Last weekend, I had the chance to travel with two of my friends to Melbourne, which is a city that is south of Sydney in the state of Victoria. Coincidentally, I have a family friend that lives in the town called Williamstown, which is outside of Melbourne, so we were able to stay with them for the weekend. We arrived Friday morning and got to explore the city for a little. Melbourne is considered to be the New York of Australia mostly because there are a lot of art present in the city. We got to check out the street art along the side streets, which Melbourne is known for.
Later that day we took a train to Brighton Beach, which is south of the city, and got to see the bath houses. They are these little shacks that are decorated and are lined up along the beach. What’s crazy about them is that each one costs about $300,000 AUD, which is insane. That night we went back to Williamstown, which is right next to the beach, and we got to have dinner and watch the beautiful sunset with my family friend.
On Saturday, we woke up early to go on a tour of the Great Ocean Road, which is home to a famous site in Australia called the 12 Apostles. The tour was great because not only did we get to see the 12 Apostles but we also got to stop at a wildlife park and see some Koalas, go on a small hike through the rain forest, and go to some pretty great lookout points along the Great Ocean Road. By the end of the day, we were exhausted and ready to crash.
Finally on Sunday, we went to a district within Melbourne and got brunch at a place called Matcha Mylkbar, which we found on Instagram because Chris Hemsworth recommended it, so naturally we had to check it out. It was a vegan cafe and it was so good. We all got to try vegan eggs where the “yolk” was made of sweet potatoes and the “whites” were made of cocoanut and almond milk. After bunch, we caught our flight back to Sydney and got back to work.
This upcoming week is our last week of classes here at UNSW and then we will enter reading period and finals week. It’s crazy to think about finishing classes at the end of October. I officially have exactly 1 month left here in Australia and it’s a little sad to think about leaving here but I’m exited to come back and see you all at Bucknell.
Good luck to the women racing at Head of the Charles this weekend. I’ll be following all the races from Australia!
Allison