I have had a fairly settled routine few months in Melbourne, which is understandable when you live in a city for 4 months, its ceases being travelling and starts being home. Melbs is definitely my home away from home. But at the end of May it is time for me to leave and head off on a few weeks of backpacking again before embracing my 3 months of farm work (eeeeekkkk).
What have the last 2 months entailed I hear you cry, well let me tell you...(I really wanted to use the word so to start that sentence).
I went to see Temper Trap perform at Festival Hall at the end of April, great night, took us a while to get to the venue as there are two festival halls but we got there in the end! If you have the chance to see them perform - do!!
In April and May I was lucky and had a few visitors from friends I have made on my travels, one being Ailsa, the other Amy (Amy I'll be doing my 3 months with) and Hannah, was great to catch up with some 'old' friends. When Ailsa was down a few of us went to see an AFL game, which is Australian Football League. I personally don't like it, its a mishmash of loads of different sports tactics and it just don't make sense to me. Give me a game of rugby any day. However, I will say this, the athlete's involved in this sport are fit on a whole new level and I'm not talking attractiveness (although they certainly aren't bad...) they run around a cricket pitch for 2 whole hours! Hats off to them. If you want to know more about the game have a click here because it interests me that little that I can't really be bothered to write about it, sorry any fans out there. Whilst Ailsa was down we also did some sight seeing, which I hadn't done a whole lot of up to that point to tell the truth - I had kind of been in the groove of living here as opposed to sightseeing the city, so it was nice to have someone to do it with and be in photos with me!
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| At the AFL game |
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| View of Melbourne from the Shrine of Remembrance |
I also moved house to live with Shireen and James for my last 5 weeks in Melbourne. They have a beautiful house in Port Melbourne and I finally got my own room with wardrobes!!! I'm still on a blow up bed and only with enough possessions to fit in a rucksack and daysack (I hope) but I love it and at the moment wouldn't have it any other way.
In Australia in April there is a public holiday called Anzac Day. There are quite a few traditions that accompany this day, such as an early morning service at the Shrine of Remembrance. However, there is also a tradition, called Two Up, a coin based betting game, which has been banned everywhere in Australia apart from on Anzac Day. So James, Shireen and I all headed to one of the pubs in Melbourne The Mail Exchange Hotel (oh by the way if I haven't mentioned it already all the pubs in Melbourne are called Hotels...) to partake in a bit of Two Up. I won $5 on my first bet and then decided to quit whilst I was ahead. Was good fun though, if you are ever in Oz on Anzac day get involved!
End of April and beginning of May, was also ROADTRIP TIME!! The first roadtrip was to the Mornington Peninsula with Autopia Tours. We were really lucky and had perfect weather this day. We stopped off at a few sights such as Arthur's Seat and Flinders Beach and went to a Dairy Farm where we had cheese tasting (well I didn't I just ate the crackers), a strawberry farm where we did cider tasting because its out of season for strawberries, and 3 wineries - where we had a selection of their wines to taste. It was a great day, and I would recommend doing this type of trip either to the Mornington Peninsula or Yarra Valley (or both) whilst you are in Victoria.
The next weekend was Williamstown time, not too far out of the city, this is a really small, quaint town. Populated more by older and elderly people, there wasn't really a lot here but we had a good view of the city and a little wander by where the boats were docked.
Brighton Beach and Phillip Island were next on the roadtrip list. Brighton Beach is famous for all the multi-coloured beach huts. Brighton Beach isn't too far out of the city, only a few stops further along on the old Sandringham train line that I used to get when I lived in Elwood. We unfortunately parked at a beach a bit to far away from the huts and because we only had an hour on the parking meter we could only see them from a distance but you might be able to get an idea of what I'm talking about from the photo.
Next on to Phillip Island! 2 hours away from Melbourne, Phillip Island is probably most famous for its penguins!! Which was exactly why we were going. Home to thousands of little or fairy penguins, at dusk everyday you can watch them all come ashore and scramble up the beach to their nests. Its definitely worth a visit and costs around $23, they're a not for profit organisation so most of the money goes towards conservation projects and such like. If you like the sound of it check out http://www.penguins.org.au/ for more information. We were lucky and had another glorious day weather wise and stopped off at a picturesque beach (seriously though what beach in Australia isn't?!) which is one of the best beaches for surfing apparently, grabbed some fish and chips for lunch, had a little drive around the island and then headed to Nobbies Blowhole (insert immature comments here - we certainly did) before the penguin parade. You can't take pictures at the penguin parade so I'm afraid I don't have any from that part of the trip to put up, but if you do go make sure you wrap up well as it can get really cold when the sun goes down!
Throughout April I also decided it was time to get back into some acting as I was missing it a little too much. So as if by magic I saw an advert for the Ward Studio on the train one day and decided to enquiry about courses and 2 days after my enquiry I started on some more Meisner training. It warmed my creative little heart right up and will hopefully keep me going for a little longer before I can get down to business properly with it all again.
End of April and beginning of May, was also ROADTRIP TIME!! The first roadtrip was to the Mornington Peninsula with Autopia Tours. We were really lucky and had perfect weather this day. We stopped off at a few sights such as Arthur's Seat and Flinders Beach and went to a Dairy Farm where we had cheese tasting (well I didn't I just ate the crackers), a strawberry farm where we did cider tasting because its out of season for strawberries, and 3 wineries - where we had a selection of their wines to taste. It was a great day, and I would recommend doing this type of trip either to the Mornington Peninsula or Yarra Valley (or both) whilst you are in Victoria.The next weekend was Williamstown time, not too far out of the city, this is a really small, quaint town. Populated more by older and elderly people, there wasn't really a lot here but we had a good view of the city and a little wander by where the boats were docked.
Brighton Beach and Phillip Island were next on the roadtrip list. Brighton Beach is famous for all the multi-coloured beach huts. Brighton Beach isn't too far out of the city, only a few stops further along on the old Sandringham train line that I used to get when I lived in Elwood. We unfortunately parked at a beach a bit to far away from the huts and because we only had an hour on the parking meter we could only see them from a distance but you might be able to get an idea of what I'm talking about from the photo. |
| Me at Nobbies ;) |
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| Nobbies blowhole |
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| Another beautiful beach |
Throughout April I also decided it was time to get back into some acting as I was missing it a little too much. So as if by magic I saw an advert for the Ward Studio on the train one day and decided to enquiry about courses and 2 days after my enquiry I started on some more Meisner training. It warmed my creative little heart right up and will hopefully keep me going for a little longer before I can get down to business properly with it all again.
I shall also be attending the Hollywood costume exhibition at the ACMI before I leave Melbs next week, along with hitting up a few more galleries, hidden bars and any other random Melbourne bits and pieces that I must do before I leave.
I'm already 6 months into my travels, which is sheer madness but I do miss all my friends and family dearly but thankfully technology makes its so much easier these days to keep in touch.
So where am I heading off to? Well I'm off to do The Great Ocean Road, followed by a few nights in Adelaide, then a few nights in Perth and then off to work here for 3 months - http://tammargullywines.com.au/
Not sure how much I'll be online or able to update my blog during the next 3 months but wish me luck!!!!
And hopefully speak soon x
I'm already 6 months into my travels, which is sheer madness but I do miss all my friends and family dearly but thankfully technology makes its so much easier these days to keep in touch.
So where am I heading off to? Well I'm off to do The Great Ocean Road, followed by a few nights in Adelaide, then a few nights in Perth and then off to work here for 3 months - http://tammargullywines.com.au/
Not sure how much I'll be online or able to update my blog during the next 3 months but wish me luck!!!!
And hopefully speak soon x
