melbourne

this is the view i had of the sunset from my room a few nights ago :)

a couple more from sydney!

here's a couple more cute sydney pictures from one of the other girl's camera...

at the sydney war memorial

looking out at the sydney harbour bridge

sydney! (sunday)

sunday we headed out early to get to the beach.  and of course with our luck, it was the only day over the weekend we didn't have beautiful, warm weather.

it was rainy and cold. :(

but we still were able to go on walking tour around bondi beach, the famous beach of australia.

it's where all the surfers go.  there is a show on television here about bondi beach, that records the life of the lifeguards there while they are on the job.  it's a really dangerous ocean, the waves are huge.  they literally save multiple peoples lives there everyday.  it seemed pretty calm when we were there though, and there weren't many people out because of the weather.

at the end of our beach walk, we had a late lunch.  one of the managers of the tour company we were with owns a house on bondi beach, and we went there for hotdogs.  

some of us sat out on the beach and watched one hardcore volleyball game..they were so good!  

but, then, it started to rain again, bummer.  so we all crammed into the house until the rain let up.

we drove over to another beach and pretty much just wandered around the city for a few hours (there was lots of free time because was to lay out on the sunny beach..oh well..).  

then, we got some dinner, and headed back to melbourne at 8pm.

needless to say, i knocked out the whole 13 hour bus ride back!

what an AMAZING weekend though!  i'm glad i was able to stay energetic and awake the whole weekend and enjoy the experience!

i would LOVE to back to sydney again before i leave!  :)

sydney! (saturday)

saturday morning, some of us left bright and early in the morning to go the blue mountains.

it was about a two hour bus ride from our hostel to get to the mountains, but definitely beautiful!

they are called the blue mountains because when you look off in the distance there is a blue haze around them.

you can sort of see that in some of the photos..

this is a really awesome waterfall that was free falling off the top of one of the mountains!  it wasn't running down the rocks or anything, it was just falling from the top of the rock.  so cool!

after the first stop at the blue mountains we drove a little further and then got out and went on a bit of a hike!  we saw beautiful, open farmlands and then went climbing down through a cave and waterfall.  it was really hard to get pictures at this location, but it was so awesome!  the cave rocks were really wet, so we had to go barefoot so we wouldn't slip as easily and it was freezing!  we also had to walk through waters up to our knees to get over to the other side of the waterfall...BRR!!!  but it was so fun!

the last stop in the blue mountains was the "three sisters," which is three rock formations standing together.  the whole day was really breathtaking and doesn't look half as good in a photograph.

we got back to the hostel around 5pm and had about an hour to relax.  then we went out to a restaurant/bar/dance place for a "white party."  everyone had to wear white because there were black lights downstairs in the dance area.  it was lots of fun!

sydney! (friday)

ahhh i went to sydney and i can't believe it!i have wanted to go there since i was ten years old and it was just so surreal.

sydney was so beautiful and warm, definitely a nice change from the cool and rainy melbourne life!

i LOVED it!

it was a long ride getting there.  i went through rmit sports and rec union again a

nd so we drove on a coach bus there.  i was a 13 hour drive!  i sounds weird, but i never realized how big and spread out australia was.

we left a 8pm on thursday night (sep. 11) and arrived in melbourne around 9am friday 

morning.

it was hard to get much sleep on the bus, so i was really tired when we got there, but i just made myself get over it so i could enjoy the time i had in sydney!

our trip leaders gave us about half an hour to set down our luggage, change clothes, and brush our teeth and then we headed out!

we went on a walking tour around sydney.  

first was the war memorial..

we then walked through the city and passed st. mary's cathedral...

and then on to the botanical gardens...

there were bats EVERYWHERE in the botanical gardens!  just hanging out on the middle of the day.  it was so strange and creepy!

just on the other side of the botanical gardens we reached the sydney harbour and saw the opera house and sydney harbour bridge.  what a dream come true, seriously!  it was just so surreal to be there!!

then i climbed the tower at the end of the sydney harbour bridge!

it was SO beautiful!  i could see the entire city!

after the bridge, we walked through darling harbour and got some lunch.

darling harbour is also where we loaded onto our boat later that night.

such a busy day, but so amazing!  we had about two hours to explore the sydney market and go back to the hostel to nap and get ready for our night!

we went on an absolutely beautiful three hour cruise around the sydney harbour!  the weather was wonderful and it was such an awesome experience to see the city at night from the water!

about 100 international students went, so it was such a great opportunity to meet new friends from other countries...

phillip island

i went on my first little trip this weekend!it was SO exciting and amazing!

i went to phillip island.

RMIT organizes lots of trips through the sports and rec union so i went with them.

they had a full packed day planned out for us. 

it was great to get out of my little bubble in the city and get in a bus and just look out the window.

we left at about 11am and headed for phillip island.

i think it was about a two hour drive, but i'm not sure, i wasn't really keeping up with the time.

we stopped about an hour in at a place called tooradin.

our driver was really nice and good about being our little tour guide!

he told us that the aboriginals that used to live in the town thought there was a monster in the lake.

they named it tooradin, which means something in their language, i forget what.

anyway, the town eventually was named tooradin as well.

population as of 2002: 800.