Sarah Heads Down Under

May 2012

our-lass — Sun, 3 Jun 2012 16:50:00 GMT

So the last month hasn't been that exciting. I have been working full time in the Cafe and Matt spent three weeks counting how many people were riding on the trams which was a very fulfilling job for him. I have moved to the new cafe in Port Melbourne now. It's a much nicer area of town than where I was working before. It's in a nice suburb by the sea so people are much more relaxed than the business men and women coming in on their lunch breaks where I used to work.

The only time we have really had to do anything 'touristy' has been the weekends. Most of them have been spent hanging out with our room mates sneakily drinking 'goon' in the room. For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of drinking a box of goon I will explain what it is. Basically you can buy 5 litres of wine for about 5 quid. It tastes vile and leaves a pretty nasty hangover. The box also warns 'may contain traces of fish and egg product' which of course is what everyone hopes to find in their wine. It's cheap though so we cannot complain.

This weekend Matt and I decided to avoid the goon and took a trip out of the city for the afternoon which we have been wanting to do for a while. We took and hour train journey to the Dandenong Ranges National Park. A protected forest where there are lots of hiking tracks. It was really nice apart from it being a really popular exercise place for people. There is a track called 'The Thousand Steps' which is actually only 700ish steps climbing up the hill, still a lot though when you haven't exercised in a while. We were pretty puffed out. When we finally reached the picnic ground at the top we were hoping for a nice view across the Yarra valley and back to Melbourne but we were surrounded by trees so no such luck. It also turns out there is a village at the top with a road, which sort of made the climb a lot less rewarding. Still an enjoyable day though and it was great to get some fresh air.

Eureka Skydeck and Finally a Job

our-lass — Tue, 1 May 2012 15:54:00 GMT

The last couple of weeks have been much of the same. Emailing and handing out CV's without getting much response. However, a friend of mine had a trial in a cafe and gave me her managers number to call. She gave me a trial and also called me in to do a couple of shifts this week so I am pretty sure I have a job there. It's been a bit awkward how she went about hiring me. Both me and my friend had a trial and were waiting to here from the manager as to whether or not she wanted to hire us or not. Monday morning she text my friend to ask her to ask me if I could go into work. I have been working the last 3 days and my friend hasn't worked once. Feeling a bit guilty as she found the job first and gave me the contact details.

Anyway, enough about work. Matt and I also went up the Eureka tower to the skydeck. There were beautiful views across the city and we timed it just right to catch the sunset from up there. They also sell one of the tastiest caramel shortbreads I have ever had.

Our dorm room has suffered a sad loss the last few days. Jonners, our room mate of a month had to fly back to England. We were the self titled '404 Legends' I aren't sure anyone else would have given us this name but we felt it was deserved. To celebrate Jonners' last weekend in Melbourne we headed down to the hostel bar for a few cheeky long island ice teas and then started the longish walk over to Brunswick St where the cool bars are. Unfortunately just as one of our friends was getting to the punchline of a pretty long joke, some car full of idiots drove by and egged us. Luckily I only got some on my back but the poor girl who was telling the joke got it all down her face and in her hair. It was perfect timing for someone to say, 'looks like the yoke is on you!' Anyway, not letting this stop us we taxied back to the hostel, showered and taxied back out to Brunswick. Apparently the hostel was egged that night too. Guess those kids have nothing better to do.

Well, that is pretty much it I think. I'll try to keep you updated a bit more often.

'No Shit, True Story, There Was A Box Of Cheese!'

our-lass — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 15:22:00 GMT

Those are the words of our friend Michael who we met in the bar last night. It's really cool the amount of different people from different cultures and backgrounds that you meet. Michael was celebrating his last night in Australia on leave from the US military. He was on a two week break after spending a number of months in Afghanistan. He told us lots of stories which were very interesting to hear about.

Anyway, your maybe wondering where the quote comes from. After we left the bar at around 2am we headed up the street to MacDonald to fulfill our drunken hunger. Matt made the mistake of ordering a hamburger and then was very disappointed to find it was just literally a ham burger with no cheese or anything. Never fear though, Michael was to the rescue. He stood up and said 'I'm going to get you some cheese man!', headed straight to the counter, and returned with a Big Mac box. We were all pretty shocked actually thinking that he had bought a Big Mac to make up for Matt's rubbish burger. When he opened the lid, there it was, one slice of plastic cheese and weirdly, two sachets of salt, we're not really sure why they were there. I think we were in absolute hysterics for about 10 minutes. But there you have it, 'No shit, true story, there was a box of cheese!'

11/04/12

our-lass — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 17:30:00 GMT

The last few days have been spent sorting out my resume and cover letter, which I hate doing. But at least now I have a few printed off ready to hit the streets with. I've also been looking on the internet for possible jobs. One of which I applied for and got an email back from the guy. Obviously I got excited thinking he might be offering me an interview. This was not the case. The job was not for a "retail sales assistant" in the CBD as advertised. It was infact numerous positions available on a cruise ship but the gumtree rules don't allow people to advertise for those positions. Instead the company just makes up a load of jobs and hopes someone will be interested when they find out what it is. I certainly was not interested. They wasted about an hour of my time while I adapted my resume and Cover letter to suit the job. I was not a happy bunny!!!

Other than Job hunting we also went to the cinema the other day to watch the Hunger Games. I had just finished the first book and really wanted to see the film so we went that afternoon. It was pretty good actually, and the cinema had the comfiest seats I have ever sat in, which was a good thing especially because they played a full half an hour of commercials before the movie started. For that much advertisement time our tickets should have cost a lot less.

Today we went to the Melbourne Gaol! We wandered around the old cell block and read stories of prisoners who had been held and hanged there. It was all a little bit spooky for my liking. We did get to see the cell where Ned Kelly was held and also watched a play about his life which was very good.

After the cell block we got to go to the court house and re-enact Ned Kelly's trial. I ended up volunteering to play the part of Robert Scott so got to enter the witness box. Thankfully I only had five lines though.

The tour also included an experience of being arrested and held in the watch house. We all got bundled into cells and then the lights turned out which I was not a huge fan off. Jails creep me out too much because of all the horrible people that must have been there.

Now we have checked into the hostel for another week and a half. Hopefully we will have some jobs sorted out in the next couple of weeks so we can get saving.

Those Darn Mice!!!

our-lass — Thu, 5 Apr 2012 13:11:00 GMT

The most annoying thing happened today. We have been waiting a few days now for the avocado we purchased from Queen Victoria Market to ripen ready for eating. I was sure today was going to be the day. Unfortunately we got to it a little late. A mouse has chewed right the way through our food bag, which was on the very top shelf, and has eaten half of our avocado. How frustrating.

OK, so what else have we been doing the last few days? Mainly procrastinating about writing my CV and applying for a job. The first day I planned to do it was so sunny that we went down to St Kilda to the beach. We managed to catch Luna Park open too which was a bonus. Luna Park is a really small theme park on the sea front. To get into the park you have to walk through the mouth of this really creepy face.

Once inside it is like you have stepped into a theme park of years gone by. Even the biggest ride there, a roller-coaster which circles the park, is hand operated by a member of staff who stands on the car as it whizzes along the track, seems very safe! We were tempted to have a ride on something but it was ten dollars for one ride so we passed.

After hanging out on the beach for a while we walked along Acland street, home to lots of tasty looking cake shops. We both got a fruit flan, and it was delicious. Matt was very disappointed with his, he's hard to please! Just look how tasty it looks:

After the cakes, the best thing happened. Matt found 10 dollars on the floor so we headed straight to the pub across the road for a pint! Perfect way to spend the afternoon.

Anyway, it's taken me a few days but I have finally finished my CV, but unfortunately it's Easter weekend so probably not the best time to hand it out. Guess I will just have to spend some more days in the sun until next Tuesday, what a shame.

Photos: Wilsons Promontory

our-lass — Sun, 1 Apr 2012 14:26:00 GMT

Wilsons Promontoy National Park

our-lass — Sun, 1 Apr 2012 13:39:00 GMT

When booking our Great Ocean Road tour in Peter Pans we also received a day tour to Wilsons Promontory for free. It's always nice to get something for nothing. It was even nicer when we saw how beautiful 'The Prom' (as it's known by the locals) actually is. It could definitely rival The Great Ocean Road in my opinion and you don't need to fight the hoards of tourists at the scenic lookouts to get a good picture, you can actually take a few minutes to relax and check out the views.

The Prom is located at the southernmost point of mainland Australia but is actually attached to the same piece of granite that is Tasmania. This means it has a very different landscape to other areas around it which was nice to see.

Our tour guide for the day turned out to be the same one as we had for the three day tour, Matt, the Crazy Cat-man. He earned this name by telling us about his Siamese cat, Lemar, for about half and hour. He confirmed our suspicions that he was in fact crazy for his cat when he showed Matt and I a 3 minute long video of Lemar walking along a fence which wasn't that impressive. He thought it was amazing.

Anyway, our first stop took us on a short walk through some trees into an open space full of Kangaroos and Emus. We managed to get pretty close to the kangaroos but I wasn't so keen on the emus being there. They are too similar to Ostriches and for those of you who don't know, I am terrified of ostriches, ever since I had a dream that one chased and ate me as a child.

After getting back in the bus without being attacked by the emus, we headed further down the road to Mt. Bishop, which took about 40 minutes to climb to the top. The rocky summit offered an excellent place to sit and eat my sandwich (Matt forgot to bring his) and look out across the ocean and the offshore islands.

Our next walk took us along the shoreline and through forested areas from Norman Beach to Squeaky Beach. Unfortunately we didn't actually get to set foot on Norman beach so I had to write in the sand of Squeaky beach for the photo telling dad that the other beach was his beach. Squeaky Beach received it's name because of the rounded quartz sand that apparently squeaks when you walk on it. I didn't really notice it squeaking but the sand was beautiful and white. Also, one end of the beach had lots of rocks which were perfect for doing a spot of bouldering.

As well as having amazing views and doing some really nice walks, me and Matt learnt a very important lesson which is: slow and steady does in fact win the race. We were clearly the fastest walkers out of the group but the person to reach the end of the days hiking first was the eldest of the bunch. He was a man from Auckland perhaps about 70 years old, he walked pretty much non stop the whole way round at a pretty slow pace, yet every time we turned around he was there, coming up the track behind us. On the last leg he passed by us. I don't think Matt, The Crazy Cat-man was expecting him to come around the corner first.

Photos: The Great Ocean Road and The Grampians

our-lass — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 19:42:00 GMT

The Great Ocean Road and The Grampians

our-lass — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 14:58:00 GMT

I had heard from a friend I met in the hostel that you could get free internet in Peter Pans, the travel agents down the road. So, Matt and I headed down there. We ended up talking to one of the agents and came out with a Bunyip tour along The Great Ocean Road and to The Grampians. We set off on Tuesday 27th March for three days.

The first day of the tour was spent driving along the Great Ocean Road with our guide Matt and twelve other backpackers from all around the world. We stopped at a few coastal towns along the way. Torquay (home of Ripcurl), Lorne and Apollo Bay. They all had really nice views of the ocean but certainly nowhere near as much character as the coastal towns on the north east coast of England. Give me Robin Hoods Bay any day!!! We also stopped for lunch at Cape Otway Lighthouse which apparently is mainland Australia's oldest surviving lighthouse. Matt was pretty excited when he found out we could go inside and to the top as he had never been in one before.

The next thing we did was by far the highlight of the tour for me. We drove through a eucalypt forest. In every tree there were at least two or more Koalas sleeping on the branches. We were also lucky enough to catch one awake and quite close to the ground munching on some eucalyptus leaves. One thing I did learn from this experience was to never trust a sleeping koala. Sean, one of the men on our tour, learnt this the hard way. He was just casually walking underneath the sleeping koala when suddenly he felt something dripping on his head. That's right, he got peed on! Luckily he was wearing a hat.

Our sleeping spot that night was in a place called Princetown. It is the tiniest little town, if you can even call it that. It has a hostel, a shop, a couple houses and most importantly a bar, which is where we spent most of our night. This was after we were lucky enough to see the most spectacular sunset I have ever seen in my life. We went down to the beach at Gibson Steps where you can see The 12 Apostles (the big rock formations sticking out of the ocean). You know how normally when you see a sunset it is very pretty but seems to be way off in the distance near the horizon. Well this one just seemed to set the entire sky on fire. When you looked in the opposite direction to the sun, the view was still pretty amazing. Matt is feeling pretty pleased with himself as he uploaded a photo of it onto his Flickr account and it has had about 4,000 views so far!

The second day we spent the morning driving a little further along the coast and seeing some more rock formations in the sea such as London Bridge and the Bay of Isles. We also went to Tower Hill which is a big dormant volcano. We could see a few emus wandering around down in the bottom which was cool too.

From there we headed inland into The Grampians National Park or Gariwerd which is the aboriginal name for it. It is such an amazing place. On the way to Reed's Lookout, where we watched the sunset, we saw so many kangaroos hoping around, they were literally everywhere. It was amazing watching the sunset too. It wasn't as spectacular as the one the night before but sitting on the top of a hill looking out across the valley and not hearing a sound except nature and a few clicks of the camera was very nice.

That night we stayed at the Asses Ears Lodge, and after a terrible night sleeping in the tent the previous night we decided to upgrade to a dorm room. It was lovely, and so much nicer and cheaper than the hostels in the middle of Melbourne, I wish they were all like that one. Oh, I have to mention about the guy who owned the place, Steve. He had the most gigantic hands I have ever seen. I ordered a beer at the bar and his hand was almost as big as the bottle. Unbelievable!

The next day we went for a short walk down to, Mackenzie falls. It was very refreshing standing in the spray from them. Then we went on a bigger walk to the top of the Pinnacle which had stunning views across the national park. We managed to take some really good shots of us standing on the edge of the cliffs, think they look worse than they really were.

Our trip ended with a stop off at a small town that seemed to be full of amazing ice cream shops. We all got massive ice creams (mine and Matt's second of the day) and sat outside in the sun before heading back to the city.

A Quick Catch Up - Week 2

our-lass — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 14:32:00 GMT

Matt finally arrived in Melbourne on the 21st March, about a week after I arrived. It was so typical that the morning I had to walk for twenty mins to our hotel with all my bags and then another forty minutes to the shop for food it was absolutely throwing it down. I was like a drowned rat when I finally checked into my room. Anyway, I made it to the airport in time for Matt arriving. It was very nice to see him, he seemed pretty tired though. I also think he forgot that when you go backpacking you do actually have to carry things. When we arrived at the hotel, I took his rucksack (because I am so kind) and he just hopped off without a care in the world and bag free leaving his camera, laptop, passport, wallet all sitting on the bus. Luckily it hadn't got anywhere because of traffic by the time he realised.

We spent the next few days visiting the tourist attractions of Melbourne. We went to the Melbourne Museum which had a few good exhibits and also a few that seemed to be empty or under repair which was a shame.

We also visited Fitzroy, an area of Melbourne with lots of cool boutiques, bars and cafes on Brunswick Street. The only problem for me about this place is I wanted to buy everything. I wanted to look in all the quirky little shops and by all the clothes. So when you're a backpacker trying to save money, it perhaps isn't the best place to go. I left empty handed!

There is a really cool place near the river called Federation Square. It seems to have festivals on every weekend there. I mentioned the Thai festival I went to the week before. This weekend it was Viva Victoria; a celebration of all different cultures from around the world. We listened to some bands from Croatia, Lithuania, and France. Then we sat and watched couples salsa dancing to a Latin American band. It was a fun day, made better by the wide variety of foods from around the world to choose from.

I think those are the main things we did that week. It's hard to remember!

A Quick Catch Up - Week 1

our-lass — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 09:15:00 GMT

Hi everybody. So I was planning on starting a blog the moment I arrived in Australia. However, you know how it goes...I got distracted, and now it is three weeks later. So, I'll just try to remember what I have been doing.

My First Week

Well, as most of you who will be reading this know, I headed over here on my own because of Matt's delayed visa. I must admit it was pretty strange those first few days. I found myself getting out of bed in the morning not really feeling sure what to do. Every other time I've been away I have had someone else to help me decide what the plans for the day would be. It was a pretty nice feeling actually.

So, I spent my first three days staying in Home Travellers Motel in St. Kilda, an area of Melbourne with a great beach, nice bars and cafes, and I cannot forget the most amazing cupcake shops on Acland Street. The hostel was probably not the best option for my first few nights after a long haul flight. I headed to bed that first night (after staying awake all day to get into the time zone) to the sound of 20 drunk backpackers singing along at the top of their voices to some guy playing guitar. Don't get me wrong, you all know I love a good sing song, but that night was not the time for it.

One thing I didn't know about St Kilda was that there is a colony (I think that's the right word) of penguins living at the end of the pier. Firstly, I thought penguins belong in the cold, and secondly, I didn't think that they would be living in the harbour of a city. I've been to see them three times since I have been in Australia. They are the cutest things. They just pop up out of the rocks and hop around for a while. I think I want one as a pet.

After St Kilda, I headed back into the CBD and spent four nights in Hotel Discovery. It felt like a welcome break from the constant partying in St Kilda, I couldn't wait to get my first full nights sleep. Unfortunately, that first night there was not going to be it. Two Irish guys decided to come in after their night out and wake everyone up. Things got out of hand and security were called, but thankfully they were kicked out the next day.

That week I visited the Royal Botanic Gardens. As Adam and Matt will know, I love Botanic Gardens, they are the first thing I look for in a new place. It's just so nice walking around a big green space full of plants and flowers when your in a big city. I had a wonderful day and even managed to watch three couples getting married.

I also spent a day at the Thai Food And Culture Festival. This was really cool, lots of dancing, martial arts and the best part....lots of food. I did make a bad choice however, I ordered this frozen jellied coconut thing which sounded quite nice and refreshing. It wasn't, It looked like a jelly fish in a coconut shell. I don't recommend it to anyone.

I think those are the main things I did that first week. I did a lot of sunbathing on the beach and in the parks around the city, but there isn't really much I can say about that.