Victoria, Australia

Moving on from Sydney, we first made a stop in Australia's national capitol city, Canberra. We checked into a hostel for the night and after an accidental 2 hr bus ride (don't ask, trains are much easier), we made it to the Old Parliament building for a quick 45 minute tour before it closed. Since the town closes down at 5, we basically didn't have much else to do for the night. We walked around to see some of the monuments and other Australia history, which was an important thing to witness. We also walked by what we presumed to be an aboriginal protest against the Australia government - interesting.

After our quick stop in Canberra, we made like a baby and head out (thanks Tara), down to the state of Victoria. When I arrived in Melbourne, I immediately knew that I was going to love this place. The first night we spent in a hostel and were initially disappointed to find out that the only thing available was an 8 bed dorm. Much to our dismay, it ended up being one of the best nights we had during our entire trip. We stayed with a group of 5 Germans, who were the coolest people ever! We spent the entire night (literally) with them down in the bar and talked about all the cultural differences and our different experiences and takes on Australia. We were sad to leave them in the morning, but not too sad cuz we were excited to go and stay with my roommate's aunt.

When we met the Ferguson's (my roommate's aunt's family), we immediately fell in love with their family. We felt so comfortable there, and had a lot of fun hanging out with their son Dave, who is our age. Dave and his friend Chris introduced us to Melbourne by taking us out for Thai food in Chinatown, and showing us the local casino which shoots up huge balls of fire every hour, on the hour.

Coincidentally, the Australian Open happened to be taking place in Melbourne while we were there. Because I'm cheap, I didn't pay to go, but merely enjoyed seeing the action of watching the games on the big screen in federation square and around the quarts. Tara however bought a ticket and got to see Andy Roddick and Serena Williams play!

We also went on a spectacular world renowned drive known as the GREAT OCEAN ROAD. The road curves along Australia's south coast and is very similar to what you would see near Cannon Beach, Oregon. There are many rock formations out in the water, the famous ones known as the 12 Apostles, the London Bride, and Loch Ard Gorge (a famous shipwreck where 2 of 50 passengers survived by climbing up the cliffs to safety).

We also went to Phillip Island, which is known for its area of burrows in which penguins come ashore every night. That's right, I got to see penguins swim in from the ocean in their natural habitat. Why, I even got to see a few mate, and well, "Penguins are noisy lovers". It was a very awesome thing to experience. I'm talking about the penguins in general here. Moving on...

Other cool things we did in Melboure were go up the Realto Rower to the observation deck (too bad it was a bit cloudy), browse through the Queen Victoria Markets, walk inside St. Paul's Cathederal, visit the local icons such as the Arts Centre and the Yarra River, go the the Hard Rock Cafe (yeah I even got a shirt!) and we even ran into our German friends on the city circle's free tram! Talk about random!!

Without hesitation, I can definitely say that Melbourne is my favorite city in Australia. If I were to live there (and I'm not saying I'm thinking about it), that is where I would want to be. It's a liveable city, there's lots of sporting activities, the weather is a bit more liveable, and there are lots of fun and different cultural things to do. And it's got that nice small town in a city feeling I like. I'll admit that the people there may have had an influence on this affair.