The month of October started off well with the midterm break. After spending the last few worrying about midterm exams and attempting to study it was a welcome break. However the holiday did not involve much relaxing as I decided to use it to go travelling.
I left Townsville with a couple of friends as the first Saturday of the break. It turns out that whoever is in charge of public transport in Townsville does not think that the airport is not a place students want access to. Driving to the airport from the university takes less than 20 minutes. Taking a bus requires a lot of planning and being in good physical condition as well as 3 hours. Multiple buses need to be taken with a long wait in between. When you finally get off the last bus you are left on a deserted road with your luggage and a long walk to the airport in the blazing heat. When we walked into the air-conditioned airport we believed we could overcome any public transport thrown our way. Unfortunately we were wrong.
The first stop to our trip was Melbourne. We landed at the airport at around midnight and made our way to the city by bus. We got to our accommodation (a hostel) in the city centre after a few wrong turns and a long conversation with a friendly local. My first impression of the city was a very positive one. Everything thing was clean well-kept and there were none of the dodgy looking people I often see in Townsville. After a good night’s sleep we headed to the tourist office to see what tourist attractions were recommended. We ended up with a list of places to go and a tour to the Great Ocean Road booked for the next day. We spent the rest of the day on the hop on hop off bus which took us down to the coast. As we walked along the beaches we witnessed a marriage proposal by plane. We watched the message being written painfully slowly (it took at least 20 minutes to get to “?”) and hoped Cat said yes. The most memorable experience that day was the cake street (don’t think that’s its real name). Melbourne has a street filled with small cake and coffee shops. It was impossible to go down without trying a pastry, though choosing one took a while. The day ended with a trip to China town to have dinner. The next morning we went off bright and early to the Great Ocean Road. Along the way there were stops at a rainforest and a lighthouse before we got to our final destination: the twelve apostles (though there are only 8 left). The trip was worth the long day and 6 hours in a coach. Along the way we got to see many wild koalas (not as exciting as it sounds) and lots of colourful parrots (much more exciting). My trip to Melbourne ended with a walk around the botanic gardens and a trip to the top of the highest building in Melbourne (the Eureka tower). So far Melbourne is the nicest city I’ve been to in Australia (I’ve only been to Sydney, Townsville and Melbourne), though they are overly proud of their coffee. According to them their coffee is better than the French and Italian coffee. Having tasted their coffee, I can say that I prefer French coffee and do not agree with Melburnians on this.
After Melbourne we left for Sydney. Incidentally I managed to book a flight that left at the same time but from a different airport than my friends. Fortunately we discovered this before leaving for the airport. We arrived in Melbourne late at night and got to our hostel which was more expensive and a lot shabbier than the one in Melbourne. Thankfully we were only staying there for one night after which some family friends of my friend was putting us up. The day after our arrival we left on an early train to the Blue Mountains to see the rainforest. On the way there we had an unpleasant conversation with the ticket controller who informed us that student discount in New South Wales was only for students studying in New South Wales. After a long conversation we convinced him we were not aware of this and after some more smiling and pleasant chit chat convinced him that we did not deserve a fine. After a not so great start to the day we made it to the Blue Mountains and had a great day exploring the rainforest (it was not as colourful as I expected). We spent the rest of the trip doing all the typical Sydney attractions. It was here that we encountered another problem with buses. The bus routes had just been modified and no one could tell us were each bus went, even the bus driver gave us the wrong information. We therefore spent a lot of time getting on random buses realising we were going the wrong way and walking back to where we started. My favourite part of the trip to Sydney was going to the beach to the North of the city. The water was a lovely turquoise colour and the waves were huge compared to the ones I’ve seen in Europe.
Unfortunately the holiday ended way too quickly. We got back to Townsville on a Sunday exhausted and ready to sleep in our own beds. After the trip I spent the rest of October trying to finish my assignments and trying to catch up with all the work I was meant to do over the break. This means I have had no time to do anything fun over the last 2 weeks. I am currently trying to revise for my final exams which start next week and trying to find something to do other the holidays which start on the 20th of November. I am sure November will fly by, I already find it hard to believe that my first semester here is already nearly over!
