Melbourne!

Hey everyone,

I'm home finally (well Townsville home)! After my five day adventure in Melbourne I'm ready to crack down and start studying - right after I write this blog of course :).

I left for Melbourne around 9:30am on Friday and arrived in the city at 2:00pm. Once there Amy and I decided to take a shuttle right to a cafe to grab some food because we were absolutely starving. We were dropped off at this tiny little cafe in the heart of the city and I enjoyed a chai latte and a smoked salmon sandwich. We then lugged our bags through the busy city streets up to our hostel where we checked into a ten person dorm for the night. Once in the room we literally dropped our bags and were out the door, heading back to the center of the city to go on our chocolate tour. Amy had researched all the chocolate shops in the area and for the next two hours we strolled through the city tasting and buying the most fantastic chocolate along the way. We ended the day with a stroll around the city at night, taking pictures of the huge and artistic buildings.

The next morning the rest of our traveling group arrived at 6:00am and we headed to a near by cafe for some breakfast before we could check into our new room. We were now a group of five, making us a large enough group for our own private room which we couldn't check into until that afternoon. To occupy our time we strolled around the city and went shopping for groceries so we could save some money on food. I got a bunch of frozen dinners and roasted chicken for sandwiches and cereal for breakfast. We looked like quite the sight everyday pulling out our little packed lunches and eating them while everyone else was sipping on expensive lattes and nibbling gourmet sandwiches.

While in Melbourne we also went to the Royal Botanical Gardens and an Australian Football League game. The gardens were gorgeous and we walked around them for almost three hours (we did a lot of walking on this trip). The AFL game was my favorite part of the trip. The game was held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and was filled with insane fans. We watched the Collingwood Magpies completely dominate the West Coast Eagles, but we didn't care because we were more interested in trying to figure out how they scored, who the people in bright yellow were and what each goal post stood for. We sat next to this older man and his son who ended up buying us all meat pies at half time because apparently it's like having a hot dog while watching a baseball game - something that is tradition! The meat pies were actually really good and the warmth radiating off of them was very welcome as we were all absolutely freezing. It was so strange to be in Australia and actually be cold!

We also hit up the Melbourne Museum and saw an IMAX 3D movie about wild animals. Other than that we spent most of our time wandering around the city, taking photographs and sight seeing. Making dinner was always eventful at night when we would cook up our meals in the hostel kitchen - you never know who you are going to run into there! It ended up being a fantastic trip, but I'm so happy to be back to the place I've called home for the past few months. The reality of leaving is really starting to set in and I want to spend as much time in Townsville and with the people I've become so close to as I possibly can. Hopefully I'll be able to fit a little studying in there too :)

Love you all and miss you  -  I'll be seeing you soon!