Sydneyside for the Weekend

I just got home from Sydney about an hour and a half ago and I thought I’d update right away since it’s been so long.

I flew out from Melbourne on Friday afternoon with three friends, Maddie, Katie, and Rachel. All we had time for Friday evening was checking into our hostel, the Blue Parrot, and a yummy Japanese dinner. Our hostel was on the edge of King’s Cross, a slightly seedy area (there were a few strip clubs around), and Pott’s Point, a more swanky residential area.

Our hostel

Saturday we got up early and found a small market a few blocks down from our hostel with several breakfast food options, a happy surprise. After filling our stomachs, we walked through the botanic gardens towards the Sydney Opera House and Harbor Bridge. The gardens were beautiful, but there were heaps of bats sleeping in the trees!

Breakfast-y Market!

Yes. Those are bats

Botanic Gardens

Katie, me and Rachel in front of the bridge

Of course seeing the Opera House was a thrill. It’s so iconic, seeing it up close was very exciting. We opted not to take an official tour, but we peaked inside and took many photos around it. Afterwards we wandered in the direction of the Harbor Bridge through The Rocks, Sydney’s historic district. After walking across the bridge and back (and getting spectacular views of the city), we stopped for a beer and a rest there. Saturday we also went to an Annie Leibovitz exhibit at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art that was very cool.

Rachel, Katie, and Maddie taking a much-deserved break

Darling Harbor

Sunday, the group split up. Maddie and I walked over to Darling Harbor, a more touristy area that was still very pretty. We proceeded to trek through pretty much the rest of the city, through Chinatown, Sydney’s central business district, and two very trendy neighborhoods, Surry Hills and Paddington. The whole time it was raining on and off, but with our rain coats on we were determined.

Monday, Maddie and I went over to Sydney’s fish market. Most of the market was closed off to the public, but there were tons of food stalls and we bought a few oysters to try. Maddie is a bit of a foodie like me, so at her encouragement I tried chicken feet at our lunch of dim sum. Better than I expected, but still a little weird.

After that we headed back to our hostel and then to the airport. It was a total whirlwind 3 days, with not the best weather, but I still had a great time! Sydney is a very cool city, a bit bigger than Melbourne, and it was so fun to explore. I definitely have the travel bug now!

Oyster time

Chicken foot!

Bits and Pieces

View of Melbourne from Brighton

I don't have a lot to report this week. Class, went to the market, cooked, the usual. So I thought I'd post some random things about my life in Melbourne at the moment. It is nice to settle into a regular schedule and get into the groove here. Although settling in at Uni does mean I already have assignments and papers due.

Best juice and smoothies ever

I didn't ever post about the Brighton food festival I went to two weekends ago. It was a very cute small town thing, they had these colorful sheds the vendors set up at and the day was gorgeous. Brighton is about a 40 minute train ride from the city, so it was fun to get out of Melbourne for a bit. And there were great views of the city skyline.

One thing I love about Melbourne is that it has amazing food! I haven't eaten out a lot, but when I have, it's been great. Friends and I went to ths dumpling bar, HuTong after booking our hostel for Sydney, and the dumplings were delicious. So much great Asian food! And this juice bar. Basically every time I go into the central business district (CBD), I go to Tropicana Juice. It's amazing. And then there's Pie Face. Who knew the best thing to eat at 12am is a meat pie? They are wonderful.

Another great thing about Melbourne? It has all these neat alleys and laneways, little side streets crammed with cafes and shops. Every time I wander around, I find new ones. They give the city such a funky, intimate feel, even when you're right in the middle of the CBD. It's one of the things everyone tells you about Melbourne, but discovering it on your own is pretty cool.

I don't have a lot in terms of other news. Yesterday was St. Patrick's day, which they celebrate quite heavily here (the country was founded by British and Irish convicts, so, yeah). We went to Young and Jackson's, a famous old pub in the city, for the occasion. It was such a great mix of old and young people celebrating. I definitely got a little nostalgic for the green river at home and shamrock shakes.

A laneway of Lt. Collins

Next weekend I'm off to Sydney, which has completely gotten me jazzed about traveling. I'm all set to go to Tasmania over Easter break with my abroad program, but there are so many other places I want to go. We have a week off between the end of classes and finals, and I'm starting to plan a trip to New Zealand then. It's so exciting being able to travel to these amazing places, I really want to take advantage of it.

More exciting news next week, I promise!

A Photo-Filled Phillip Island Post

Woolamai

So I was getting all set Friday afternoon to write this long post about my week and all the daily stuff that happened when a friend called and asked if I wanted to go to Phillip Island on Saturday. I knew I'd have tons to share after that, so I waited to post my news til now.

Surfers

Phillip Island is about 140 km southwest of Melbourne (according to my Lonely Planet guidebook), so for the journey we rented 2 cars for 9 people. My friend Justin is living at St. Mary's College on campus, and a group of kids there had planned this trip but there was extra room in the cars. We met at the Budget in Melbourne, piled in our white Corolla, and headed out. It took about an hour and 45 minutes til we were crossing the bridge to beautiful Phillip Island.

Our first stop was Woolamai Beach, which was completely gorgeous. We could not have asked for a more beautiful day. There was a surf competition going on, so we sat and watched/sunbathed (I was heavily sunscreened) for a bit. We then drove over to the Nobbies, these craggy offshore rocks where seals live, though we didn't see any seals. From the boardwalk there, though, we did see little penguins!

The Nobbies

Which brings me to the main tourist attraction of Phillip Island: the Penguin Parade. Every night hundreds of "little penguins" (previously known as "fairy penguins") return to shore each night and nest on this island. They've set up a viewing area and boardwalk to watch the penguins come up the beach and go back to their nests. After stopping for dinner in Cowes, the one main town on the island, we arrived at the area, and by 8:15 the penguins were all over the place. From the boardwalk we could get so close as they travelled further inland! They don't allow photography so I don't have any pictures of them from the night, but it was amazing. I've never seen anything like it before. They're so little!

A blow hole carved out by the ocean

Tired but completely thrilled, we got back in the car and drove home to Melbourne. A completely wonderful day. And this morning, I drove the car back to the rental lot, so now I've driven in Australia!

A little penguin, molting!

We also saw a wallaby!

Pier and festival at Cowes (there are festivals everywhere I go apparently)

Driving skills

First Week of School

Lygon Street

I finally started class! It only took three weeks, but the semester has officially started. As it was the first week, I wound up having three out of four of my tutorials canceled, which actually made transitioning to the campus life a lot easier, especially trying to find buildings. The campus is such a maze!

That's the pizza. We wanted to steal a piece, but it looked gross.

I started on Monday with my first huge lecture, Food for a Healthy Planet. The first week was a little boring (the lecturer was not my favorite), but every week different professors will lecture on a variety of topics, so I'm sure some weeks will be better than others. My other huge lecture was today, in Australian Politics. My professor (they actually call them lecturers here because many of the class leaders don't have PhD's) showed us a clip of a Daily Show-esque take on Australian news, and I realized how I basically know nothing about what goes on in Australian politics, as most of the jokes were completely over my head. This class will definitely be a lot of new information.

In all my classes, it was kind of a rude awakening on how much scholarship in America is focused solely on American writers, research, and American issues. For example, I'm taking a class on sexual politics, which has a very similar syllabus to a class I took at Grinnell on human sexuality. But there is basically zero overlap in readings we're doing. Certain writers I think of as canonical in America are just not viewed that way internationally. Although I haven't experienced extensive culture shock here, it is clear I'm studying in a different country.

Not the best angle, but Federation Square

This week was the last night market, boo. It's a summer thing, and it's weird to think of summer as winding down here. We have had a few cool days, but there are some warm days in the forecast, so I'm hopeful we're not moving directly to winter. The Aussies clearly aren't from the Midwest; they all bundled up when the temperature dropped to the upper 60s (I shouldn't use Fahrenheit, I know. I'm working on it).

Because of class, I didn't have a lot of adventures this week. Sunday there was a festival a few blocks away on Lygon, which is predominantly Italian restaurants and cafes. They tried to make the world's longest pizza, though I don't think they succeeded. I'm also putting some pictures up of the river, the Yarra, which goes right through the city, and Federation Square, Melbourne's attempt at a European piazza. There are a couple museums in Fed Square, some cafes and bars, and there are always street performers. One of the museums is free, and I visited it on Sunday, too. It was all Australian artists and I hadn't heard of any of them! Sunday evening a couple friends and I had dinner in Chinatown. Chinatown food is pretty ubiquitous, though they call dim sum "yum cha." And no fortune cookies!

The Yarra

This weekend I think I'm going to Brighton, a suburb just a little outside of Melbourne, for a food and wine festival. It's on the ocean, so even if the festival is a bust, we can hang out at the beach. Hopefully we'll have good weather for it! The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival is starting today, too. This city loves their festivals! And I love them for that.

Lots of pretty bridges over the river