2 Crazy Sheilas

You are probably all jumping out of your seats at the sight of my post because I have heard from a little bird that many of you have been waiting to hear about my spring break. Quite frankly I couldn’t blame you, it was great! Ok enough with the jokes and more of my break:

I’ll give you all a little timeline of my week, sound good? Hope so!

Monday: As said earlier Ian and I along with a few other friends (including Miranda) went to a footy game. The Essendon Bombers against the North Melbourne Kangaroos. Also, I am elated to tell all of you that yes, the Bombers won!!! Broke their streak of the 7 season loss! I was pretty excited to go. There was a group of 7 of us and unluckily enough the game sold out right in the middle of our group. But luckily enough the last four of us got standing seats, which almost prompted us to leave the game early. Good thing we stayed because we got to witness history! Sounds as if the Bombers are a pretty good team huh…well not so much considering this Sunday they lost to Geelong by 99 points. Bummer. Anyway on to Tuesday…

Tuesday: thinking, thinking….oh yeah! I almost forgot about what we did Tuesday! Yeah right, how could I forget So Tuesday we did A LOT of walking! Ian, Miranda, Shoes and I woke up early and visited the Queen Victoria Market. Oh and just a little fun fact for you all, I read that the market is on top of what used to be a cemetary. Supposedly there are around 9,000 people buried under the parking lot! Also, some of the first people to be executed in Melbourne are buried under the lot, freaky huh? I couldn’t believe how huge the market actually was. It sold everything from tennis shoes, to hopping kangaroo toys, to fruits, veggies, and meats. You think of it, its probably there. Yes it may be knock off brands, but hey they’ve got it! After we all enjoyed a little fruit and shopping we decided to take a walk to the skydeck.  The skydeck is in the 89th story of an apartment building (the tallest in the southern hemisphere) in the city center. We got a 360 degree view of the city center and its attractions. After we all got over our fear of heights (especially Miranda ) we headed to the Fitzroy Gardens.  The Fitzroy Garden is basically a big park with a conservatory and a ton of cool trees, plants, and blooming flowers. I read that the pathways in the park make out the design of the Union Jack (the United Kingdoms Flag design) which I thought was pretty cool, although I read later it was accidental! Tuesday night we went out to dinner at Flanagans and headed to bed, we had a busy day planned for Wednesday!

Wednesday: Wednesday the four of us (the Tuesday crew) headed to the Melbourne Zoo.  The zoo turned out to be really huge and full of really cool animals, 300 species to be exact (including lions and tigers and bears! oh my ) although it rained off and on much of the day, and decided to pour for quite some time in the afternoon.  After our wet visit to the zoo it was off the the Jack Johnson concert for us! For the people that do know Jack Johnson and like him you will be glad to hear that it may have been the best concert thus far in my life (besides last weeks of course) apart from the rain the first two hours. Lucky for us there wasn’t a performer to watch while it really rained and by the time Jack played it was clear skies for the rest of the night! The concert turned out to be a pretty late one, Ian and I rushed home to get some sleep before our wine tour on Thursday!

Thursday: Wow was it early to get up at 6 am and get to the city by 8 am for the wine tour! Especially when we didn’t get to bed until 2! I suppose all you elders are saying “you’re young!” but it was still a little early for me, I mean come on, it was still dark out! Although I found it to be completely worth it as the day progressed. First we made a stop in the Dandenong Ranges and fed some cockatoos, where some people got bit, and had tea and cake. Also, if you were brave enough you could have tried Vegemite (a yeast derived spred) and crackers (which I opted out of, that stuff is gross)! Then we head to the Puffing Billy steam engine train and got a little ride to out next stop about 20 minutes away. The first winery we went to, Fergusson, Ian, Miranda, Shoes, Matt and I decided to opt out of the 30 dollar dinner, eat some sandwiches, and get right into tasting the wine. We got our fare share, and Ian, Miranda and I decided to get in on a three bottles for $60 deal. Ian and I each bought a bottle of Shiraz and Miranda opted for a dessert Port. After the first place we went to anythor winery, I wish I could tell you the name but I am drawing a blank, although I do know it was one of the oldest in the Yarra Valley! While we were there we all expanded our knowlege of wine as well as my collection because I bought a bottle of chardonnay! On to the last winery, The Chandon, which is co-owned by the owners of Louis Vitton and Dior and such companies as that. They actually specialized in sparkling wines. We were able to tour the factory here and at the end we tasted some sparkling wine, and opened our pocketbooks again when the five of us decided to buy a few bottles to share! By this time were were wined ( ) out and tired as can be so we headed back to Melbourne and called it a day!

Friday: Ian, Miranda and I woke up early and headed to the airport to pick up our rental car and head to the Great Ocean Road for our little weekend get-a-way! We headed through Geelong and made a lunch stop in Torguay and did some window shopping. We then headed down the way, with a few pit stops, a picture stop to snap some shots of koalas in the trees along the road, Erskine Falls (a 30 meter waterfall in the Ottway National Park), a light house on the coast, and Bells Beach (where we caught the tail end of packing-up from the Rip Curl Pro, the biggest surfing competition in Australia) and finally stopped at Apollo Bay and stayed the night. That night we went out to eat and to a bar and listened to some live music and watched footy on the tv. Then off to bed for us, as Saturday was the real sight seeing day!

Saturday: We woke up early and headed right out (after breakfast of course) to see the sights of the Great Ocean Road. I wish I could explain how picturesque the southern coast of Victoria really is. We made tons of stops along the way, including tourist spots like The Twelve Apostles and London Bridge, as well as other places such as The Grotto, The Razorback and Bay of Islands. We then went through Warnambool and made a stop at Tower Hill, which is an unactive volcano. We climbed to the top and took some really cool pictures and on the way down we got some see some real Aussie wildlife! We saw a kangaroo and a joey, and an echidna (its like a porcupine, but native to Aussie) and a ton of emus! After our little hike we decided to stay in Port Fairy, a small town along the coast. We had some dinner, drinks, and a good sleep in our rental House .

Sunday ended up being a really lazy day with an afternoon of driving home along the Princess Highway back to the big city,  followed by a night of footy on the tv, some packing from Ian and unpacking from me. Monday morning marked the end of Ians trip and I say my good-byes and mourned the end of my break as I headed to class and realized the large amount of homework I had for the week ahead, which I am still trying to finish. All in all it was an AWESOME break and I wish Ian could have stayed longer. Although it was nice that he could come for a week, not long enough to see the whole of Aussie but long enough for him to understand why I don’t want to come home!  Wow I hope you all are satisfied, it has probably taken you a long time to read this massive entry (but not as long to write it ) and I hope you enjoyed hearing about my break! Back to homework as I said I have a lot to do and not enough time (hence the homework break to write this I am at a loss for time now) Wish me luck and productiveness as I now have some catching up to do!

Over and out

~Claire