Melbourne Round 2!

On the second part of our trip, Kim and I ventured to Melbourne. This was my second time here, but Kim had never been. We flew to Melbourne early in the morning. We checked into our hostel and met up with our friends from TEDs that were visiting the city also. We got some lunch at our favorite new place Pie Face. They sell all different kinds of meat pies. So good! We all adventured to the Queen Victoria Markets to do some shopping. They have all kinds of fresh meats, cheeses, veggies, and fruits. The shops also have heaps of clothing shops and souvenir shops. It is kind of like a flea market. After we took a look around the markets, we headed over to Federation Square and went to the Australian Center for Moving Images and looked at the history of digital culture like movies, television, and Internet. It was neat to see how things had changed in just a few years! They had a few interactive exhibits that we played with. One was a room that you could do a move and make it look 3D ish or like the Matrix move. You could view the scene then email it to yourself.  http://www.acmi.net.au/timeslice/Timeslice.htm?file=ts-20121113-048436a2e72ae143f1604ef5eb2714a1.flv  Here is the link to our video!  Once we were done being movie stars in our own little films, we walked outside and found ourselves in an episode of Master Chef Australia! It was being filmed and we accidentally walked right into on of the scenes with the competitors! It was awesome! We stayed and watched them film for a bit then walked over the St. Paul's Cathedral which was across the street. It was a beautiful church! We then took a trolley over to Harbor Town and had dinner at Nandos. Harbor Town was just another shopping center that was by the water. Nandos is a restaurant that serves chicken in all sorts of ways. They are famous for their peri- peri sauce. Oh its good! Each one is a level of hot sauce! On our way back we passed a huge stadium and guess who was playing?! Coldplay! And we didn't even know otherwise we probably would have gotten tickets. The next day we were going on a tour on the Great Ocean Road.

It was an early morning as we headed out to the day long tour to the Twelve Apostles on the Great Ocean Road. It is a road that goes along the ocean! We started off the tour by leaving the city and our guide/driver Jason told us random facts about Melbourne like it's the second biggest city in Australia! We past through Geelong which was the city our friend Steven's favorite AFL team was from. Our first stop was Bells Beach. This beach is famous for the Rip Curl Surf Competition that is held around Easter each year. The town that is right by the beach was also the home of the companies Rip Curl and Quicksilver. The beach was absolutely beautiful. We got a glimpse of some surfers too! Made for a good photo opp! The next stop was the lighthouse! It is a famous lighthouse in that is was the base of an older Australian children's TV show, Around the Twist. There were some great views from the area and beautiful homes all around the area. Our tour guide was very familiar with the area and some of us wanted to see some kangaroos so he took us to a golf course that gets heaps of them. Luckily we found a few sunbathing and got a few photos. He told us stories of how much they can be a pest on farms with crops and a hazard to drivers on the road since at night they just jump out in front of cars and cause accidents. EEEKK, scary! We headed to Kennet River where there was a safe koala area that wild koalas were hanging out in the trees. There was also a part with birds that just flew straight to you and landed on you, partially since the drivers had bird seed in their hands. But I stayed FAR away from that area as some of you may know I'm afraid of birds! Ick. We saw a few koalas which was neat since I've only seen them in the zoo. We had a lunch break at Apollo Bay. Us girls headed to the fish shop which turned out having the best fish and chips I've ever had! It was then on to the Gibson Steps that led down to the beach with two of the Twelve Apostles. Fun Fact: There are actually only 9 Apostles left out of the 12 original. Now for those of you that are still confused at what the Twelve Apostles are, they are huge pieces of limestone rock that formed in a vertical formation in the water. The ones that are no longer there was caused by erosion and fell over. After we got our fix of the Apostles from ground level, we headed to the next stop to see the other Apostles. It was a pathway that led to a higher view of them. We counted all 9 from that spot. It was awesome! We then headed to another spot that head a story to it. the story in a nutshell goes like this...It was about a boy and a girl that got stranded after a shipwreck and got stuck in this gorge. Finally, someone came and the man had left to signal for help and received it. The couple were in love, but after they got rescued the man received a reward for being a hero and the girl just went back home. Anyways there is a huge hole in the side of one of these huge rocks and that was the gorge that the couple was trapped in. It was a beautiful beach on the other side of the park that we visited with the gorge. We headed over to the London Bridge. It is a large rock formation with an arch open at the bottom on the rock. There used to be two arches, but one fell off. People used to be able to walk on the bridge, but once the first arch broke off there was no way of getting people on it anymore. when the first arch broke off there was a couple stranded on the bridge and had to get helicopter rescued out. Seeing the London Bridge in Australia was funny since we have one in our home town and our friend Amy from London talks about the one there too. The bridge was our last stop of the tour so we headed back to Melbourne for some Pie Face for dinner then an early night since Kim and I had one last stop on our travels that we had to catch an early flight for. Again, the photos won't upload so here is the link to see them!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/klp224/sets/72157632069929617/