Visiting Melbourne

Before taking off to Thailand we made a pitstop in Melbourne for the weekend to see how Myers was living and check out the city. We even ended up renting a car and going down the Great Ocean Road to see the 12 apostles. The city itself was really cool and I would consider it pretty "artsy".  Stace I think if you were ever to visit Australia you'd need to come here, it just seemed like your kind of city. I don't mean that in the wrong way because it's artsy, I just thought of you when I was there and it seemed like your kind of place.

Some pretty wild looking sculpture guy. There were different art sculptures and pieces of work like this spread all throughout the city.

A church that we take a look in a little later. All the architecture of the buildings throughout the city was a lot different than other places I've been in Australia. It had a bit more of an Old Town feel and not so modernized as Sydney that seems to have a more business and classy atmosphere to it.

Heading up to the History of film and movement museum

One of the first video cameras

The first TV (if you look in the little picture next to it, that's JFK using one). Pretty wild considering the entertainment set-ups we have in our homes today

Atari! I know you remember this one mum and dad.

Ryan getting owned by a 6 year old in virtual pong

This is Melbourne's Central Station. Like I said the architecture of the buildings was really neat and unlike a lot of places in Sydney. The people themselves also seem to be even more laid back, not so many suits and ties.

Inside the Church I photographed earlier

I know a lot of churches look amazing and most certainly blow this one out of the water, I still find all the artwork and shear size of the places unbelievable though.

Another shot of Central

The river that leads down from the city to Melbourne's harbour. Nothing like the harbour we've got in Sydney though, and I think this might be some of the dirtiest water I've seen in OZ Land.

There were a lot of museums and exhibitions throughout the city so we figured we should check at least one out. Most of them are actually free too. I think our policy museum or something of equal boringness is the only museum free in Sydney...

This section here was the Aboriginal art exhibit (Aussie equivalent to our Native Americans)

These are obviously genuine pieces of Aboriginal art and are not for sale, but I looked into buying something like this because they make a lot of really amazing stuff, and it literally all goes for upwards of $1,000.

One of Australia's War memorials. You can get some really amazing views of the city atop where you can see the couple of people standing that I'll show you in later pictures.

Medals earned by fallen Australian Soldiers. This was only one row of them and there was another of at least equal length in the next room. These memorials always amazed me and really make you stop and think about all people have done for their countries.

Dan trying to get a profile pic in front of the British flag

And here is the view I mentioned before from the top of the Memorial looking back at Melbourne's skyline. If it didn't get so cold down here (granted nothing like VT haha) it might be my city of choice in Australia, but it'll be hard for me to ever lose my biases towards Coogee.

Getting the rental for our trip down the Great Ocean Road to the 12 Apostles. Driving on the left side of the road was definitely a bit awkward at first and took some focus in the beginning. I almost think it was driving from the right side of the vehicle that threw me off more though. All the mirrors just seemed in the wrong spot haha. Honestly, after being used to traffic, using public transport and crossing the street for the past 4 or 5 months I think I'll need a couple days of adjusting when I get back to the states. 

House on a pole. They've got some crazy ideas for homes down here that's for sure.

The journey begins down the Great Ocean Road. I was driving a lot of the way there in the daylight so I'm limited with pictures but it's basically an extremely windy road along the edge of the Ocean. Made me miss my baby girl more than ever that day (that's my motorcycle for those of you that haven't heard to me refer to her like that).

Our arrival to the 12 Apostles. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves here. Another one of those many things I've experienced in Australia that pictures can barely do justice but are sadly the best way for me to show you how incredible they were. 

Although they're called the 12 Apostles, only 8 still stand today. You can see the remains of where a few have come down.

Being there around sunset was pretty amazing

I felt like I was in the Lion King at times

Looking into Loch Ard Gorge, just past the 12 Apostles and the site of years of erosion and a famous shipwreck in Australia.

This last shot was one of my favorites and actually isn't one of the Apostles. It's just outside the earlier Gorge I described and seeing it as the sun was setting was unbelievable. 

That's the end of our short visit to Melbourne and I'm sure there could've been much more to see if we had a longer stay. For instance there was a footy game we missed during our road trip in a stadium that seats 100,000 and filled to about 70,000 but we ran out of time as we had to head off to the country of Thailand! Check out my next blog post to read about it. Cheers Amurica! See you soon.