well i’m on my way…

I’m condensing the last week into one post, so I’ll only give you the highlights:

The first day, Monday, we headed south and west, away from the fires and closer to the coast.  We followed the Great Ocean Road which is exactly what it claims-the road winds in and out of the mountains, towards and along the coast for a while, then back into the rainforest.  It was amazing.  The ocean was beautiful, deep blues and waves crashing…We stayed in Apollo Bay that night at the YHA (Youth Hostel Association) hostel which was a beautiful building.  I kept on saying “I don’t belive this is a hostel”.  My hostel standards have forever been raised and from now on, I will stay YHA in my travels,when I can, more expensive or not.  It’s definately worth it.  YHA’s are so much cleaner, the beds are more comfortable, the people staying in them are travlers who like to drink wine over conversations instead of the tourists in other hostels who drink goon to get wasted.  I have finally found my people!  (I did hear that Australian YHAs do have a higher standard than those in the rest of the world.)  Cameron and I sat on the beach and watched the waves and people attempting to surf while we ate our dinner.  

The next day we set out early to see rocks, waves, and lighthouses.  I’m pretty sure that this was the day we saw The 12 Apostles, as Cameron dubbed “the second most famous thing in Victoria”-with the penguins on Philip Island the first.  We stayed in Port Fairy that night and played pictionary with some other people in the hostel. 

The third day we went on a daytrip to South Australia with another person from the hostel.  We drove and drove and drove to see another lighthouse (Uncle Mick would have loved this roadtrip), a beach, and a really really blue lake, with no explanation as to why it’s so blue.  I don’t buy Cameron’s explanation that it’s so deep it’s that blue.  The ocean isn’t that blue, and it’s a lot deeper.  The signs posted had no explanation either, which I found odd.  Maybe it’s dyed?  Once we got back to the hostel, we walked to the beach in town and checked out the wildlife and another lighthouse. 

Cameron and I took a walk on the beach in the morning-Cameron decided to take a nap so I went to wander the city on my own.  I think this was my first time really on my own in the last week.  I didn’t realize how much I appreciate solitude.  I checked out a gallery and some antique shops.  The news of the fires were still getting bigger and bigger at this point, so I decided to phone home and let them know I’m alive and well and all that good stuff.  I think I talked to my mom and sister for almost an hour.  It was nice hearing a North American accent after hearing only Aussie for a week.  I had lunch at a Chinese restaurant and we left Port Fairy for Ballarat, the gold town in Victoria.  Ballarat still has all its old buildings and not many new ones-this is not very common in Australia-or at least the Australia I’ve seen so far.  It was a really cute town.  We walked around the town and had dinner at an Irish Pub.  I had nachos for dinner (sorry Dad) and they were surprisingly really good.  

On Friday the 13 we went to Soverign Hill, a reenactment of the gold rush days.  It was a pretty cool place-the people were dressed up to match the 1830s and they were selling lots of wares from back in the day.  After walking around there for a few hours, we went to the Gold museum across the street.  We checked out an art gallery in town before heading out.  The gallery housed a massive war-tattered flag.  Viewing it reminded me that I’m an American-(embarassingly) The Star Spangled Banner popped in my head when I was observing what was left of the Australian Labour Flag.  

Cameron wanted to show me a natural spring-mineral water being pumped out of the ground.  We had to park the car and walk down a road, then walk down some stairs.  I was walking down the steps, looking ahead into the bush (forest), not paying attention, and I fell.  I did my infamous roll of the foot and put all my weight on the outside of my right foot and crumpled to the ground.  Yep, I did it again.  I was wearing boots too.  The sprain isn’t as bad as it’s been in the past, only my ankle is a little swollen this time.  It should heal soon.  There’s just one thing I don’t remember:  at night, when I elevate my foot, should I wrap it?  Or leave it unwrapped?  I know I should wrap it while I’m walking around…

We got back to Melbourne around 6-I decided that I wanted to spend the weekend (and the rest of my time) in the actual city so I had to look around for a hostel.  The second one I checked could put me in a six bed room for the weekend…that was all I was worried about at that point.  All the hostels will clear out during the week.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 13th, 2009 at 10:28 pm and is filed under Australia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.