One of the ways I experience God is through His creation—and I cannot even explain to you the beauty of His creation that I saw this week on my spring break. I’m going to write a few different entries to distinguish the parts of my trip, so feel free to read as much or as little as you like.
First, my friends and I went to Melbourne where we spent Saturday through Monday. I traveled with my friends Ashley, Jana, and Lauren. Ashley and Jana are two of my close friends from my program, and Lauren is my Canadian friend from Toronto who we all met at our orientation in July.
It was great because we spent time with Ashley’s flatmate, Gigi, and her two friends. We also had dinner with Jana’s flatmate, Tanya and her friends—they both live outside of Melbourne. It was the first time we had been shown around a city by locals, so it was awesome. Melbourne (MEL-BIN) is very different from Sydney; it is smaller, and therefore easier to travel on foot rather than on buses. They use a tram system instead of buses, so we rode that once to check it out. The city also has more of a European feel with several side streets, cafés, and small shops. I really liked it because it felt a lot less touristy than Sydney, making us feel like we blended in more as locals too.
The city is laid out in a grid, so we found our way around easily. We went to Chinatown with Gigi and her friends for Dim Sum, walked around the botanical gardens, took naps back at our dark-dreary-and gross hostel, and then went out to a Japanese dinner at Chocolate Buddha in Federation Square (with Tanya and her friends). Lots of Asian food in one day!
Melbourne is known for its huge sport culture, and it just so happened that the AFL (Australian Footy League), equivalent to our NFL, had their ‘superbowl’ on Saturday afternoon. The Hawthorne Hawks defeated Geelong (both Melbourne suburbs), and since the Hawks were the underdog, it was an even bigger victory! Fans were celebrating in Federation Square, so it was fun to be part of the excitement.
On Monday morning after our Great Ocean Road tour, I went for a run on the path in the botanical gardens, and then Lauren and I went to the top of the Rialto Towers to see a view of the city on the 360 degree skydeck. It is such a beautiful city, and if you ever get the chance to go there, don’t pass up the opportunity! That night we had dinner with Gigi and her friends again (who were the sweetest girls ever), at this Italian restaurant where they reluctantly gave us a free bottle of wine and 20% off for their horrible service (we had to wait an hour to order because there was this big Uni sports team there, and then another hour and a half for our food!) I think all of us were a little surprised because the employees were really the first rude Australians we had encountered! I guess I shouldn’t expect everyone to live up to the Australian stereotype as the ‘friendliest people you’ll ever meet’
I walked around Melbourne Uni with the girls, while my friends stopped to get books at Border’s. It seemed smaller than Sydney Uni, and although it had cool architecture too, I am definitely biased toward Sydney. But I am glad that I could see where my friend Ben studied when he was here in Australia last semester.
Okay, now it’s off to The Great Ocean Road tour that we took on Sunday! Unbelievable.
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