Melbin Mates!

Over the Easter Holiday weekend, a few of my friends and I head off to Melbourne, Australia for some exploring. We left Friday afternoon, giving us enough time to finish up some last minute homework and came back Monday night. Melbourne (pronounced Melbin in Aussie) and Sydney apparently have this huge rivalry of which city is the best in Australia. Sydney-siders don't pay much attention to this rivalry, because, well they know Sydney is better. But Melbourne, on the other hand, made it very clear that Sydney isn't the better city.

On Friday when we arrived, there was an incredible sunset over the bay in the St. Kilda neighborhood. This was outside of the central business district so it was a cute little area with small alleyways and coffee shops. The sunset was gorgeous, I love a good sunset. We even saw wild penguins off the one pier which was cool because I've never seen one outside of a zoo! The next day the five of us booked a tour for a Great Ocean Road trip to see the 12 Apostles. It was such an awesome day - we got picked up at 7am and had various stops along the way for food, hikes, views, and tours of certain areas. The 12 Apostles are these rock formations off the coast and they are incredible. As a matter of fact - there are only 8 Apostles but the name 12 Apostles sounded more appealing to tourists. On this trip, we were able to go caving and explore inside caves, rainforests and walk on different beaches. Melbourne is a bit cooler than Sydney so it wasn't warm enough to swim but everything was stunning so I didn't mind.
That night the craziest thing happened, we say the travel agent from our hostel in Cairns in Melbourne working as a travel agent for that hostel! What a small world. We got back to the hostel and saw Darrell, the travel agent and he came up to us and we all hugged and he showed us more places to go in the area that many tourists may not be aware of. The next day my friends and I explored CBD and went on our Easter Brunch. We now do the "phone rule" where you put your phones in the middle of the table and the first one to touch their phone has to pay the tip. It's a good way to get us off our phones and talk to each other. But we had Brunch and it was phenom. We went to the Comedy Festival for a bit and explored different areas like the graffiti walls. Melbourne is a very hipster city, to say the least. They love art and appreciate things of that sort which I love. We went to Hosier Lane, famous for graffiti art and I found someone with spraypaint and I wrote my infamous nickname on the wall: "kaymag". Then the group we rented bikes just to see where we could get lost. Olivia was dying the entire ride (because she's soft) but overall we were just messing around having a great time. Our last main adventure was going to the Brighton Bathing Boxes, which are these painted sheds on a beach which are very popular in Melbourne. We went on that Monday before catching our flight.

All in all, I loved Melbourne. It's actually the 4th farthest city away from Allentown, PA (sorry mom, dad and grandma). I'd call it a must-see attraction if you're in Australia! I liked the city, it was a very "hipster and good vibes" city however I'd chose Sydney over Melbourne simply because of the iconic nature of Sydney with the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge and all of those areas.
Since I was away Easter weekend, I obviously missed my Easter dinner at home - but my mom called me when the family was all together celebrating so I still felt part of the tradition! My grandma even sent me an Easter card (and Valentine's Day but I didn't check my mail until yesterday). Thanks, grandma! I'll see you all soon. As for this weekend - I'm headed off to the Gold Coast which is apparently home to the most beautiful beaches in Australia so that'll be relaxing. ~Stay tuned for more adventures of Kelsey~