Springtime in Melbourne (AFL Grand Final, Parklife, Caulfield Cup)

Spring has officially arrived in Melbourne, and the weather has improved drastically...finally!  Apparently I have been here for the coldest, wettest winter Melbourne has seen in a long time.  Talk about bad luck!  When I first got here, everyone was talking about Australia being in the worst drought in history, but the constant rain has helped the situation a little.  The problem is that it has rained nearly everyday for as long as I can remember, however when it rains, it pours.  There was actually some pretty serious flooding a few weeks ago all over the state of Victoria.  This means that the water catchments (where the drinking water comes from) are not able to catch all of the water because it accumulates too quickly.  I heard someone say that they are only 45% full now even with all of the rain, crazy!

Now that the weather is getting better, everyone seems to be in a better mood.  The weird thing about the weather though is it seems to know when it should be good, if that makes any sense.  During the week when everyone is locked in the office at work, it can be rainy and cold.  However on the weekends, there has been consistent sunshine and warm weather over 20 degrees Celsius!  Living in St. Kilda is the perfect place to be on the weekends.  People come from all over to go to the beach and every bar and restaurant is packed full of beautiful people.  

I really do not understand where everyone gets the money to always be out drinking and eating here.  It makes me think that Australians must have a lot of debt.  For example, when I walk home from work every night, I walk down Chapel Street to get to St. Kilda, and there are always so many people out shopping and eating/drinking.  Maybe I just notice these things more since I have decided to save my money so that I can travel again before heading back to the States...

Anyway, springtime in Melbourne is an exciting time (and definitely the wrong time to decide to save money!), and there is something going on nearly every weekend.  Just a few weeks after Alyssa left, I decided to meet up with an Australian girl here who is friends with one of my friends in SF.  It seems that almost all of my good friends here are actually friends of friends from back home (maybe because Australians are cliquey?  Melbournians definitely are!), so I was excited at the prospect of another girl friend to go out with.  She had just moved back to Melbourne from Queensland for her dream job, so she was excited to go out and get reacquainted with this city that I now call home.  We met during the week after work for some drinks and planned to go out in a few weekends, we had a great time!

It was refreshing to meet an Australian who I actually felt that I had a lot in common with.  Two weeks after being back in Melbourne, she was going to a Tim McGraw concert!  May not sound like a big deal, but most Australians do not like country music (well the young city dwellers don’t...).  Also, I came to find out she was a big fan of the TV show Glee, another sign that we would get along well.  The only bad news though is that she had planned a trip to America and Canada for a month in October/November, so we wouldn’t actually have that much time to hang out before she left.

We planned to meet at her apartment for a few cocktails before going out and dancing.  It was a very successful night, and we stayed out into the late hours.  I apparently had a great time judging by the way I felt the next morning when I woke up, and I had a message from a mystery person that I did not even remember meeting.  

Funny story, I went and met up with him the following weekend (in a public place of course!) and I still had no recollection of being introduced to him.  He was definitely not my type, but I think we may actually be friends.  He is what Australians would refer to as a “Wog” which is what Australians call guys from Greek or Italian descent.  Similar to the American “Guido,” these guys have a slightly different Australian accent and are very confident.  I realize that it’s probably not politically correct to refer to him as a “Wog,” but the description really describes this guy well.  He lives with his parents (which is actually really common here even among the 25-year old crowd) and works for his parents’ business, along with working at his friend’s entrepreneurial venture.  He spends Sunday afternoons at his “nana’s” house where she makes him homemade pasta and sausage.  Since I also come from an Italian family, I appreciate these things and it actually makes me miss my New Jersey family.

Going back to the Sunday after I went out with my new friend, Renee and I decided to have Sunday lunch at Cutler & Co. which was rated the #1 restaurant in Australia by Gourmet Traveller Magazine.  Also, a few of our friends are chefs there, so we knew we would be getting special treatment!  Since winning the award from Gourmet, Cutler & Co. is constantly booked out, and we were able to sneak in for a Sunday (thanks Patrick!), the only day that they serve a set menu lunch.  For $65, you get a few starters, a main, and a dessert.  The food was really delicious, and Renee and I felt classy for the day drinking champagne and bloody mary’s among those that can actually afford to do that kind of thing on a regular basis.

Then three weekends ago, the AFL Grand Final was the big event in town.  Comparable to the Super Bowl (except even more exciting because both teams playing were from Melbourne), the final is the championship game of the Aussie Rules Football season.  I had been to two games in the season to watch Carlton (one with Alyssa and the other with Humme!), but unfortunately Carlton did not make it far in the playoffs.  

The two teams playing in this Grand Final were Collingwood and St. Kilda.  The week before, Collingwood beat Geelong to make it into the final game, which was a big deal as Geelong has played in the last 3 Grand Finals (and last year against St. Kilda).  St. Kilda lost to Geelong in last year’s game, so they were excited for another opportunity to play in the big game.  It had been many years since either team had won the Grand Final (the 1970’s for Collingwood and the 1960’s for St. Kilda), so both teams were training hard for the chance to make their fans proud.

Collingwood supporters can somewhat be compared to Oakland Raiders fans in America (they are even black and white colors) in that they can get pretty scary.  They have a reputation for being “bogans” and seem to be the fans at the games that get into the most fights.  If you are not a Collingwood fan, you hate Collingwood.  This means that Melbourne was pretty much divided between those that were supporting Collingwood and everyone else was barracking (a new word I learned!) for St. Kilda.  My boss is a diehard Collingwood fan, so of course I was going for St. Kilda.  I also live in St. Kilda so I was hoping that they would win so that there would be a big neighborhood celebration that night.

For the game, we had been invited to our friend’s house out in the suburbs for a party (Thanks Matty V!).  Renee and I had a great time figuring out the trains we had to take to get out to a place called Watsonia.  It was nearly halftime of the game before we made it, haha.  

We actually made it in perfect time to see history being made.  Collingwood was beating St. Kilda going into halftime, but after the break, St. Kilda made an amazing comeback.  Everyone who was watching with us hated Collingwood (most were Carlton fans, of which Collingwood is a rival) so we were all so excited.  With just a few minutes left to go in the game, St. Kilda actually had a small lead for the first time in the game.  Collingwood was favored to win the game, so we were all so shocked at the quick turn of events.  St. Kilda actually had a chance to win the game, but unfortunately the game ended in a draw.  Only the third in history!

No one quite knew what to do next including the players on the field.  Apparently in the Grand Final when there is a draw, the game is replayed the following week.  In the regular season of the AFL, the game would be played out in overtime, but for some reason this specific rule applies to the final game.  Watching the faces of the fans at the game, realizing this was the case, was really a sight to see.  From the TV it looked like the entire MCG stadium got quiet and no one was really sure what they were witnessing.  The last time there was a draw in the AFL Grand Final was in the 1977 game (Collingwood lost the replay back then).  The players were all laying on the field, exhausted and in awe.  Apparently many of them had planned vacations for the week following that would now have to be rescheduled so that many of them could re-play the biggest event of their careers.

I could not believe that this rule existed and that everyone would be re-doing their Grand Final celebrations again the following week, then two amazing things happened.  The first was the presentation of the Norm Smith medal (basically the MVP of the game) which I was surprised was still happening since the game ended without result.  With the absence of fireworks and celebrating, it was really awkward for the player to be presented with an award.  Lenny Hayes (St. Kilda player) went up to the microphone to accept his award, but he had lost his voice and croaked out an acceptance speech haha.  

Then the next amazing thing happened when the camera cut to the news desk at the MCG for the post-show.  For some reason, there was a lot of wind blowing on the announcers and it looked like an amateur production.  One of the older guys definitely had a toupee which was flopping in the wind, and when they returned from commercial break, he was missing from the broadcast haha!

On our way back to the city, I took a quick nap on the train.  It was amazing!  No one thought that I would still make it out that night, but I delivered.  I even had my own dance party and stayed out way later than I should have.  This was also the night that the plan hatched for my upcoming travel plans!  Always best to make quick decisions about traveling when you are not in a sober state...

In the week leading up to the Grand Final Replay, I was actually offered tickets from one of my TV buyers in Sydney to go watch the game.  He had been flown down from Sydney for the Grand Final game but could not rationalize doing it two weeks in a row.  It would have been great to go see the big game played live (in the Channel 7 hospitality nonetheless), however I already had tickets to go to Parklife, so I ended up passing the tickets to a client.

As Collingwood ended up winning the game by a mile, I was really glad I ended up going to Parklife instead.  I didn’t even watch any of the Grand Final Replay, because I was too busy enjoying the sun and music.  Highlights of the day were homemade aioli and avocado on toast for breakfast (thanks to our chef friends!), jaeger bombs starting at 10AM, and definitely the music (Too Many DJ’s, Kele from Bloc Party, Cut Copy, Bag Raiders to name a few).  I never thought I would be able to say that I have been to a Missy Elliot show, but now unfortunately I can as she played at Parklife too.  To be honest, I wasn’t really that impressed with her performance, but I was pretty mesmerized by her Michael Jackson shirt and amazing dancers!

The day went by entirely too fast, but it was really one of the best spent in Australia so far.  The weather was perfect, the music was great, and everyone was in a really good mood.  We spent the entire next day recovering by the beach eating greasy fish and chips and getting a few drinks at the Espy.  I could not believe this was the same Melbourne that had been rainy and freezing just a few days before!

As I said in the beginning of this post, I was excited for Spring in Melbourne because there was something going on nearly every weekend.  That being said, the weekend after Parklife was actually pretty low-key for me.  I ended up going to a dinner party at a co-workers house and ran the 5.7km in the Melbourne Marathon.  (Natalie, don’t read this!!) I was actually planning to run the half marathon, but one of my coworkers forgot to sign us all up so the event sold out.  The furthest distance available was the 5.7km so I thought I would just do that.  Even though I did not get a great sleep the night before, I ended up doing pretty well!

The next weekend was pretty crazy - on Friday night, I went to one of my first open bar parties for work in Melbourne (thanks Becky!).  Even though the party was open bar, we somehow ended up buying tequila shots and the night just went downhill from there.  That being said, I woke up the next morning without a cell phone and could not reach my roommate because she had lost her cell phone too!  When we finally managed to reach each other, we collected our cell phones and her purse (minus $400!), along with our dignity from the Precinct.

We were meant to be going to a champagne breakfast that morning to pre-party for the Caulfield Cup (spring in Melbourne=horse racing season!), but we did not end up even leaving St. Kilda for Caulfield until 1:30PM.  What a disaster...

And to make it even worse, the weather was not ideal for a day of horse racing.  We tried to make the most of the moments when the sun was actually out, but then the rain clouds would appear.  During the rainy times, everyone ran and hid under the tents and it was freezing.  I placed a few bets on some horses but did not win any of them (probably because I chose my bets on the names I liked).  I really just enjoyed all of the men in suits - probably 20 men to every girl - and decided I would have to go to Melbourne Cup in a few weeks to really get a taste for this Spring Racing thing.

I was starting to realize that it was definitely going to be hard to save money leading into summer, especially now that I had a plan for my next travels!  One of my friends here (Nashy) has been planning to go to S.E. Asia over the holidays, and I decided I was going to join him!  I had been planning to head to that part of the world before I headed home, and the timing actually worked out for me.  I chatted with my boss about whether or not I would extend my contract for work from October 20th (my original end date).  

I decided to take 2 weeks off (because my mom would be visiting from America starting October 21st!) and then go back to work for one more month so that I could even afford to travel more.  The plan after that is to fly to Malaysia December 8th and return to Melbourne February 1st.  Other than that, I have not really had time to sit down and start planning out the specifics of my trip, but I am very excited for what the uncertain future holds!!

So now, I am off to Sydney to meet my mom for a whirlwind two weeks that will take us all over Australia, including Sydney, Cairns, Port Douglas, Alice Springs, Ayers Rock, and finally Melbourne.  It has been over 7 months since I have seen her, and even though we talk regularly, it will be so great seeing her in person.  This is the longest time I have gone without seeing her EVER, and I know she is really excited about her trip to Australia.  I cannot wait to show her the sights I have already been to as well as explore new things together!

Alyssa's Visit (Melbourne, GOR, and Syd)

Since I last wrote, Alyssa and I decided to change our plans slightly and wait to go to Sydney until her last weekend.  Instead, she would fly into Melbourne on Monday (her first day) and have nearly 2 weeks there before we would travel together to Sydney.  The bad news is that I would not get to see Liora before she left (or buy her surfboard from her!) but the upside is that Alyssa and I would have 4 days together in Sydney.  The timing also worked better because Clive (Diana's roommate Amanda's boyfriend) would be back from New Zealand - he lives in Manly and we could stay at his bachelor pad while we visited.  Sad that we only missed Amanda by a few days (she is back in NY) but more about that later...

Before I talk about Alyssa's visit and our many adventures, I thought I would give a quick update on what I have been doing since my last post.  Sadly, the weather in Melbourne has not been great and I have been working away.  To be honest, I am struggling being back at work after having travelled for almost 6 months without a single day of work in between.  I am so thankful for my new job (because I definitely needed the $! and it is good experience), but it has made me realize a few things.  One of those things (which may be surprising to some) is that I am not sure I want to continue to work in Advertising, at least not in the long-term.  I have definitely outgrown a lot of the things that I used to love about the industry, and I am starting to realize how much this trip has given me a clear perspective on things that actually matter.  Not that that means I know exactly what I want to do yet though. 

Also, I am not a big fan of my client, my boss, or the agency culture.  I know that sounds a little harsh, but it is really hard to impress me after how much I loved my old job.  The good news is that I am starting to look into other things I can do after my 3-month contract (countdown - 1 month and 17 days to go!) even if it means casual work in retail or at a cafe.  It is really hard for me to find a vested interest in my client's business, because it is a company/category that does not interest me in the slightest.  Basically, my client is trying to take on Google, Facebook, etc. but not doing it well and failing miserably.  The good news though is that we are pitching a new client, and if we win, I may be moved off of my current work onto something more interesting to me.  My boss is another story...he is an over-promiser to clients and very scattered in his way of thinking.  For one of my first presentations that I prepared this past week, he came in (the morning of the presentation) with about 20 huge changes for me to make 2 hours before we were set to present.  I did not stress however, because at the end of the day, I had to remind myself that advertising is not brain surgery.

I was so lucky to have had amazing bosses in the past, and now I have extremely high (and possibly unrealistic) expectations for the future.  And the final thing - agency culture - is so different from my old job.  Since I am working at a media-only agency instead of a full-service agency, I am now tasked with doing a lot more client management that account teams would have done in the past.  I used to think that I wanted to do Account Management, but now I clearly know that I am not a good fit for the job. 

On top of my media role, I am also tasked with catering to the client's every whim.  This could mean staying late at work just in case they might call with a question or giving my mobile number to everyone (and anyone) so they can get ahold of me day and night.  To me, working like this does not make sense.  I am a very efficient worker, so I want to be able to go home when my work is finished.  However, this agency is much more about the hours that people put in versus the quality of work that they produce.  My boss gives me looks when I walk in closer to 9 than 8:30AM or if I leave the office before 6PM regardless if I have work to do or not.

Enough about that, I do not want to become one of those people that only complains about work.  Alyssa got to Melbourne on a Monday, and I conveniently went home sick from work and met her at the train station.  Before you judge me, I actually had not been feeling well for the past few days.  Both Renee and I stayed in the weekend before and watched a lot of TV while we were sick together on the couch.  As fun as that sounds, being sick was a nice excuse to leave work early and show Alyssa where I live now.

We did not have much time though, because we were planning to go to Shanghai Dumplings for dinner with Patrick, Renee and Cat.  Renee was leaving the next day to go to LA/Vegas/London for three weeks, and Cat is moving to Europe for two years.  Dinner that night was a celebration of sorts (welcome to Australia for Alyssa and good luck in Europe for Cat), and we had a great time.  We ate countless plates of dumplings and finished off four bottles of wine! before deciding to go to the Prince of Wales Hotel for a few drinks.  On Monday nights, the Prince of Wales has a drag show that is very entertaining.  Patrick and I had been before, but we wanted to share the tradition with Renee and Alyssa.  Poor Alyssa was probably exhausted from her long flight and jet-lag, but she made a great effort that night. 

The next morning, I decided to call in sick and show Alyssa around my new neighborhood, St. Kilda.  Sleeping in felt amazing, and I was actually starting to feel better.  Before we could walk around, Alyssa and I drove Renee to the airport to catch her flight, and we successfully found our way back to the apartment without any trouble!  We walked down by St. Kilda Beach and I showed Alyssa Acland and Fitzroy St. with all the shops and cafes.  We found a brothel for sale shown with a huge pink sign outside and contemplated buying it (just kidding, who puts a for sale sign on a brothel??) 

We ate dinner at Republica by the Sea Baths while the sun set ($10 steak and mashed potatoes) then walked out to the pier to see some little penguins.  It was freezing cold on the walk home, and we were so glad when we made it back to my apartment.

I had to work for the rest of the week, so Alyssa did her own tours of Melbourne during the days.  We met up at night on Wednesday at the gym that I belong to, because Alyssa wanted to introduce me to Zumba.  I loved it, so much fun! 

On Thursday, Alyssa came and met me for lunch at work, and she got to meet the Executive on my team (equivalent of Media Planner).  He is definitely a character!  We spent the entire lunch listening to his crazy stories.  I did not want to go back to work and wished I could have just walked around the city with Alyssa instead.

On Friday, I had to work (again!) but I was able to find Alyssa a tour guide for the day in Nashy.  He planned to meet Alyssa and show her around the parts of the city that he knew best and she had not seen yet.  I was going to meet up with them after work, and then we were going to Etihad Stadium to watch the Carlton v. Geelong AFL match.  My office had a ski trip planned for the weekend, and they left at the half day on Friday.  My boss decided to take our team out to lunch and drinks for the rest of the afternoon, so I was able to leave and meet Alyssa and Nashy at a bar before the game.

It was extremely cold that night, even inside the stadium (even though the roof was closed).  We ate meat pies and drank beer during the game and had a great time cheering on Carlton.  It was a close game, but in the end Geelong won.  There were a lot of annoying Geelong fans sitting in our stadium, including a girl that kept cheering, "Come on, Geelong!" in a really annoying voice.  This would become something Alyssa and I would repeat many times on her trip haha.

On our way out of the stadium, Alyssa had her first taste of warm, jam donuts.  They were perfect for our walk.  We had not eaten dinner, so we decided to head to Chinatown and eat at a disgusting Chinese restaurant.  The food and atmosphere were average, but we still made the most of it and ate a lot!  We actually felt sick after we said goodnight to Nashy and started our long trek home.

For the weekend, we had planned to drive the Great Ocean Road (or GOR as we are calling it), so we woke up early on Saturday.  It was mid-afternoon before we left Melbourne and drove through Geelong on our way to Torquay.  We did not get too lost along the way and actually made it to Apollo Bay before dark.  On the way to Apollo Bay, Alyssa got to see her first kangaroos in the wild at a golf course along the way and some koalas sleeping in trees.

From a recommendation from a fellow traveller (thanks Lena!), we had decided to stay the night at the eco-resort YHA hostel in Apollo Bay.  It was probably the nicest hostel I have ever stayed at!  Partly because it was the off-season but also just because, the hostel was extremely clean.  The kitchen had every utensil and cooking tool that you could imagine, and there was a fireplace in the lounge.  And to top it all off, the guy who runs the hostel (Gilbert) was extremely friendly and helpful. 

He told Alyssa and I to drive to Mariner's Point to get a panoramic view of Apollo Bay and the Great Ocean Road.  It was actually quite a romantic thing to do at sunset, but Alyssa and I enjoyed the view even though it was just us girls.  After watching the sun go down, we decided to go to the local grocery store to get food to make dinner.  As we made our way back to Renee's car, we discovered that the battery in the clicker had died.  The only problem is that the car will not start without the clicker!!  And Apollo Bay is in the middle of nowhere!

We went back to the grocery store but they did not have a small enough screwdriver to open the clicker.  They suggested that we go to the local video store, because they should be able to help us.  The couple who own and run the video store have a bunch of batteries and consumer electronics on hand, so if anyone in town would be able to help us at night, it would have been them.  The husband was able to help us open the clicker, but unfortunately he had run out of the rare type of battery the clicker needed.  He didn't think anyone else in town would have the type of battery, and it would be a couple of days before he would be able to get more in stock.

The only other place that was open in Apollo Bay was the service station, so we went and asked for a battery there.  The guy working there did not have the right battery, but he suggested we call RACV (similar to AAA) but we would have to buy a membership which could cost $250 or more.  He also gave us the phone number of the local electrician who he thought we should call in the morning if we could not find another solution.

Alyssa and I were trying not to panic, but I could not help but start thinking of excuses to tell my boss why I would not be able to come to work on Monday.  I could not believe I did not just grab the spare key for the car that Renee had left on the counter.  We decided to leave the car where it was and walk back to our hostel to eat dinner.  Gilbert was not behind the desk at reception so we poured some wine and ate dinner in the immaculate hostel kitchen (they even had wine glasses!).  When we noticed that Gilbert was back, we went and told him our situation with the car clicker.  He just looked at us, smiled, and said, "Girls, you should have just come to me."  He opened a drawer, pulled out the battery we needed and did not even make us pay for it.  What a life saver!

After dinner, I taught Alyssa a very important Australian lesson: how to do a Tim Tam Slamma.  We nearly ate an entire package of Tim Tams with hot chocolate, and by that time we were exhausted.  We went back to our dorm (which we only had to ourselves since it was the low season) and chatted a little bit before bed.

The next morning, we woke up early because we had a long day of driving ahead of us.  We said goodbye to Gilbert, and took his advice driving to do a rainforest walk called Mait's Rest before driving to the lighthouse to see some more koalas.  On the drive we saw a few more koalas sleeping in trees, but the highlight were the cows!  At one point, the entire car was surrounded with cows and they crossed the street in front of and behind the car! 

We continued driving along the Great Ocean Road and took a minor detour to do a canopy tour through the rainforest.  It was pretty scary walking amongst the tree tops, high above the rainforest.  We even climbed a tower that put us high above the canopy (the scariest part!).  From the top of the rainforest, we could see lots of fern trees and Alyssa quickly became obsessed haha.

After the rainforest canopy walk, we continued driving down the GOR and made a few stops along the way: Gibson's Steps, 12 Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge, the Arch, London Bridge, the Grotto (my favorite!), the Bay of Martyrs, and the Bay of Islands.  We did not want to get back to Melbourne too late, so we decided to drive back to Port Campbell and get dinner.  Besides breaking up the drive, Gilbert had recommended we stop for the Fisherman's Basket (basically a fried mixture of fish, scallops, calamari, etc.).  After dinner, we drove the rest of the way back to the city without any problems and got back to my apartment before 10PM.

The next morning was Monday, and even though I had to work, I was able to go into work late.  Since everyone that went to my office ski trip got to leave early on Friday, the people who stayed behind got to take a half day on Monday (I technically got both haha!).  It was a clear morning, so Alyssa and I decided to go to the Eureka Tower, the tallest residential building in Melbourne (and maybe the Southern Hemisphere?).  From the 88th floor, we had great views of the city.  Then we decided to do "The Edge" - a glass enclosed structure that moves in and out.  It may not sound scary but it was!  When we were in "The Edge," the glasses are fogged up until it is completely out from the building.  Once out, the glasses clear (even on the floor below you) and you can see straight down to the ground below.  We were encouraged to lay on our stomachs and were told that if anything went wrong, we would hit the ground and "Splat!" in 10 seconds...

From the Eureka Tower, I had to go to work for the afternoon, even though I did not get into the office until nearly 1PM.  Alyssa and I had made plans to go to dinner that night on Lygon Street (Melbourne's version of Little Italy).  Adam (my co-worker) had told us that we should choose a restaurant carefully while on Lygon, and we should negotiate at least a free bottle of wine or appetizer.  I was not hopeful, however one of the first restaurants we went to offered us a free bottle of red wine if we would eat there.  We checked the menu, and the wine retailed for $22!  We were not a hard sell and decided to eat there, which was a good choice.  We ordered 2 pasta dishes and bruschetta to share, and the food was delicious.

For Tuesday, we had been planning to go see West Side Story which was playing at the Regent Theatre in Melbourne.  We did not want to spend $100 each on tickets, so we decided to look for cheaper seats.  I found some on ebay that were going for pretty cheap, but instead of bidding, I asked the girl if she would just sell them to me.  She agreed to sell them to me as long as I bid the most I was willing to pay.  I bid $160 for both tickets, but then the girl changed her mind and decided to wait and see if she could get a higher price.  With only an hour to go, I was still the highest bidder, however I was outbid in the last few minutes.  We were really disappointed, because we really wanted to go to the show.

Luckily, Alyssa had heard of a place called Halftix in the city.  They sell tickets for same-day shows at typically half the price.  They had tickets available for West Side Story that night for even less than the ebay price, so we decided to buy them.  We planned to meet at Fed Square after work, grab dinner and then go to the theatre.  As I was walking out of Flinder Street Station, I saw Alyssa getting off the tram just as a torrential downpour of rain fell from the sky.  We ran to find cover while we waited for the rain to stop, found a quick dinner, and then made our way to the Regent. 

To be honest, we both liked West Side Story, but neither of us loved it.  It was a little weird watching Australian actors put on New York accents (they slipped a few times), and we decided that the most talented person was not even a major character.  Neither of us are into the opera-like singing that some musicals feature, and that was the main female character's specialty.  Oh well...

The rest of the week passed without too much excitement.  On Wednesday night, Alyssa and I went to Zumba again.  I should also mention that the entire time Alyssa was in Melbourne, we did not eat healthy.  Every night, we ate some kind of dessert (at least one!) and we ate a lot of fast food to save time and money.  I am embarrassed to admit how much bad food we actually indulged in haha.

Our next adventure was on Saturday morning.  We were on the first flight to Sydney in the morning, and I had decided to drive Renee's car to the airport so that we would not have to take public transportation.  It would end up being the same cost anyway by the time we paid for parking.  We did not stay out late the night before, and we woke up super early in the morning to get ready for our trip.  I had even printed out directions from Google Maps to get to the parking place.

We left my apartment for the airport about 10 minutes after we had planned, but we still had plenty of time to get to our flight on-time.  However, we decided to follow the directions (even though I knew the general direction to the airport) and we got completely lost!  When we finally found our way, we could not find the small street that the parking lot was located on.  Alyssa and I were starting to panic, because we did not want to miss our flight.  We finally found the parking lot and had a little time to spare before our flight departed.

There were actually four other people waiting at the parking place for the shuttle to the airport that were also on our flight (2 Italians and 2 Australians).  It seemed to take forever for the shuttle to return from the airport, and then the guy made us fill out paperwork before we were able to leave!  At this point, all of us were stressed out about missing our flight.  We pulled up to the gate, and we all ran out into the check-in line.  Alyssa had to check her bag, but the rest of us only needed to print out boarding passes.  We knew it was bad news when the woman behind the check-in counter told Alyssa to go to a special counter.  Apparently, no one could check-in to the flight since it was so late.  Two of the people who were with us in the shuttle had already checked in online, so they were able to board.  We could not believe we actually missed our flight!  And the worst part was that now we had to pay another $80 to get on the next one!

Luckily, we were able to get on the next flight to Sydney.  We were a little suspicious that there were so many seats available (a lot of people had missed our flight apparently), and then we realized it was leaving from the international terminal.  As a tease, we were able to walk through duty-free, but we were not actually able to buy anything since we only had domestic tickets.  We did get to try some alcohol samples though and it was not even 9AM!  The downside of flying through the international terminal though, was we had to walk through customs on the way to the departure gate and again when we landed.  It was really lucky that we both had our passports on-hand!

When we arrived in Sydney, we took the train from the airport to Circular Quay, then boarded a ferry to Manly to meet Clive.  We would be using his bachelor pad on Manly through Tuesday as our base while we saw the sights around Sydney.  Our accommodation for the weekend was a penthouse apartment in Manly that Clive lives in with three other guys.  One of them owns the company Budgy Smuggler, and uses his closet as the warehouse.  I should also mention that he studied abroad at U of A for a semester (we saw his Cat Card and Zona Zoo Pass in a picture frame on his wall!)  For those of you who are not familiar with the brand, Budgy Smugglers are branded Speedo bathing suits for guys haha.  Another one of his roommates is an Australian cricket player.  And the final roommate is from Hungary.  All of them were very good-looking and they had the habit of walking around their apartment all weekend without their shirts on.  Neither Alyssa nor I were complaining though haha...

Immediately when we arrived in Manly, we set down our bags and then Clive became our tour guide.  We walked down The Corso to the beach and stopped to drink Pimm's at a wine bar overlooking the water.  Unlike Melbourne, the weather in Sydney was amazing and sunny.  It was actually starting to feel like spring!  While we were enjoying the views, Clive's friend Adam (who is from Brisbane) came and met us.  He is only 23 years old and owns his own jewelry store filled with his own custom-designed jewelry.  He was in Sydney for the weekend for a jewelry conference, however he had decided to break away for a day to spend time with us.  We spent the rest of the afternoon eating and drinking in Manly, and we had a great time.  The four of us went out that night to a nightclub in Manly, and after a few drinks decided to call it a night.  Alyssa and I had woken up that morning at 4AM, so we were impressed we had made it as far as we did.

The next morning (Sunday), we woke up and went to brunch in Manly.  After eating, Alyssa, Adam, and I decided to catch a ferry to the city.  Alyssa and I were going to play tourist for the day, and Adam needed to actually see some of the jewelry conference that he was in town for.  When we arrived back at Circular Quay, Alyssa and I walked around by the opera house and botanical garden before buying tickets for the double decker tourist bus.  I had been to Sydney a couple of times before, but I had never done any of the touristy things.  It was good for both of us to get acquainted with the different neighborhoods of Sydney before catching the bus to Bondi.  However, we did not plan this part of the trip well, and we only had time to jump off in Bondi and get ice cream, before we had to head back to the city.  We did not realize that we were on the last bus that would run for the day. 

We planned to come back to Bondi the next day though, so we were not too disappointed.  And even though the weather in Sydney was warmer than Melbourne, as soon as the sun went down, it was pretty cold.  We made our way back to Manly for the night and got fish 'n chips for dinner.

On Monday, Clive had to go back to work (his other roommates don't really have to go to work) so Alyssa and I headed back into the city.  We headed straight for Bondi Beach to do the coastal walk to Bronte.  We were planning to go whale watching in the afternoon, so unfortunately we had to go back to the city right after our walk.  We went all the way back to Circular Quay before finding out that the whale watching tour actually left from Darling Harbour.  We made to Darling Harbour in time, only to find out that the tour would not leave with only 2 people aboard.  Apparently, we needed to find 2 other people to also go on the tour with us.  We waited around for 30 minutes, but no one seemed to be interested.  Alyssa and I were really disappointed because we really wanted to go whale watching...  We had heard that there was a 100% guarantee that we would see whales!

The man running the tour could tell that we were disappointed, so he told us to come back the next morning.  The morning tour was more expensive, but he offered to give it to us at the same price as the afternoon tour.  We planned to come back the next day, and instead used the afternoon to walk around Sydney city some more.  We walked through The Rocks, then across the Harbour Bridge.  Before sunset, we walked back to botanical gardens to see an amazing city skyline and view of the opera house. 

When we found ourselves hungry, we caught the ferry back to Manly and met Clive for dinner at his favorite Thai restaurant.  We spent our final night in Manly hanging out at Clive's apartment with his roommates.  I could not believe that Alyssa would be leaving the next day! :(

On our final day together, Alyssa and I left Manly in the morning with the commuters on the ferry.  We headed to Darling Harbour to catch the whale watching tour boat, and this time the tour actually was going to happen!  The boat left the harbour, went under the Harbour Bridge and around the opera house before heading out into the bay.  We were not out in the open water for long when we saw some humpback whales jumping in the distance.  We sped over to that area and spent the next few hours watching 2 whales.  It was really amazing!

We learned a lot about humpback whales from our tour.  They migrate up to the warmer waters in the Whitsundays from Antarctica during the winter to give birth, and then they swim back south with their babies.  Between May and December, there is a pretty good chance to spot some of these whales along their migration. 

Our tour guide told us that we were incredibly lucky with the whales we were watching this particular day.  They literally put on a show for us, flipping their tails and playing in the water around our boat.  The funny thing is that they were not doing it just for us, they would have put on the show regardless of whether we were there or not.  We were just lucky to experience it.

After whale watching, unfortunately we had to pretty much go straight to the airport for my flight back to Melbourne.  Alyssa was also flying back to Denver that night, so she was going to go to the airport with me.  We said our goodbyes at the train station (I had to get off at the Domestic Terminal and Alyssa had to go to the International Terminal).

When I got back to Melbourne, it was still rainy and cold sadly even though the first day of spring was the next day.  I was exhausted from our long weekend in Sydney (we did not get much sleep!) and I was alone in my apartment for the first time.  Renee would not be getting back from the US/London for another week.  I had such a great time while Alyssa was in town, and I was so glad that we got to see a few things even though I had to work while she was here.

The good news was that I only had to work 3 days this week, and I may have another visitor soon.  My mom is hopefully coming to visit in October!  Until then, I will be working away and cannot wait for the summer weather to arrive.  Everyone keeps telling me how good summer in Melbourne will be.  Come on, Summer!! (Alyssa, pretend I said that in the "Come on, Geelong!" voice haha).