Melbourne

My first day in Melbourne, I spent with Tamsin, Kat, and Adam. We went for a free tour of the Parliament House, went to the Botanical Gardens, and did a nice walking tour of the city (which I found in my Lonely Planet). That first day it was very hot and muggy, but the next three days the weather were absolutely beautiful, which is quite rare for the city that’s been known to experience all four seasons in one day. The three of them moved left Melbourne on Sunday, but I decided to stay two extra days to hang out with my friend Alli, whom I’ve known since freshman year at Miami. She came to Australia in September and decided to move to Melbourne when she got a job working for the Australia Open as a production assistant. On any given day she might be driving Andy Roddick around the city or picking up the Williams sisters dinner. Pretty cool, eh? She lives in a house with two other Australians just outside of the city. Her roommates are super nice, they took me out for a drink my first night since Alli had to work late. I spent the next day exploring the city some more; I went to the Victorian Arts Center (my first museum visit since being in Australia), visited the observation deck at Eureka Tower, and then met up with Alli at the Open the night that Federer beat Hewitt. The next day was Australia Day, which I spent with Alli and her friends at the concert Big Day Out. We saw bands like Lily Allen and Muse perform (I don’t have any pictures because sadly my camera died). Overall, I really loved Melbourne and could see myself going back there to visit again.

Federation Square was recently named one of the world's ugliest buildings. Score.

Kat and Tamsin in front of the Parliament House.

I'm kind of a big deal...

We stopped for a tasty lunch in Chinatown.

An Eiffel Tower inspired sculpture outside of the art museum.

Flinders Street Station.

I enjoyed my lunch in Fed Square while also watching the Open.

I can't for the life of me figure out the point of this sculpture.

Eureka Tower, it has the highest observation deck in Australia.

A nice view of Fed Square from above.

Where the Australian Open was taking place.

Alli and I cheering on Federer from the Beer Garden. Such a fun night!

Phillip Island

While staying in Melbourne, we decided to take a day trip to Phillip Island, which is about an hour and half outside of the city. It's here at sunset that the world's smallest penguins waddle to shore after a long day spent in the sea. Kat and I were especially excited about the penguin parade, and then extremely disappointed when we realized that you had to pay to watch... along with hundreds of other people... and you're not even allowed to take pictures of video tape the event. Change of plans. We instead went to see two different blowholes and ended up eating dinner on the beach and watching the sunset. All free of charge. The whole day was so much fun, I couldn’t be happier that we went!

A very rocky beach we had to walk across in order to get to the blowhole.

Technically, it's just water smashing up against the rocks, not a blowhole. Still very cool.

Our next stop was The Nobbies, where the real blowhole was. This blowhole was a let down, so I didn't bother putting up a picture. The scenery was worth the trip alone though!

Flynn's beach.

A very scary, spiky, and (thankfully) dead blow fish I would have stepped on if it were not for Adam.