Archive for January, 2010

last post from the riversdale house

Friday, January 15th, 2010

so everyting is packed up and clean and i am about to call a cab and head out.
its been a day of crying… and it will continue for the rest of the week. i do not want to go home. I fell in love with australia.
So many memories so much amazing stuff that has happened. and so many lovely people i have met

Moving to Kats now till the rest of my stay here. dont know about the internet situation.
cheers
sandra
adieu

My first Summer Birthday:.

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

I had a WONDERFUL birthday. Started out by going to see Avatar, director suite style. Which means someone showed me to my seat, handed me a menu to order food from, reclining leather seats, 3D and HUGE screen. It was FANTASTIC. I got a free ticket to use any way I wanted from Hoyts because it was my birthday so I had to use it up in the most expensive way. Apparently these tickets are 50 dollars… What?
After that I was gonna go home but walked past Valleygirl and they had a huge sale. I found a really cheap dress that I decided to wear for my birthday. Then went to drop off some movies at Videoezy and headed home. Showered, changed, got ready, skyped with the parentals and headed off to meet Pemi. We went and got some Pizza (I figure some food might be smart before drinking) and then met up for some predrinks at this backpacker bar with Kat and Francis. From here we went to World Bar where we met up with Jake, Michael and Steve. Pemi brought a cake that had somewhat melted but was still really yummy. They sang me happy birthday. It was lovely. Then after this we went to Sister Bella then cookie. Then Jake and Pemi wanted Maccas. And then after that we took a cap to Pemis. Got up at 7am the next day to go home. Slept another hour and went to work. Good birthday… :) A lot to drink and no hangover. LOVE it :)

Now I am packing up/cleaning like a maniac because I move out tomorrow. It’s crazy! I really do not want to leave. I will stay with some friends till the 21st. Not looking forward to school or the US. But I will return to this beautiful country with it’s wonderful people and Aldi! I fell in love with this place and did not spend enough time here. Ok back to cleaning before i start crying.

Driving on the wrong side:.

Sunday, January 3rd, 2010

December 21: Great Ocean Road

We got up pretty early today and caught the tram to go pick up the rental car at 7:30. Upon arrival we got a Uni Melbourne dicount (thanks to my sweatshirt) and we also got an upgrade. Same car as when we went down to Phillip Island. By 8:15 we had picked up Jake and the four of us (Jake, Pemi, Andi and I) were on the freeway towards Geelong. Driving on the left wasn’t hard at all, or much different. You get used to it pretty quickly and it was great sitting behind the wheel again. It was a quick drive to Geelong and didn’t take a whole lot more till we reached Torquay. Torquay was the first stop and from there we headed to Bells Beach. Bells Beach is one of the top Surf beaches in the world and apparently they got some competition there too. It was really beautiful. The Victorian coast is breathtaking. We walked down to the water and hung out for a bit. Even saw the split point lighthouse we visited from here. The water along the great ocean road is the most beautiful greenish-blue and the whole scenery is stunning. I was so amazed. From Bells Beach we headed to Anglesea where the Great Ocean Road officially starts. It was build after WWI. The veterans needed jobs and so thats how this road was created. We took photos underneath the Great Ocean Road sign and headed to Aireys Inlet/Fairhaven and saw the lighthouse from earlier. Another view of the Bass Strait and breathtaking scenery. There’s huge cliffs and standstone boulders in the ocean. Makes sense to have a lighthouse here :) From here we made our way along the road and after Ptticoat creek took a turn inland. We drove through what seemed like rainforest and it was very windy. This area is the Otway National Park and we visited the tree top walk here. In my opinion it was worth the very windy drive. The walk was great. First you walk through the forest and learn about it’s species/animals etc. Then they have this area with disonsaurs. It was funny because Andi told Jake to touch the tounge of a Rex and as he did that Andi scared the crap out of Jake. Hilarious!!!! I wish I had that on camera. From here we went on this metal walk thing where you are 30-40 meters up in the air. It’s a bit scary as you can feel the whole thing shake but the view is awesome. From here we drove on and sooner than expected hit the parking spot for the Twelve Apostles look out. There were so many people here and even more flies. The view was AMAZING! I LOVED this so much. Even with all the people it was just breathtaking. I was in awe. The beach, clear water and sandstone rocks in the water are just kind of impressive. Apparently there were never twelve apostles. The last on that collapsed was in 2005. We took heaps of photos and waked a bit then continued driving. Dinner was good. Just something small but filling. We stopped at Loch Ard Gorge before heading into Port Campbell for our first meal of the day: dinner. Pemi drove the car around the parking lot and it was her first time driving in Oz. After we stopped and saw London Bridge and took a photo of Petersborough (same town name as Pemi’s hometown), we made our way back. WE took the A1 through the cuntry and it was also pretty. I had no idea Victoria was so much farmland. There were cows everywhere. Mrs Cronn would have loved it haha. We saw a lovely sunset out here as well. It did remind me of Germany a lot. WE dropped off Jake and Andi back in Melbroune and met up with Allan and Matt as it was Matt’s birthday. We left by 2:30am. Someone dropped a glass of beer from the rooftop bar and it almost landed on my head downstairs at cookie. It sucked. I was full of beer so we decided it was time to go home. We had to return the car by 7:30 the next day so I figured I should head home. So drove Pemi home and grabbed a lovely parking spot right outside my doorstep. It was a WONDERFUL day and super fun. I was so impressed with the Great Ocean Road and will definetly come back.

Keep smiling
Cheers