Sydney

Sydney is one of the places that I really wanted to visit when I was planning my trip to Australia. I decided to go one weekend as I was able to purchase cheap flights.

I arrived in Sydney and got a transfer straight to my hostel. The hostel was really sociable and located in the heart of Sydney, within walking distance of all the main attractions.

The main attraction I wanted to see was Sydney Opera House. It was so impressive looking over the harbour! I had a guided tour of the opera house and later that evening I went to watch a performance of Henry 4th. It was fantastic! Unfortunately it was not opera season so I couldn't watch an opera, but it didn't matter I still had a great time.

 

I met up with a friend that I had met travelling in Thailand, we had coffee overlooking the famous Harbour Bridge.

 

This is the view of Darling Harbour at night. This was by far my favourite place in Sydney, it was picturesque and there were so many cute restaurants and coffee shops. There was also street entertainment.

 

I went on a walking tour of the city and saw many of the attractions. It is definitely a city I would recommend visiting. I also spent one evening at the aquarium where is saw two Dugongs, which are the only two on exhibition in the world. On my final day I visited the famous Bondi Beach. It was breathtaking, I wish I could have spent longer there!

Werribee Mansion / Melbourne Zoo

Recently I have gone on several day trips with my friends. One was to Werribee Mansion and rose garden.

 

The rose garden was gorgeous. It was great to get out of the city and have the chance to expolore somewhere new. The mansion was really interesting to explore and to have an insight into some Australian history. During our trip to the mansion we were allowed to try on some clothes that previous residents may have worn. It was well worth a visit.

On another day we visited Melbourne Zoo. They had a fantastic collection of animals including a platypus and a hippo (both of which i had never seen).

 

After the visit to the zoo my friends and I went for coffee and a cake by the river in the centre of Melbourne. Melbourne is famous for its coffee culture so it was a really nice thing to do.

Phillip Island

I decided to have a weekend away from study to visit Phillip Island with friends.

We drove to the Island and stayed with one of my friends. The island had some of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen!

We spent one day at the beach. I left my clothes in the car of a friend, as we had been sunbathing, she then left, I forgot I had left them there then had to spend the rest of the day touring the island in only my bikini and towel! This was really embarrassing! We got to see most of the island, as one of my friends lived there all his life so knew it well. It was gorgeous and well worth a visit!

Phillip Island is most famous for the "Penguin Parade" where you sit in an outdoor auditorium on the beach and wait till dusk when the native fairy penguins return from the sea and make their way over the shore to their nests. Here is a photograph of one of the penguins. I did not have the chance to watch the penguin parade but I hope to do this on another occasion.

Gold Coast

During the mid-semester break I went to visit Gold Coast with an Aussie friend.

We stayed with his relatives, the house was gorgeous and located on the riverside! The house had a swimming pool, ducks used to swim in it  as well!

One day we visited a huge damn that had been built which held a reservoir which provided the water for Gold Coast. It was really impressive.

 

 One day we went to a cafe, there was a commotion when a carpet python was found just outside the cafe so they captured it and released it by the river.

 

This is the view from the beach of the city. Every day we went to the beach for a long walk. It was such an amazing site to see.

 

Another day we went to a wildlife park where they took care of native wildlife; here I saw crocodiles, Koalas, Kangaroos, birds, tasmanian devils, echindas, snakes, frogs, wombats and many more.

 This was a waterfall in a gloworm cave in a rainforest I visited. It was beautiful, photos did not capture it well.

During the trip I also went to some of Gold Coasts theme parks: Wet 'n Wild world (a water park), movie worl (with really good roller coasters) and sea world (which I would highly reccommend.


I really enjoyed the trip to Gold Coast, especially the amazing sunny weather! It is possibly one of my favourite places I have been to so far!

University life!

It is now nearing the end of the first half of the semester.

I have really enjoyed university so far! The units I am taking is: Introduction to Music Business, International Business Context, Accounting for Decision Making and Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

I love the Entrepreneur and Music units - the lecturers are really enthusiastic and interesting! Its great to learn something completely new. The other units are less inspiring but are alright.

The university is a nice size, and there are plenty of places to go to study, use a computer, sit and have a coffee or socialise.

In my first music lecture we were given free red bull - it was bizarre.

Hay

I have become very close with an Australian, who took myself and my flatmate to visit his home town - Hay, in New South Wales.

To be honest - it was in the middle of nowhere. But it was fantastic to see "The Bush". I felt like this was a really Aussie experience. We spent most of the trip Knee boarding on the river; which was amazing! We saw loads of Wildlife and spent the night on a farm. The stars were so clear, and I really got a taste of quite how big the country really is! We were told his friends farm was "down the road". Down the road was in fact a 45 minute drive.

 

The road went on for miles and miles. It looked like this for about 2 hours (above).

 

 Knee boarding on the Hay river                                    A wild camel we happened to spot!

Lorne / Great Ocean Road trip

As part of my introduction to Australia I had booked to take part in a 3 day trip to Lorne and then along the Great Ocean Road.

The trip left from the University, and it turned out that my flatmate (and other people I had met during o-week) would also take part in the trip. This was a great bonding activity as we all sat together on the bus. The first stop was the famous "Bells Beach" where we sat and had our lunch. This was absolutely beautiful and was a fantastic place to begin sightseeing in Australia.

 

The next stop was the town of Lorne where we would be staying. We were shown our room (a gorgeous cabin on the hillside)  and then made our way to the beach where we socialised for the evening. We even had a lift back to the chalets from a nice Irish man with a surfer van!

 

This was the view from our balcony. We had an issue with Cockatoos - there were at one point 9 on our balcony!! They proceeded to pick up my towel and swimsuit with their beaks and dropped it over the edge of the balcony! It was really funny.

The next day we had an AFL lesson (which I was terrible at) and a surf lesson (which was great fun). We also had a tour of the bush where we were able to have our first taste of Aussie nature and wildlife. We saw kangaroos and had some fantastic views.

On the final day we travelled back to Melbourne along the great ocean road. We saw some fantastic sites along the way.

 

Above: The twelve apostles and another beach

 

Below: London bridge.

Moving in!

Before embarking on my trip to Australia I have travelled through Thailand and visited Singapore for the last 3 weeks. This was absolutely fantastic and I really enjoyed experiencing these new cultures. Having gotten used to the travelling lifestyle (i.e. living out of a suitcase and going on long journeys every few days) I couldn't wait to finally base myself somewhere more permanently and was so excited to finally be arriving in Melbourne.

My first experience of Australia was a rather questionable journey in a minibus/airport transfer to the Student Village, Marybrynong, where I would be living (along with my friend Alex) for the next five months. The driver did not know where he was going and had an issue with road rage. When we finally reached our destination I was relieved to say the least. We were shown to our bedrooms and were given a brief tour of the complex. It was different to anywhere that I have lived before, and I was excited to meet all of my new peers.

Having attended a welcome meeting at the university I was even more excited to get started. We went back to the student village and the notorious "o-week" commenced (similar to UK "freshers week". This involved an initiation in my college, Dalton. We each recieved a t-shirt and the various activities and festivites began.

I won a competition which meant that I represented my college for "the ultimate rookie" which meant I had to complete various challenges throughout the week (and permanantly sport a fake moustache). I won the first challenge!! (Me and my fellow Dalton Devils above with the prize).

 

The week included activities such as a toga party, a scavinger hunt in the city, a quiz, volleyball,  BBQ's and many more sociable activities. They even put on an international welcome where we were given many "Australian" goodies! It has been a fantastic week and I have made loads of new friends! What a great way to start Aussie life!