Holiday in Melbourne

My little friend Aliey Cheah and Vince, her brother, are studying in Brisbane, but are from Melbourne. Melbourne is the second largest city in Australia, located in the state of Victoria, and is on the south-eastern coast of the country. Mikey, Vince, Aliey, Geoff and I flew out late on the 25th of June, and Aliey's parents, who flew in from Hong Kong, met us at the airport and drove us to their house.
Because we were there for 12 days, I can't remember when we did everything and in what order, but I will tell you about a few of the things we did.

1. Went to Temple with the Cheah Family. Aliey and Vince's family follows Buddism, so we went with them to pay their respect to lost family members. It was something I have never experienced before, so it was so interesting to take an inside look at the way their family celebrates their faith. I am not entirely sure about all of the details as to the meanings behind some of the things they did, but there was a lot of incense sticks being waved in front of photographs and other statues, and then we went out behind the temple and tossed a bunch of fake paper money and paper clothing into a fire as offerings.





2. Went to Phillip Island. Phillip Island is an island located off the coast of Victoria, and it was absolutely beautiful! The grass was so green and the water was so blue. It is a pretty big tourist destination because of the Phillip Island Nature Park, which holds nightly 'penguin parades'. The penguin parade is when the Little Penguins come ashore in groups, making their way to their burrows. Another attraction is Seal Rocks, which holds the largest colony of seals in Australia. We were unlucky to find that while we were there, we didn't see ANY seals! On our way in to the island, we stopped at the Phillip Island Chocolate Factory-- YUM!

Penguin hiding under the walking deck

Aliey at the Chocolate Factory- can you tell what caused us to stop?

Penguin Parade! It's hard to see, but it was 'no photography' and we snuck a few flash-free pics!

3. Did the Great Ocean Road drive. The Great Ocean Road is a stretch of road along the south-eastern coast of Australia. It winds down the coast, with lots of sites to see on the way. One of the most famous sites is the 'Twelve Apostles' which are a collection of limestone stacks jutting up from the water. The waves continue to erode away the stacks, leaving only 8 of the 12 stacks left.

The stone stack behind us is one of the 12 Apostles.

4. Saw a wild koala. We were driving off the Great Ocean Road, trying to make our way to one of the lighthouses, when we spotted a KOALA! He/she was soaking wet from the rain and just chillin on the ground, and one koala was up in the tree. I was able to get so close, and it was such an awesome thing to see!




5. ATE. We seriously ate SO much food. Aliey's parents spend most of their time living in Hong Kong, so when they come back, they only come back for a week or so, and tend to eat out almost every meal. I had so much asian food, but it was such a good experience! We did lots of family dinners with Aliey's extended family, and through that I learned that in their culture, when you invite people to dinner, it's an unspoken rule that you will be paying for dinner. It was insane to see someone walk up to the counter and pay for 20+ people to eat dinner and dessert! Geoff, Mikey and I were very unfamiliar with the food. Geoff did all of the taste testing, whereas I just stuck with my pork, beef and chicken. Some of the things that were eaten included: jellyfish, fish cheeks, duck webbing and chicken feet! We ate Thai, Chinese, Malaysian and Indonesian food!

Geoff eating Chicken Feet...

6. Shopped. There are SO many shopping centres around where Aliey lives, so we probably spent more than our fair share of time shopping.


7. Went to the city. The day we went to the city, we, of course, did all of the really touristy things. We saw Federation Square, which is a centrally located area that includes museums, an art gallery, restaurants, bars and other shops. we met up with Chelsea (friend from Brisbane whose from New Jersey) and her friend from high school, had some Indian food for lunch and then did a tour of the Old Melbourne Gaol (the old spelling for JAIL) and the Watchhouse. We went back to Aliey's cousins house, and she made us a delicious Mexican dinner!

Geoff. Vince. Mikey. Aliey. Standing in Federation Square

Melbourne at night

8. Played LOTS of WII. Geoff is a little rusty at Guitar Hero, so he was trying to get back into practice.

Aliey fails on beginner. Mikey and I are supporting her failure in the background.

9. WENT TO SEE TOY STORY 3! Aliey's best friend Natalie works at the cinemas, and we were able to get into a staff screening for free! Nat won't ever see this, but anyway THANKS NAT! =]


10. Celebrated the Fourth of July!! Well, obviously the fourth of July has zero significance in Australia, but I wasn't about to miss out on the celebrating! Aliey, Mikey and I went to the grocery store and picked up some ingredients, and then Aliey and I baked some banana bread covered in cream cheese frosting with strawberries and bananas to look like an American Flag! Blueberries were obviously our first choice for the upper corner, but when they rang up as $9 for 250 grams, we opted for bananas instead. We also made cupcakes, sausages and roasted veggies for the four of us to eat!



Geoff left a week into our trip, as did Aliey's parents shortly thereafter. It was incredibly sad to say goodbye to him, and it was so weird continuing on with this experience without him!
SHOUTOUT to GEOFF: I MISS YOU and I HOPE TO SEE YOU IN DECEMBER!


After he left, Aliey started back at work as a dental assistant at a dentist in the city. This is when we started just hanging out and were a bit done with the touristy things. Mikey, Vince and I flew back to Brisbane on the 7th, and Aliey stayed to enjoy a few more weeks in Melbourne with her Nana and her friends.

At this point, I had about three weeks left in Australia.

xx