A day at the race course

The Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival is a horse racing series that occurs in Melbourne during October and November (don't forget- it's Spring in Australia!). Racing season is massive here during Autumn and Spring, and receives a great deal of media attention since Footy and Cricket are not in season. The Spring Carnival is made up of a series of meetings at the metropolitan clubs, however the Victoria Racing Club's meetings are the most well known. There are four events for the Victoria Racing Club, all of which take place at Flemington race course:
1)Victoria Derby- better known as "Derby Day", takes place the Saturday before the Melbourne Cup.
2)Melbourne Cup- known as "the race that stops a nation", the Melbourne Cup is a public holiday in the state of Victoria.
3)Oaks Day- traditionally known as "ladies day"... held on the Thursday after the Melbourne Cup... this is the race I attended!
4)Stakes Day- known as "family day"... The Saturday after Oaks Day

My experience at Oaks Day was a wonderful one. Perhaps the most fun part about the races here in Melbourne is that everyone- both men and women- get dressed to the nines. The men wear suits and ties, and the ladies wear fancy dresses and hats! It is a very classy affair.

One Fish Two Fish

I have just returned from an unbelievable 10 day Spring break on the Northeast coast. It may come as no surprise that I am sick in bed after 10 straight days of partying, but I have absolutely no regrets! I had the time of my life.
Extreme Adventures, a company that hosts tours around Australia, hosted the trip which was called "One Fish Two Fish". We flew up to Brisbane to meet our tourguides and the tour began.
Our first stop was the famous Australian Zoo, made famous by Steve Irwin. His wife Terri, and two children, Bindi and Robert, carry on the crocodile hunter's legacy, as they still put on crowd roaring shows with the crocs.

I made friends with some kangaroos and got up close and personal with some koalas (yes, those koalas are REAL!)


After leaving the zoo, the real party began. We made a pitstop at the liquor store and partied all the way to Fraser Island. Check us out with our boxes of goon!


When we arrived at our hostel we had about an hour to settle in and shower before it was time for a booze cruise. Waking up early the next morning was a struggle, especially because it was cloudy and rainy. We spent the day touring freshwater lakes in the area and still managed to have a good time despite the weather.
Our next destination was the most beautiful place I've ever been in my entire life: The Whitsunday Islands. We took speed boats out to the isolated South Molle Resort and were thrilled to see our surroundings for the next 3 days. We relaxed on beaches, by the pool and on boats.









We said goodbye to the Whitsunday Islands, and our next big activity was white water rafting on the Tully River. The rapids on the Tully were a 4 out of 5... so as you can imagine, the water was REALLY rough. We put on our lifevests and helmets, separated into raft groups and set out on the Tully with our raft guides. Going down the river was definitely a workout, as we had to constantly row in certain directions in order to avoid hitting the massive rocks that were all over the river. A lot of people fell out of the raft, and some rafts even flipped over! It was a great adrenaline rush but definitely scary at times.
After a wet and wild day of rafting, we traveled to our final destination: CAIRNS!

Cairnes is where typical college spring break antics went into full swing. No more relaxation- It was non-stop partying from this point forward! We stayed at an awesome hotel/hostel called Gilligans, which was right in the heart of the city surrounded by shops, restaurants and bars. We visited AJ Hackett, where people went bungy jumping and on the famous minjin swing-- all in the dark!! It was awesome. Check out the Aj Hackett website to see how cool it was: click here

We traveled around the city in style from bar to bar on an open air party bus, where music blasted and everyone danced on the roof! During the daytime, there were countless stores and restaurants to spend time at. On the 2nd day, we took a boat out to the Great Barrier reef and went scuba diving and snorkeling.




Spring Break 2010 in Australia was a success!!

Sydney!

Last Thursday night we all piled onto a charter bus, and 14 hours later found ourselves in the beautiful city of Sydney. I was pleased to discover that it is about 10 degrees warmer in Sydney than in Melbourne, which made the weekend all the more enjoyable. On Friday morning at 9 AM we checked into our hostel and wasted no time. After a quick breakfast, we started a day of sightseeing. Our tour guides were great- 2 young Australian guys who were a lot of fun and pretty knowledgeable about the tourist attractions in the city. We walked through the Botanic Gardens and looked at all of the beautiful flowers and plants. My favorite thing to see in the gardens was all of the bats that were hanging upside down in the trees. It was a pretty eerie sight to see hundreds of bats just hanging there like that, but it was unlike anything I had ever seen before. One of our tour guides started clapping, which caused all of the bats to fly out of the tree simultaneously and fill up the sky.


Our next stop was the Sydney Opera House which was only about a 2 km walk out of the gardens. The Sydney Opera House is one of the most famous tourist attractions in Australia, and I had seen so many pictures of it before. After that we hopped on a ferry and walked on the Sydney Harbor Bridge. We finished our afternoon with lunch by the water and a few drinks. Sydney Harbor is such a cool place to hang out, as it has countless bars and restaurants with beautiful waterfront views. It had a similar vibe to Baltimore's Inner Harbor, but 100 times better (obviously).




We freshened up at the hostel and then it was time for the Harbor cruise. The city looked beautiful all lit up at night. We went around the harbor from 7:30-11:30 with unlimited wine and beer. Our tour guides informed us that every time we went under a bridge, we had to chug our entire beverage. Seriously, what's better than a FREE all you can drink booze cruise around the Sydney Harbor? After the cruise we went out to another bar by our hostel. It was a really fun night.




A majority of our group woke up bright and early for a guided tour of the Blue Mountains. But Mallory, Rachel, Brielle and I opted to sleep in until noon and then explore Sydney some more! We had lunch by the water at a great tapas restaurant. Saturday night we had dinner and drinks at an awesome bar/club a few blocks away from our hostel to celebrate our friend Anthony's 20th birthday. The place was huge and had tons of bars inside, along with great DJs.



Sunday was beach day. We hopped on a ferry from the harbor and head to Manly Beach. It was beautiful, sunny, and 70 degrees. Manly Beach is a very popular tourist attraction, and the huge crowds of people there reflected that. We still managed to find a spot on the beach and have a great time in the sun. Our next stop was the famous Bondi Beach, one of Australia's top beaches. We relaxed on the beach for a few hours, grabbed a bite to eat and then made our way back to Melbourne.


The weekend was the best weekend I've had here yet. Sydney is hands down one of the best cities I've ever visited. Being in the warm weather on beaches got me very excited for our Spring break trip, which is in ten days. Between now and then I have A LOT of papers to write, but it will be well worth it once I am in the beautiful weather with a drink (or 2) in my hand. It's hard to believe that there are only 6 weeks left of this semester.

Great Ocean Road

I am long overdue to post! I have had a lot of work to do in my classes, and on top of that I have been sick for the past week.
It's Sunday night and I just got back from an absolutely AMAZING weekend at Great Ocean Road. Great Ocean Road is a must-see for anyone visiting Victoria. It is a 151 mile stretch of road between Torquay and Warrnambool that sits along the coast, providing breath taking ocean views. Several famous Australian landmarks are off of Great Ocean Road.
We began our weekend long journey bright and early Saturday morning. Our first stop was Torquay, which is a city famous for its surf beaches. We started at the Surf Museum, which prepared us for our day of surfing on Bells Beach. Despite the cold, windy, rainy weather, we zipped on wetsuits and jumped into the water for a day of surf lessons.

After surfing, we drove down the Great Ocean Road and did some sightseeing. The cliffs and beaches were unlike anything I've ever seen in the U.S. We stopped at an area where there were gum trees to see if we could find any wild koalas. Our tourguide informed us that Koalas spend about 18 hours a day sleeping, and they aren't too friendly when they're awake. We were told to not me misled by their adorable appearance because when faced with the threat of danger, koalas often attack. we found two koalas sitting in a tree, just climbing around. Then there was another curled up in a ball sleeping.

We arrived at our overnight accommodation in Apollo Bay. Our hostel was really nice, much nicer then I had imagined. Our tourguides made us all a BBQ dinner and then we headed out to the local pub for the evening. It was a very fun night!
This morning the sightseeing continued bright and early. The day started at Maits Rest Rainforest. Then e got to see The Twelve Apostles, one of the most famous tourist attractions in the area. The Twelve Apostles are limestone stacks that sit in the ocean in a very unique arrangement. We saw other beautiful sights in the ocean including London Bridge and the Grotto.



What a great weekend!!! I can't wait to do more traveling, especially when the weather warms up.

Shop Til You Drop

Over the weekend, I took a solo trip out to the Chadstone Shopping Center (pronounced "Chad-stun"). I was in need of a new pair of jeans since most of mine have been feeling loose lately (all those gym sessions must be paying off!). Chadstone, known as the fashion capital, is the biggest shopping center in the southern hemisphere and sits in the Malvern East section of the city. It is an easy 15 minute bus ride away, making it all too easy for shopaholics like myself to spend countless hours in a shopper's paradise. I grew up in close proximity to two malls, one of which being the high-end Mall at Short Hills. For this reason, I am no stranger to the euphoric feeling of walking into one of these places. However, the effect that Chadstone had on me was indescribable. Before I even stepped foot off the bus, I felt an overwhelming feeling of excitement in my stomach. 530 stores? This made my trips to Short Hills mall, which boasts just 160 stores, look like child's play.
A Chadstone shopper could want for nothing- the super-regional shopping center has a grocery store (Coles), Kmart, Target, hair salons, and nail salons along with a wide range of luxury stores like Chanel, Jimmy Choo, Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Tiffany and much, much more! I chose to stay in the moderately priced stores to look for my purchases. My favorite store is called Supre (check it out here) which I would compare to a higher-end and more organized Forever21. Tops go for about $30. This is the place to go for the perfect going-out shirt or dress. Witchery is another very popular store here and has tons of great stuff as well (check it out here)
It was time for me to get on track and deal with the task at hand: buying the perfect pair of jeans. I wasn't looking to spend a lot since I am on a tight budget down here. There a lot of stores down here that just sells jeans, which definitey made shopping easy for me. I first went into a store called General Pants, which sold a lot of brans such as Sass & Bide, Nudie, Wrangler and Lee. I figured I'd definitely be able to find something in this place. An over-eager sales girl approached me as soon as I entered the store. I inquired about the size conversion from U.S. to Australia for jeans, and she informed me that the sizes are the same. After trying on about 10 pairs of my U.S. size, I couldn't get any past my ankles and I had broken a sweat. I concluded that sales girl was misinformed and booked it out of the store.
I walked around for a little while and came across Jeanswest, another denim store much like the one I had just been in. The people here were 10 times more helpful and informed me that I should go up 2 full sizes in Australian jeans. This was music to my ears and confirmed that I hadn't actually gained 20 pounds in a month. All of their jeans were on sale and I ended up with a great pair of jeans that I LOVE for just $65.

B.Y.O.K.

I wasn't sure what the food would be like down here. There a lot of similarities for sure, but just as I suspected there are a few things that I will need to adjust to. French fries, or "chips", and fried chicken are available just about anywhere. Indian restaurants, Mexican restaurants and even the gym on campus all have chips. Also, due to the overflow of Asians here, it's never hard to find a Japanese or Chinese restaurant. Curry is a crowd favorite and is added to many dishes. It is definitely hard to make healthy food decisions when the smell of fried chicken is wafting through the air and clouding my good judgement. Luckily I've been able to stick to salads and frequent the gym. One thing that bothers me is the lack of condiment use here. Ketchup is NOT free at the cafe on campus (35 cents for a little packet) and I've yet to see hot sauce or ranch dressing. This may be a blessing in disguise for me, a self proclaimed ranch dressing connoisseur, but it's disappointing nonetheless. My friend Sam, a fellow American and condiment lover, has resorted to buying a bottle of ketchup at the grocery store and bringing it with her when she goes out to eat. Extreme? Yes. Necessary? Absolutely.
All of these diminutive differences aren't affecting my life in a terribly negative way, but there is one thing that I will never, EVER adjust to: Vegemite (a fancy and misleading name for concentrated yeast extract). I had heard about vegemite before coming down here, and I knew it was a staple in every Australian household. This morning an Aussie friend of mine suggested I try the enigmatic dark brown goo. The piece of toast with butter and vegemite looked innocent enough. It was reminiscent of apple butter, so when I was expecting a similar taste sensation when I took my first bite. All I can say is, I do not understand the appeal here. It tastes like eating a spoonful of salt, only 10000 times worse and more unappetizing, with a bitter aftertaste. All the Australians in the room were unanimous in saying that they L-O-V-E the stuff and can't live without it. Me on the other hand... I lost my appetite for the day and will never go near vegemite again.

1 Tequila, 2 Tequila, 13.2 Tequila, floor

I am happy to report that one of my favorite drinks, the frozen margarita, is available down here... in LARGE quantities. Last night we went to Taco Bill's for half price cocktails. It is a hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant in the city, and from the outside it doesn't look too promising. But once we stepped foot in this place, I felt confident that we had made a great decision. The ambiance was everything I'd want in a Mexican restaurant... tacky decor, mexican music, and rowdy tables of tequila pounding college students. My general rule of thumb for Mexican restaurants is "the sketchier the better"-just as long as the food and drinks are good. Any Mexican restaurant that makes an attempt at being classy is missing a key part of the equation. I had heard rumors about the fishbowl style margaritas at this place. The "Pancho Villa" is served in a supersized margarita glass and holds 13.2 shots of Tequila. There are 10 flavor choices for this monstrosity of a cocktail. I chose the Peach one. I had anticipated sharing one of these with a friend, but our Aussie friend who brought us there wouldn't allow us to share- he made us order our own. As I sit here this morning with a pounding headache and a burning desire to get on the treadmill (I'm sure these things had over 2,000 calories), I am proud to say I don't regret my decision to have my own personal Pancho Villa.