Grampians, Birthday, Phillip Island Pictures

The Grampians, my birthday, and Phillip Island

Hey Everybody,

It's been two long weeks, but I'm back. These past two weeks were highlighted by a spectacular camping trip to The Grampians, my birthday, and a day trip out to Phillip Island. The Grampians is a mountain range and national park about 146 miles west of Melbourne. Me and a group of 12 friends set out by bus to Halls Gap, the largest town in the Grampians region. I was joined by my friends from Rutgers, Kev and Laura and a bunch of american girls, Christy, Emily, Allie, and Alyssa. Than there was Dave (a frenchman), Andreas (a swede), Anthony, Libby, Ruby, and Hugh (Australians) We planned on camping in the designated camping are in town for the first night, and than setting out into the bush to find a place to camp the second night. The first day was spent hiking to a waterfall, and than a beautiful walk along a rocky ridge. I even had the good fortune of spotting an echidna, a porcupine like creature found only in Australia. That night was spent star gazing and drinking. I also met two motorcyclists on their way back to Adelaide who were very eager to hear about my adventures in Australia, as well as recommend locations in Victoria I should travel to. We woke up the next morning and packed all our gear in Anthony's car, with the expectation that we would set out before dusk to find a spot to camp in the bush (saving us money of course) We than did a 4 mile day hike up to a spot in The Grampians called The Pinnacle. It is a thin rock face that juts out of the mountain overlooking Halls Gap. On the way we did a detour up a steep rock face. It was harrowing but also very rewarding. It had an amazing view, and linked up with the trail that we would have taken back from The Pinnacle. Waiting for us at the top of the mountain were giant, winged, ants that had stingers. As someone who is afraid of insects with stingers, with good cause, I spent most of my time on The Pinnacle looking to avoid these pests. On our way back to Anthony's car to get our camping gear, we ran into around twenty gray kangaroos. They were just grazing outside the camp area. While they were understandably skittish, we held out our empty hands and more often than not, a kangaroo would hop over to within a few feet expecting food. There were also white cockatoos and green and red parrots flying all over the place. Before it got to dark, we set out on the trail to look for a suitable place to camp. With a group of thirteen, we were going to need an area that would be suitable for the four tents, as well as the tarp that Andreas, Kev, and I had slept on the night before. We made it back to the waterfall, but still could not find a place to camp. About an hour before nightfall, Kev and Christy ran ahead on the trail to look for a spot. Luckily, they found one about twenty minutes on the trail, and than 5 minutes off it. After clearing space, we set up camp in the forest overlooking a valley. That night happened was the beginning of my birthday so we stayed up late, talking and drinking. It was real camping, and it was fantastic. The next day we woke up with the sun and hiked back down. We chilled in Halls Gap for an hour or two before our bus came to take us back to Melbourne. The following Saturday, Kev, Laura, Dave, Jochka (girl from Budapest), and I woke up early and made the two hour drive to Phillip Island. Phillip Island is one of the more popular tourist attractions in Victoria because of its beautiful coastline and because of its colony of little penguins. The little penguin is the smallest species of penguin typically growing to only 17 inches tall. Than we got the treat of witnessing the "Penguin Parade." At about 7 at night, we paid twenty bucks to sit with a bunch of loud tourists at designated spots on the beach. As it grew colder and darker, our anticipation grew. Than at about 8:30, little penguins started landing on the beach by parachute, no, they came from the ocean. Than in groups of 10-20, they began to scurry to their burrows on the beach, passing us as they went. A "little penguin" is smaller than the emperor penguin chicks from March of the Penguins. It was great to see how they would wait in the shallows, bunch up in formation, than scurry for their homes. Earlier in the evening, some loud raptors had been circling the beach. Unfortunately, but understandably, pictures were not allowed. It was a unique experience and one I won't soon forget. We headed back to Melbourne at around 10, got stuck in traffic, got grouchy, and got back to the village at around 12:30. Than I woke up in morning and watched Northern Iowa defeat Kansas. I love the time difference. More to come...

Sydney Pictures

Sydney Travels

G'day,

It's been two weeks and I am finally settling into life in Australia. My first two weeks in Melbourne were stressful and exhilarating as I prepared for the coming semester, while doing my best to meet some of the 400 students living in my housing complex. I live in RMIT village which is a block from the University of Melbourne campus and a five minute walk from the central business district (downtown). My first week in Melbourne was spent meeting people, visiting the campus, and taking long walks through downtown Melbourne. The Yarra river runs through Melbourne and the city has done a great job of utilizing it's river walk. The river is lined on both sides with restaurants, museums, and theaters as well as the aquarium. The two main shopping streets are Elizabeth St., which runs right by RMIT, and Swanston Street. Like New York, Melbourne also has a sizable Chinatown. While I still have a week to finalize my class schedule, I am locked into two of my classes. I am taking an introduction to Australian Politics as well as introduction to criminology. I always wanted to take a criminology course at Rutgers and never got around to it. Australian politics are interesting because their "democratic" party is the labor party and their "republican" party is called the liberal party. Also, Australia has a Prime Minister who disappeared. Harold Holt was only Prime Minister for one year when he disappeared while swimming in the ocean. While it is assumed he drowned, his body was never found. I suppose the Kennedy assassination and the conspiracies that surround it are the only equivalent in American politics. This past weekend my friend Kevin and I decided to take a weekend trip to Sydney. Kevin also attends Rutgers but I had never met him until the first orientation for Melbourne back in December. On Thursday night, we took an 11 hour overnight train from Melbourne to Sydney (Ughhh). Lucky for us, a former student of my dad's, and family friend named Briyah Paley was generous enough to let us stay in her apartment for the weekend. She was also nice enough to show us around on Friday. We started off our travels in Sydney by taking a beautiful ocean side hike from Coogee Beach to Bondi Beach. Bondi Beach is famous in Australia for its Baywatch style reality show featuring its lifeguards performing spectacular lifesaving maneuvers. Bondi Beach is also one of the well known Jewish neighborhoods in Sydney and has around five synagogues. We than took a tram to Sydney's most popular destination, its harbor (spelled harbour here). Unlike Melbourne, Sydney is a vast city. Therefore, its public transportation is a lot cheaper than in Melbourne. While in the states, I wanted to know what American cities Sydney and Melbourne could be compared to. I heard varying comparisons from different people, but now agree that the best comparison would be Sydney to L.A and Melbourne to San Francisco. Unfortunately, it was raining all day Friday but we still spent some quality time at the Sydney Opera House. It is a beautiful structure and according to its designer Jorn Utzon, "a symbol for not only a city, but a whole country and continent." We spent time marveling at the beautiful shell like structures rising out of the base, and gazing at Sydney's endless harborside real estate. After the opera house, we made our way through a street fair to The Rocks. The Rocks are the official point where the first settlers in Sydney landed. As such, it is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Sydney. Randomly, two pubs in "The Rocks" claim on their awnings that they are the oldest pub in Sydney. After searching for hours (at least it felt like hours) for a place to eat dinner, Sydney is one of the most expensive cities in the world and unlike New York, you will not get a lot of bang for your buck at the "nice" restaurants. We finally ventured back to Newtown, where we found an affordable Italian eatery on King St. After the fact, Kevin was looking through his Frommer's guide and told me that Frommer's recommended King St. in Newtown as the best location to find relatively inexpensive food. The next day was beautiful so we immediately headed right back to the harbor. We let a street performer entertain us for an hour,than decided to take advantage of the sun and snap a few more pictures with the opera house and Harbour Bridge. We than took a short walk to the government house in Sydney, located in a park about a five minute walk from the opera house. That was followed by an hour-and-a-half ferry ride which took us to many of Sydney's harbors, and also taught us a little bit of the history surrounding the development of the city. Kevin than dragged me to a contemporary art museum. It was free, so I didn't complain. We met two of Kevin's friends who were studying in Sydney, and ended up spending the night at a beautiful bar called Orbit bar. Orbit bar is is on the 47th floor of Sydney Tower and rotates in a circle. After an hour, you will have seen a panoramic view of the city. It was a fantastic two days and I arrived back to Melbourne this morning. Hopefully, I will get back to Sydney before I leave. More to come...

Random Fact: It hailed in Melbourne while I was in away. Not sure how I feel about this.