Love at First Tram Ride

My very first visit to Melbourne was long overdue back in October.  I actually did everything in Australia in opposite order of popularity....which is exactly my style and I think a very savvy way to travel.  If you go where everyone else goes, its going to be full of ... everyone else. And I personally put more stock on the dedicated travelers not just the 19 year olds on their gap year (no offense to my 19 year old friends on gap year, lol).  My travels outside of Sydney in Australia went Tasmania, West Coast, Red Center, Melbourne, East Coast.  I think that is almost the exact opposite priority ranking most people would give.  Thoughts from Australian/traveling friends on this?

Anyways, I didn't make it to Melbourne until October, in the middle of one crazy-stressful situation  back in Sydney.  I met up with my legendary friend Tatiana who was there for work.  We got to spend one night in her fancy hotel c/o her work, which was fabulous!  It made me remember why people stay in hotels instead of budget hostels!  

While Tat was at work on Friday I set out to find the coolest exhibition ever.  After hearing about it on the radio for months and thinking I was never going to get down to Melbs to see it, I was ecstatic that it was still there when I got down there.  I was only slightly disappointed to miss the Titanic exhibition at the museum but if I had to pick Tim Burton wins!

 The had drawings and character remakes of all his movies.  That man is unbelievably talented and indisputably disturbing.  They even had the Batmobile there!  No pictures were allowed inside, but outside was fair game!

The Yarra River runs through Melbourne, making for one of the prettiest city-scapes I've ever seen.  This one picture on a cloudy day I have doesn't do justice.  I think I have more stashed away for later posts.

 I took this picture for Jake. I don't know what Makers Mark is in Australia, from the looks of the building, its a shut down department store  ??  But I love me some Makers Mark bourbon, mmm.

 A better cityscape picture at night!

 There is one casino in Victoria (the state Melbourne is in), Crown Victoria.  It brings in something like a third of the states revenue (learned from Bill Bryson, my new fav travel writer).  Every night, yer round at certain times the casino has a fire ball display.  There is I think 6 or 8 of these pillars spaced out front of the casino.  They're coordinated to go off with impressively big fire balls in an almost musical pattern.  Its something that sounds lame, but never ceases to stop you in your tracks every time you catch it.

 This machine just cracked me up.  Pay a dollar or two, but in a US (?) penny and we'll print a koala on it.  Really?  Australia doesn't have pennies, or anything that is equivalent to a penny even.  They don't have one cent coins, they just round to the nearest 5.  Which is fine, but why  or how in the world do they press pennies then?  Silly.

 Tatiana and I somehow found an empty yet thumping club on a Thursday night.  They offered us free entry, champagne, a make over, and manicure.  The make over is why my makeup is so dark.  I know I'm getting old when I don't like heavy makeup of smokey eyes (on me) anymore.

 She'll kill me for making the reference but how much does she look like Baby from Dirty Dancing?!  After our day or two of luxury in the hotel, we were on our own for accommodation.  I actually thought we still had the hotel and was surprised to find out on Friday that we had no where to stay that night.  Not a big deal, we just went next door to the YHA hostel (which later became very important to me) to book for friday and saturday night.  Unfortunately, we got a little hosed.  They had beds for Friday but none for Saturday.  No one had beds for Saturday.  The footie grand final (think SUPERBOWL) was the weekend before in Melbourne but they tied.  Seriously, can you imagine a tie in the superbowl?!  And they had the re-match this same weekend.  We were almost screwed.  I went to the info center (if only I had known Olly then, lol) and they called around for me and found a dodgy hostel that had rooms on Saturday.  Phew!  It gets even better because Tatiana, love her to death, is a girl who likes nice things.  Nice hotel rooms, fancy shoes and bags, expensive drinks, trips to Fiji, etc.  She is not a girl to stay in a hostel.  And she will be the first one to tell you this.  Having to stay at the YHA was a huge step for her and she very nearly panicked at the thought of it.  She slept with her designer bag under her pillow.  And to this day she describes me as the only person on earth who could get her to sleep in a hostel.  Unfortunately, with the near lack of accommodation, she decided to leave me a day early and head back to Sydney.  It was probably for the best because the next hostel I stayed in was completely sketch.

 Walking through some gardens randomly come across a memorial to JFK.  Why would Melbourne have a JFK memorial you ask?  No reason.  Cuz they cool like that.

 Helps that it was prettiest part of these particular garden.

But then I found the flower conservatory.  I don't remember what its actually called...is there a specific name for it?  Whatever it is, I could never find it again.  I tried to show it to Olly when we went to the gardens on our second date, and when I was there with Jess, Jake and Donna, but no luck.

After the beautiful flower conservatory I wandered through the gardens aimlessly falling in love with the city and came across this church.   

 I think it was St. Patricks Cathedral.  I just thought it was impressive and beautiful and artfully located in a great location. 

 I do love those macro shots

 Kinda hard to tell whats going on here.  Remember that in Australia they drive on the left side of the road.  Here the taxi and the car behind it are trying to make a right hand turn (crossing traffic).  Certain intersections, not all, in Melbourne require you to do a 'hook turn.'  I hadn't heard of such a thing and still remember the first time I saw one, I abruptly stopped on the sidewalk and gawked at what the horrible driver causing such a ruckus in the street.  A hook turn requires the driver desiring to turn right to pull all the way to the left, almost into the crosswalk, wait for the light to turn red before completing their turn.  Its really strange to see.  Having driven in Melbourne, its not actually that hard.  The only thing that can get tricky is knowing when to do the hook turn, but they are pretty well posted so its not usually a problem.

Melbourne is known for its restaurant and coffee culture.  They really are competitive about coffee and made me appreciate a good flat white.  I found a coffee shop that served gourmet cupcakes.  How fun!  I don't actually love cupcakes, but when they're this cute how could you not?

The next day Hannah flew down to Melbourne to meet me.  We were about to set out on the Great Ocean Road with Macca and his brother who I used to call Little Macca (until I actually met him and learned his name).  While we waited to start that adventure we strolled around the Queen Victoria Markets.  I had a love at first sight moment with the Queen Vic Market or QV Market, or Market.  They have everything one could want from Australian souvenirs, clothes, dresses, leather jackets, rocking pink knock-off rayban sunglasses,  jewelry, fresh produce, and even this Justin Beiber hat...

KP, MPH

Ignoring the order to share some fabulouso news.  I got official word that I completed my program requirements and do in fact have a Master in Public Health degree.  My reaction to this:

Holy shit. I did it.

Back on November 8th I blogged that I was done, but it wasn't until I was traveling in December that I got my final marks back.  I passed (by the skin of my teeth).  Since then I've held the assumption that I finished all requirements but was getting more and more nervous that Sydney Uni was going to call me up and say I mucked it all up and didn't actually graduate.  The entire experience felt too good to be true.  Always waiting for the other shoe to drop kinda feeling.  It is an immense relief to have an official letter.

To celebrate, I'm going to blog what I meant to blog a year ago...

Sydney University.  This was the Main Hall, which originally housed the entire university back when it first opened.  Sydney Uni was the first university to open in Australia, it's also the biggest, and number 2 in the country performance wise.   I didn't have any classes that met here, but I did have orientation here as well as exams.  So basically only crappy things took place in here.  I also hated running up this hill everyday rushing to get to class, lol.

 Views of the city from atop the hill.  That tall ugly building affectionately known as the Ugliest Building in Sydney was incredibly useful when I first moved to there.  No matter where I was in the city, if I could find that building I could find my way home.  But its still ugly as hell.

 Walking into the Great Hall was even cooler than the outside.  Inside there's a very picturesque quad where I always imagined myself sitting with friends having a picnic or lounging and reading journal articles.  None of which ever happened (but its in all the brochures).

 There's an awesome purple flowering tree.  These trees were everywhere in Sydney, but this one is especially pretty :)  My mom looooved the purple flower trees when she visited.  These pics are actually care of her.

While the Great Hall is pretty and where I wish I had spent all my time, its not.  Instead my classes were mostly held in the Edward Ford building.

 Affectionately termed Eddie Ford.  Eddie Ford also housed a 24 hour computer lab with unlimited internet access and printing for MPH students, needless to say I was there everyday class or no class.  In the end I was there well into the wee hours of the morning.  I came across a few people who brought pillows and literally slept there.  Gotta love grad school.  I was not that committed, or crazy, lol.

This is how I got through most my lectures.  I have to say this was the best doodle ever.  I didn't set out to draw a flamboyant vampire lecturer, but that's what appeared on my notes, lol.

 I happened upon this tunnel by accident one day.  Other than the picturesque Great Hall and Eddie Ford, I don't know much else of the campus.  I was trying to find  faster way from Eddie Ford to the main street one day and found this  Graffiti Tunnel.

 How cool.  

 Notice the Mr. Man?  Love it.

 "1.4 billion reasons to live below the line."  I don't know what it means.

Funny that I just noticed that the stairs say "Keep the union strong, vote for..."  Just kinda fitting with the recent political battle against unions going on here.  I'm telling ya, I was moderate in Australia.  (and just a side note, Australia was the only western country not really effected by the Global Financial Crisis.  Don't know why, don't know if anyone really knows why, just food for thought).

After most our papers were turned in, the Masters of International Public Health (MIPH) people planned a mock graduation and harbor cruise to celebrate.  MIPH'ers were really good all year at planning social events for students.  Probably because they were mostly international and didn't have settled live in Sydney.  As opposed to MPH'ers, which is what I was, who were mostly locals and took their classes online.  As a result, nearly all my uni friends were MIPHers and I therefore got to crash all their events :)

me, Justine (one of the few Australians), and Mika

 I really did crash their events a lot.  Most people thought I was MIPH and only learned that I wasn't when I showed up to mock graduation and wasn't able to graduate.  That was even a surprise to me, I went there thinking I was 'graduating'  and was really disappointed when I couldn't.  But I had no idea all the work they put into it, gowns, speakers, 'diplomas'...those MIPHers got their shit together.

Kasia from Portland, OR and Kasia from Chicago, IL

me with Alexis (Portland, OR as well).  She was the first friend I made in Sydney!

 My lunch buddies, Mika and Heather.  Everyday, $6 thai after spinning, then spending the rest of the day and night at Eddie Ford.  A nice routine :)

 

 I'm gonna take credit for making them throw their caps.  It is definitely an American tradition.  There are two Americans in the group who kinda had to lead the way, no one else really knew what I was talking about.

 They felt bad that I showed up thinking I could 'graduate' so Heather lent me her robe and cape!  It was beyond excited to take fake graduation pictures at a fake graduation ceremony!!

Ivana, me, Mika, Heather

Miss these girls!  I miss everyone from Sydney, but I spent a lotta time with these girls. 

MIPH (mostly Heather, she planned most everything!) also planned a harbor cruise celebration.

Hannah and me on the harbor cruise

 Hannah come home!  Hannah and I met second semester and quickly learned we were living parallel lives.  She's from Madison, had 2 classes with me and we both were working for the Cancer Council!  We started going to weekly trivia, and went to the Great Ocean Road together in October, and just become great friends overall.  Love this girl!

 Seem outta place?!  Ashley was there!  This was in the middle of her trip!!

 Sydney at night from the Harbor

 Luna Park looks best at night and from the water.  Luna Park is a weird amusement park, think Cooney Island (sp?).  No one goes, but every capitol city in Australia has one.

Hannah, Mike (Australian), me

Mika, my spinning partner!

Whoever took this picture broke my cardinal rule of picture taking!  Never take a picture that angles up!

Ivana and me

Most of my class.  I don't know how, but I love that I ended up in the center of this picture!

Sydney Uni doubles as Hogwarts

I love this picture!