A Weekend in Melbourne

Hello!
This weekend I went to Melbourne with Becky, Shannon and Steph. We left on an evening flight out of Coolangatta so it was relatively late when we got to our backpacker in Melbourne and since we wanted to wake up early Saturday morning in order to have the entire day to roam around the city, we more or less went straight to bed. All Nations Backpackers was quite an interesting place. The girls and I agreed it was more or less a bohemian/hippie infested cross between a frat house and a dorm. There were some extremely funny characters staying at there and there were some really neat murals painted on the walls. It was definitely not the cleanest place in the world, (and you all know how I feel about that) but overall it was a cool experience. We woke up Saturday morning at 8:00 a.m., got coffee at Gloria Jeans and breakfast at a delicious little place around the corner from our backpacker called 'Perk Up,' and then ventured off into the city. Our first stop was across town at Queen Victoria Market, which was an enormous indoor/outdoor market with tons of vendors selling everything from fresh produce to stereotypical Australia souveniers to Ugg Boots to lots of other little knick knacks. I bought a few souveniers for myself, including a ridiculous but awesome pair of new sunnies (sunglasses) and some opal stud earrings, and a few things for my family members. After the market, we walked up to the gardens, which were really pretty, and then walked over to the Gaol, which is a famous old prison in Melbourne in which Ned Kelly was imprisoned at one point. The prison was really cool and we had wanted to a spooky night tour of the inside of the prison, but that weekend they were doing a show rather than the tour, so we signed up for that instead. After the Gaol, we wandered around the streets for awhile, walked through China town, did a bit of browsing in the shops, etc. Becky and Shannon wanted to keep shopping, and Steph and I wanted to get lunch and explore some other parts of the city, so at this point we split for a few hours. Steph and I grabbed lunch at a little sandwich shop in the middle of Melbourne, and then wandered over to the harbor where we saw Flinders Street Station and took a ride on the Ferris Wheel, where we got some really great photos and views of the entire city. After the Ferris Wheel, Steph and I walked along the harbour back toward our backpacker. When we got back to the room we met Steve from Israel, one of our roommates for the weekend, who explained that he and his buddy were visiting Melbourne for the week. The other guy in our room was a slightly older guy who had so much stuff in the room it literally looked like he lived in the backpacker.. it was a little strange but he was very nice and it was certainly an interesting and fun experience. Steph and I relaxed in the room for awhile, and then Becky and Shannon joint us back in the room shortly after we got back. After re-energizing, Steph and I decided to go out for dinner (Becky and Shannon had snacked and decided to pass), so we found a cute little restaurant in the middle of the city called Max, where Steph got a steak and I got gnocchi (we both got our favorites!), and we each got a complimentary glass of wine with dinner. After dinner we met Becky and Shannon at the Gaol for the show. The show was unfortunately not exactly what any of us were expecting.. it was more or less an hour and a half monologue of a man telling the story of Ned Kelly's life from his perspective. The topic was interesting and I'm glad we went and got to see the inside of the prison, but we all agreed that we wished they had been running night tours instead. After the show we made our way over to Taco Bill's, where we ordered two gigantic Margharita's that came with complimentary sombreros that we split between the four of us. Taco Bill's was packed with lots of rowdy young adults and it was a really fun place to be and enjoy the famous Melbourne nightlife. After Taco Bill's we stopped back at the backpacker and changed and then headed out to the bar in the downstairs of our backpacker for a few more drinks (free drinks that came with the cost of our room!).
Sunday we woke up at 8:00 again, but this time got ready for our wine tour! We got breakfast again at Perk Up, and then met up with our tour guide/van and took off out of the city to the beautiful country wineries. The first winery that we stopped at, Chandon, was the largest winery. It was really beautiful and here we learned a lot about the process of making wine which was really interesting, and then tasted a few delicious different kinds of wines. The next winery was another relatively large winery, where we tried some more wines, learned how to sniff, taste and spit, and then went into the dining room for a great lunch. After lunch they had a little fudge tasting station (yum!) so we sampled a bit of fudge and then headed off to the third winery, which was a smaller but gorgeous winery with really great wines, particularly an amazing dessert wine. The fourth was another small, beautiful little intimate winery, called KellyBrook Winery, where we sampled our last bits of wine and then took a walk through their incredibly pretty gardens. When we arrived back in Melbourne at around 5:00 we were absolutely shot from the long wine-filled day, so we took a few hours back in the backpacker to rest, and then headed out for dinner at Taco Bill's. After dinner we made our way back to our room and spent the night in dancing to Girl Talk, doing the Hoedown Throwdown, doing some cheerleading dances (ha!), etc. We called it an early night because we had to wake up at 4:00 am the next day for our 6:00 am flight.
Monday morning was a bit dramatic because we went to board the flight and the flight attendants informed us that our tickets were for the 6:00 am flight the day before, meaning Student Flights (the travel agency on campus that we booked our trip through) messed up our bookings and put us on the Sunday morning flight by accident instead of the Monday morning flight. We all freaked out a little bit but eventually got it all straightened out and made it onto a 10 am flight back to the Gold Coast, and in the end we were laughing about how ridiculous the morning had been and how exhausted and hilarious we all looked in our sweatpants and sweatshirts and dirty, messy hair and tons of bags and souveniers, not to mention the sombreros we were carrying. Overall it was an amazing weekend with lots of fun stories and great experiences. I can't wait to have another exciting weekend in a city next weekend in Sydney!
Can't believe I will be back in the states a month from tomorrow! The traveling every weekend is making the time travel so incredibly fast! I'm having so much fun in Australia and on all my travels but I can't help but be excited for the holidays and to see my family and friends with all the Christmas decorations that now line the streets here (although I must admit as it gets hotter and hotter here, I begin to fear the shock of the cold at home more and more). I am also sad to realize I'm missing the greatest feast of the year (Thanksgiving), but Deb has promised to make me her famous stuffing on Christmas.
This week is my second to last week of regular classes.. I can't believe it. The week should fly by. I'm seeing the midnight showing of NEW MOON (!!!!!!) on Wednesday night, and then I leave early Friday morning for Syndey!
That's all for now! Miss you all lots.
Love,
Arlyn