We did a walking tour of the city the first day. Skylines in Australia are really different than those in the States; it's not all about how many skyscrapers can we fit on a block and who has a building with more stories. Though that sounds negative, I definitely have a soft spot skylines like New York's, so the big cities tend to seem sort of small and undeveloped here. Melbourne is a big rival of Sydney; it's a little more cultural and "artsy." We saw tons of little cafes and interesting architecture. One of my favorite aspects were these little alleys full of cafes and stores. It was nice to get away from the crowded streets and have lunch there. For me at least, it was kind of like discovering a spot that only non-tourists know about.
Some of the Melbourne skyline; back alley
Day 2 (aka Saturday) was spent on a daylong trip to the Great Ocean Road. This is one of Australia's most visited sites. It was built by soldiers returning from World War II as a way to create jobs. It follows the coastline about an hour outside of Melbourne. There are some gorgeous rock formations that are created by erosion of the coastline by a somewhat complicated process I won't go into here. The most famous is the 12 Apostles, which is a group of freestanding rocks, though there are only 9 left standing (the other 3 have fallen). We lucked out and got gorgeous 3pm lighting on the rocks, so I have about a million pictures of the same view. There's two kinds of people: those who look at this stuff and recognize it's beauty and those who look at it an think "That's it?!" I'm definitely one of the former, so it was great to spend the day with beautiful views. Too bad the photos are nothing in comparison to the real thing.
12 Apostles; London Bridge
Sunday morning was spent strolling in St. Kilda, a beach suburb of Melbourne (which also happens to be known for it's prostitutes...but as we were there in daylight it wasn't a problem). I had amazing pancakes at a cafe and drooled over treats in bakery windows. St. Kilda's is home to the original Luna Park, an amusment park also located in Sydney. They had what looked like an awesome wooden roller coaster, but it was closed for repairs and I couldn't ride it. That afternoon, we attended my first AFL game - Aussie Rules. Aussie Rules is a ridiculous amalgamation of a ton of different sports. There's a little bit of rugby, basketball, soccer, and volleyball with some unidentifiable bits thrown in. Nonetheless, it was a great game that looked hopeless for the home team at half time (26 to 75) but resulted in a huge come from behind victory in the second half (final score: 119 Melbourne to 113 Freemantle).
Fans celebrate a goal at the AFL game
This was followed by another overnight bus ride back to Sydney. I arrived back at the house at 5:30 am, promptly fell into bed, and didn't wake up until about 1 pm. All in all, it was a fun weekend away but I definitely prefer Sydney to Melbourne. When I got back, it was nice to be "home" (although don't tell my mom I said that or she'll be even more nervous that I want to relocate here).
Posts on a day trip to the Hunter Valley (for a wine tour) and a weekend in the Blue Mountains are on the way. Unfortunately, my house managed to use up our "unlimited" bandwidth for the month (because in Australia, you pay for everything), so the internet is really only tolerable after midnight which has become my bedtime as of late. I promise to get them up as soon as possible and without wanting to throw my laptop out a window.
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