Backpacking for Easter

Apparently I am terrible at updating this thing, epic fail on my part. For Easter break I had the opportunity to travel with two friends through the southern part of Australia. We planned the trip ourselves, without much planning ahead of time, other than booking transportation and hostels/campsites. Reflecting, I am very glad we did that, as opposed to booking a tour, we were able to see what we wanted to see, and avoid the touristy places, and see more by avoiding the tourist spots. My adventure started on a Wednesday night when my host parents and I drove to Sydney to see Big Bad Voodoo Daddy play at an Irish club, The Gaelic. It was an excellent show, and a really cool place in downtown Sydney. The next day my two traveling companions, and I went to the Powerhouse museum, which also included a star wars exhibit. I got to see Yoda, and Obi-Wan's light saber, the nerd in me was rather excited, but also Angus Young's guitar. In general I'm not a big museum fan, but they have their place I suppose. We also walked around and went on a ferry through Darling Harbour up to the opera house. I have been, and continue to be impressed with Sydney. For being a big city, it is very clean, and has excellent outdoor public spaces.

Pictures of Sydney: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2059625&id=49009102&l=127506f5c7

The next day, Good Friday, we caught a bus to Canberra, the capital. We arrived mid-afternoon and were a bit worried to find the town completely dead. No one was walking around, it was a weird sight. The Australian Government used to be seated in Melbourne, but when they decided to move it Canberra, they sponsored a competition for someone to design the city. Two American architects were commissioned to design the city of Canberra, and they did, I think, an excellent job. The city is basically centered around one huge round-about, with smaller ones radiating from the larger one. Everything is symmetrical, but it is apparent that they were probably inspired by Washington D.C. and Versailles. Canberra is known as the "bush-capital" because it is the only major settlement that is not situated on the coast line. We visited the Parliament House, the Anzac Memorial, and the National Australia Museum. The Anzac memorial was rather interesting, because they had exhibits/tributes to what Australians had done in previous wars, giving one a different perspective on past events, rather than just the U.S. perspective. We also caught a rugby union game, I lucked out and got a free ticket because a lady had an extra one and just walked up and gave me one. It was a great game, but rained the whole time, needless to say, we were quite soaked by the time we got back to the hostel. Easter was a beautiful day! We went to mass at the cathedral in Canberra. I found it rather interesting, Good Friday the whole town was deserted, it is a public holiday, and everything was closed. However, on Easter, most shops were open, and many people were out and about. Rather opposite of the U.S. Then again, religion is more prevalent in the U.S. than in Australia. On Monday we visited the mint, but it was closed due to remodeling and the only part open was the gift shop, epic waste of time.

Canberra pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2059628&id=49009102&l=6cfc8f13fe

Monday night we caught a midnight bus to Melbourne, and arrived at 8 am Tuesday morning. Greyhound buses are very nice here, they definitely market towards backpackers, but they are still much cleaner and safer than the ones back home. We spent Tuesday night in this hostel above an old bar in the middle of Chinatown. It was really neat, a bit run-down, but had a great atmosphere, and was in the heart of Melbourne. The next day we rented a car and started off on the great ocean road. Our first stop was Bells beach, which is where popular brands such as Billabong were started. The Rip Curl Pro was going on (a big surfing contest) and we were able to watch some of the surfers. Holy cow they were amazing! We continued on, stopping when we saw something interesting and just taking a leisurely pace. The road is really quite fantastic; it hugs the southern coastline of Australia, just 2 lanes, and has great views! On one side is the coastline, the other rolling countryside complete with cows and sheep. Very beautiful. We camped at this place called Bimbi park. It is on the southern-most tip of Australia, west of Melbourne. It was much colder than I had anticipated, so I ended up sleeping in the back of car. We stayed there 2 nights, and both morning we awoke to find koalas peering down on us from the trees above us. The second day we were on the road we continued on to see the 12 apostles, the bay of martyrs, and the grotto, just to name a few various rock formations. All were equally magnificent. However, the weather was absolutely crazy. Literally, one minute the sun would be shining, the next cloudy, with a storm on the horizon, and the next pouring down rain. And I thought the weather was bi-polar in west Texas. On the third day we drove back to Melbourne, and stayed our final two nights in Melbourne at the Freeman Lodge, which was close to the Melbourne Cricket Grounds.

Great Ocean Road pics: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2059905&id=49009102&l=d91edb578e
and
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2059906&id=49009102&l=3320514ba2

While in Melbourne, we visited the Queen Victoria Markets, which was a market place that had anything one could imagine. Food, including whole lamb heads, clothing, tourist gadgets, etc. We also caught an Aussie rules game in the Melbourne Cricket Games, which was fantastic! The game was very interesting, and the stadium was very impressive. We also went out to St. Kilda, which is a suburb of Melbourne, located on the coast, nice place. We watched penguins climb up the rocks to their nest after the sun set, that was really neat. Melbourne is known as the fashion capital of Australia, and that is evident. But, it is also very artsy. Melbourne has kept a lot of its older buildings, so it is very common sight to walk down a street and have old buildings surrounded by very contemporary ones. Again, an equally impressive city. That Sunday, we caught a train back to Sydney, and then another one back to Newcastle, which took us 15 hours. Going through Victoria, and watching the countryside, it was very obvious why they have had such devastating bush fires. The country side was extremely dry, which was rather weird, considering maybe 20 miles farther south it seemed to always be raining. All together, the trip lasted 12 days, and I had a great time. I would highly recommend to anyone considering coming to Australia, to drive the great ocean road, it was an experience that will not soon be forgotten.

Melbourne pics: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2059630&id=49009102&l=8a4feddf78