Mid Semester Holiday and Turning 21

Before you read this post you should know that it is way too long, filled with too many photos (all credit goes to Jess, Taylor and Toria for those) and fun facts and everything in it happened almost a month ago.  I've definitely fallen behind on my blogging game but I'm not giving up!  My mid-semester holiday (what we Americans like to call Spring Break) was amazing and I want to tell everyone about it!

Just a recap: Day 1 was the Day Toria and Taylor (sometimes referred to as Big and Double) arrived and I spent the day dragging them around to all the popular tourist spots and to an NRL game.

Day 2: ListenOut Sydney
ListenOut Sydney is a large electronic music festival that's held all over Australia.  One of my flatmates was offered the chance to volunteer and invited us along.  So we spent 3 hours scanning tickets and then got free entry into the festival! Although scanning tickets doesn't sound like that much fun, I actually had a great time seeing all the drunk/high/crazy people stumble through the gates and we even got to bust some people with fake tickets.  I had never heard of any of the DJs there, but the atmosphere was really cool.  Going to a crazy music festival is now on my bucket list.  Too bad I won't be here for Stereosonic.

Group Shot!

Because we got in for free we didn't feel bad leaving before the best acts because we had to go find Jess! For those of you who don't know, Jess studied abroad at Clarkson during my first semester. I didn't meet her while she was there but she joined the sorority Delta Zeta, which I joined a year later.  When you join you get a Big and join a family tree.  Jess, Taylor, Toria, and I are all in the same family tree. Part of what made this break so exciting was that my Big and Double got to see Jess after so long and I got to meet her for the first time.  Our first night with Jess we went out for a fun night in Darling Harbour!

Some Darling Harbour Shots

Day 3: Bondi
This was our super lazy day.  We started out our morning with a delicious brunch at Four Ate Five Cafe in Surry Hills. Surry Hills is known for its cafes and this one didn't let us down. My banana stuffed french toast with REAL MAPLE SYRUP (they get it from Canada because they're both commonwealths.  Not as good as VT, but way better than the fake stuff so I was happy!) didn't let me down and my Big got some amazing pancakes that were more of a dessert than a breakfast.

Delicious Juice that had pretty much every fruit in it

Obviously every tourist in Australia comes for the beaches so we had to go to Bondi.  Unfortunately it was a little chilly and windy so we didn't go splash in the waves.  We did take lots of pretty pictures of ourselves though.

Group Shot at Bondi! (Fun fact: my shirt is on backwards)

Day 4: Blue Mountains
We got up bright and early (so that we wouldn't miss the train!) and took the trains two hours west to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains.  The Blue Mountains got their name from the bluish color of the eucalyptus leaves that are everywhere in the area.

The rock formation known as The Three Sisters

Katoomba Falls

We arrived at the Echo Point then headed out for a bush walk.  We walked past the Three Sisters, took Giant Staircase (named this for its almost 1000 stairs) down into the valley and then walked along the valley past Katoomba falls until we arrived at another large staircase to walk up.  There were some gorgeous views and we saw lots of birds! I think I've decided that when I'm old and retired I'm going to take up bird watching as a hobby.

Day 5: Phillip Island
Day 5 started bright and early (around 4am) so that we could get to the airport for our flight to Melbourne! We got to the airport with plenty of time for security.  When we arrived at security they didn't check our IDs or tickets, didn't make us take our shoes off, liquids didn't have to come out of our bags.  We literally put our backpacks through the xray machine, walked through a metal detector and we were done.  It took maybe 5 minutes.

When we arrived we dropped our things of at Jess' house and started our 2 hour drive to Phillip Island.  We got there in the early afternoon so we decided to go to the Koala sanctuary before the penguins.  Usually Koalas are very stationary animals because all they do is sleep for 20 hours a day and eat eucalyptus leaves.  It happened to be pouring rain and windy while we were there so we got see them up and moving!

A flying Koala!!!

A cute Koala

So happy to be so close to koalas!

After the Koala sanctuary we headed over to see the Penguins.  At this point we were soaking wet from the rain and freezing cold because we didn't wear enough layers (Australia is not supposed to get that cold).  So we sat outside in blankets and waited for the sun to set so the penguins would emerge from the water.

Us and the Ocean

Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures because it would scare the penguins.  Basically we got to see hundreds of tiny penguins get washed up to shore by the waves and waddle across the beach.  Once they crossed the beach they climbed up a grassy hill to their nests.

*I would like to give major shout out to Jesse, a born and raised Australian, who lasted outside in the cold weather longer than me, the Vermonter*

Day 6: Melbourne!
After a warm nights sleep we headed into the city for a walking tour of Melb.  Jess recently spent a couple of months in Europe and became addicted to walking tours while she was there. They are a great way to see the city for relatively cheap! Even though Jess has lived in Melbourne her entire life she still learned new things on the tour.

The crew with Melbourne behind us

Some fun facts about Melbourne:

• It was founded by a man with the last name Batman. So Melbourne could have been named Batmania. No one actually knows what Batman looked like because he had Syphilis and it was so bad he would never sit for his picture to be painted.
• The river that runs through Melbourne also used to be where the sewage was dumped so it received the nickname Smellbourne.
• Melbourne hosted the Olympics before Sydney did.  The same month that Melbourne hosted the Olympics Sydney started construction for the Opera House as part of the (successful) plan to become more famous than Melbourne.
• Melbourne has trams that run down the center of the city streets. This makes turning right really hard so they have hook turns. Basically you merge left to turn right and they look as confusing as they sound. I would crash.
• Melbourne and Sydney are pretty big rivals and I have to say, Melbourne is better. It has the same hipster feeling as Burlington, VT.

Street Art is legal in Melbourne 

Day 7: Birthday!!
My Birthday started on Day 6 because we decided to go out so I could celebrate at midnight.  After an amazing dinner we didn't have that much motivation to go out so we were rushed to find a place to go.  We went to the first bar we saw that looked fun.  After we got in and ordered drinks we realized it was very gay-friendly bar.  So yeah, I turned 21 in a gay bar...

My birthday celebrations continued the next morning at breakfast when I got to blow out 21 candles at eat cake for breakfast!

After a quick trip to the Melbourne zoo we hopped on a flight back to Sydney to begin the final 21st birthday celebrations.  Yeah, that's right, I got to celebrate my birthday in Melbourne and Sydney! When we got back to my apartment I got to blow out more candles because my flatmate Maddie made me a beautiful (and really delicious) cake! We got to teach Maddie and Julia some American drinking games and songs before heading out for some celebrations at the Ivy!

Everyone looking their finest for the Ivy!

The last 2 days were filled with souvenier shopping, last minute sight seeing, and goodbyes.  In the end it was an absolutely fantastic holiday and I couldn't have asked for a better 21st Birthday celebration!

My Caruso girls :)