive breakfast.

When I finally reached Melbourne I got a little misdirected when walking to my hostel. But after 20 minutes I found my way to my hostel that was only 3 minutes from the bus station......opps! 

I made friends with some french guy who I ended up making a pasta dinner with after he walked with me to coles. After chilling with him and his friends for a bit they all just started speaking french so I went to make friends with the only 2 other backpackers who were speaking English.  Both from the UK. Later on their friends from Germany joined up and we kicked back with some beers while playing some card games. I was then invited to go out with them, but I was so tired I couldn't keep my eyes open so I headed to my bed. 

   On Wednesday I learned that a few of my friends from surf camp were in Melbourne. So I made plans to meet up with them throughout the day.

I did a walking tour with Andy one of my surf camp friends. He is actually from Florida! While on the tour I made rally good friends with Laura, a girl from Illinois who now lives in San Diego. She was so chill.

 

 

 

After our tour I went with Laura to meet her friend from back in the states. We went to this super chill artsy bar, which was in a ally way. I'm pretty sure that was my favorite bar of our night. Later on we headed to the guys hostel, the space hotel, so that they could shower and show off their roof top common area with a spa!!! We also grabbed a drink at the hostel's bar.
    As 9:30 rolled in we ventured to the queen Victoria market for food. Both Laura and I didn't even have the though of food on our mind until we smelt food on our walk to the guys hostel. At the market I was so hungry I really couldn't tell or know what I wanted to eat. I eventually settled for a dish from Spain. 

  While eating the guys were telling us about a bar they heard of where you walk through the ally with street art. You walk up the stairs and knock on the door and they let you in...maybe....if they do you then choose the east or west side. And yea the rest is pretty much a regular (expensive) bar, but only with table service only.  I had so much fun with Laura and the guys! I really hope to meet up with Laura again eventually, even if it's in San Diego!

Dinner!!

12 Apostels

 Thursday I woke up early to go meet my tour. The guide, Sean, gave me shot gun after I told him the it was my last two days in Melbourne. I basically had the best views of everything, and the ability to charge my phone the entire time for pictures. Our tour started out with introductions of ourselves to the group. Our first stop was made in a  little town park where we enjoyed morning tea. I made friends with  Karyn, a sweet girl from the Uk. We basically became a group of two. We made some breath taking stops along the Great Ocean road and stopped at the 12 apostels, and then another area that I forget the name of, but there was a famous ship wreck there, with a beautiful beach.  

 About an hour later we stopped at a rain forest that reminded me of my childhood adventures with Allie!! I took pictures, but the pictures don't show how beautiful the place really is! The trees are enormous! There was one tree that had fallen but a good amount was still standing. However the part that was standing had a "tunnel" through the bottom that you can walk through. I didn't walk through it because the myth is that if you walk through it (and your a female) you will become pregnant. So I just stuck to doing a handstand at the opening.

   Later on in the day we stopped to see Kolas in their natural habitat. Which I thought was absolutely amazing!! While there I heard a familiar voice. I went to take a picture of a kola in a tree as did another girl. Her phone case looked like I had seen it before along with the blonde hair. As she was taking a picture I asked "Are you Delphine?"  The next thing I heard was "Is my conscious speaking to me?" When she turned around she and I both were so excited to see each other again!!!! I had met her when I was up in Coffs Harbor at Spot X Surf Camp.  She helped plan our trip to Byron Bay. It was a nice reunion with her, and I got to meet her traveling mate as well! I hope to see them again eventually too!!!

  On our way to the Hostel we made a few more stops. One at the end of the great ocean road, a few at beaches and view points, one at a light house, and then the last was at a drive through liquor store.
  We reached Bells Beach Backpackers around 8pm and got started on making dinner right away. Sean made us an Aussie dinner on the barbie. There was heaps of different meats. I had a little bit of everything excepts the lamb.

 

 

 After dinner we all just chilled. Karyn, Catatonia and I were on a mission to find chocolate. We left the hostel to find a 7Eleven, but we found a petrol station with a convince store much closer! We all stocked up on a few pieces  of different chocolate candies and headed back. When we got back I took a shower and hit the hay!


*****This post is wayy to long I'm stopping it here, just like this... READ ABOUT THE PENGUINS on my NEXT post*****

Sunset on the Plane as I write this post