Author: Allison Mascioli

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

Last weekend I had the opportunity to go to a beach town called Byron Bay and it’s known for having the best beaches in Australia.  I traveled with three other friends and we were able to hangout and have a relaxing weekend, but at the same time explore another area of Australia.  We arrived on Friday and got to explore the town, which is very granola, and spent most of our day at the beach.  We considered this to be a recovery day because the previous week was extremely hectic with classes and coming back from our spring break trip to Thailand(see last week’s post).  So we finished off the day by going on a hike to the towns lighthouse and watching the sunset.

The next day we went on sea kayaking tour where we could go looking for whales and dolphins.  I’ll admit that at first I was very skeptical in the tour because there were no signs of life for a while but all of a sudden it was like they were putting on a show for us.  We saw so many whales and they got very close to our kayaks and it was amazing.  I wasn’t able to get any photos of the whales but I was able to get an action shot of my friend Maddy who was my kayaking partner!

On our final day, we took a bus ride to a near by town called Nimbin.  We traveled on a bus called the Happy Coach and the town itself felt like we time traveled back into the 70s.  It was fun to explore the shops and the other local attractions in the town.

Overall though we did a lot of eating on this trip.  Since the three girls that I traveled with are all gluten free and dairy free, we went to some cafes and restaurants that I can say I might not have picked out on my own but I’m extremely glad that we did.  We shared all of our meals with each other so that we could try as much as we could off the menus because they all looked sooooo good.  We definitely had a foodie experience this past weekend.

As of today, I have two weeks of class left before entering finals period which is honestly crazy.  I still feel like I just got off the plane to Australia.  I still have some more trips planned and this weekend I will be heading to Melbourne with the same girls I traveled with to Byron Bay last weekend.  I’ll keep you all posted!

Miss you all!

Allison

This past weekend, I channeled my inner cheetah girl (see instagram photo) and went to Barcelona with my friend Annie. It was awesome! I loved the city so much. Barcelona is located in the autonomous community of Cataluña. Part of Cataluña is currently trying to gain independence from Spain. They have their own language too, which all of the signs are written in! I thought I might be able to understand some of it, but I definitely couldn’t. At times it seemed more like French than Spanish!

Much of the architecture (and main tourist spots now) are by an architect named Gaudí. We saw el Templo de la Sagrada Familia, Park Güell, and Casa Battló, all of which were designed by Gaudí. They were all amazing, but my favorite was definitely La Sagrada Familia. The windows were amazing and light was reflecting all over the inside of the church. Fun fact, it’s not even finished yet, even though they’ve been working on it for a very long time. It’s slated to be completed in 2026.

After that, I came back to Granada for two days of class. We got to go on a visit to the Granada Cathedral and la Capilla Real. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel are buried there, which was pretty cool to see.

Now I’m in Sevilla with the Bucknell program. We’ll be spending two days here, two in Cadiz, and one in Ronda. It should definitely be a fun time! It’s nice to take a little bit of a break from school.

Fun fact: It’s October and I’m still wearing shorts. I’m (not so) patiently awaiting sweater weather.

I hope you’re all enjoying fall break together!

Much love,

Bix