Assalamualaikum and hello.
It seems that this is my first post here for this year. Uh- uh. I do have (too many) things to write but it kinda hard for me (read: lazy) since last year to click on my blog and ta-daaaah, half a year not writing anything here. Since I was travelling a lot last year and earlier this year, I should write about those things here. Shall I start with my 2014 winter break? (Pfft, I am writing this a month before my winter break this year. PERAM SETAHUN cerita ni).
It seems that this is my first post here for this year. Uh- uh. I do have (too many) things to write but it kinda hard for me (read: lazy) since last year to click on my blog and ta-daaaah, half a year not writing anything here. Since I was travelling a lot last year and earlier this year, I should write about those things here. Shall I start with my 2014 winter break? (Pfft, I am writing this a month before my winter break this year. PERAM SETAHUN cerita ni).
Swoooosh - let's go back to 2014 !
During the autumn, my housemates and I visited our friends in Brisbane, (you can read it here) so they were reciprocating the visit when winter came. Since it was winter break and approximately a month (July), it's nice to spend a week in Melbourne because both spring and autumn breaks here are either one or two weeks depending on the university.
Tango, Ira, Farah and Sherry arrived in Melbourne on the 29th of June. Brought them to the place we should be staying (not my house because we were packing our things to move out) and after a little break, we immediately started our Melbourne exploration.
Oh, I would like to remind you that the daytime was shorter and it was during Ramadhan as well.
First, we brought the guests to Melbourne Museum because it was within walking distance - about 3 blocks away. Plus, it's located next to the Royal Exhibition Building. Killing two birds with one stone, no? We tour in the museum and took pictures like for every single thing if possible. Well, comparing to when I went alone and with bunch of friends, of course it felt different. Oh, if you're a student, just show your student card and ta-daah, free entrance for you !
After that, we still have a lot of time before sunset so we brought them to the Shrine of Remembrance. You could enter the building and go to the balcony to have a very nice view of Melbourne city BEFORE 5.00 pm. After that, we brought them to the Botanical Garden which situated next to the shrine since they were very keen to go to a botanical garden. I dunno why.
The next day, it was universities tour day ! Isn't it normal for students to visit universities in cities that they visited? It was a visit to UniMelb and RMIT because both of them were nearest to Melbourne CBD. Melbourne Uni is full with old but eerily beautiful buildings because it was founded about 122 years ago whilst RMIT is sooooooo modern that it even has escalator inside their building ! p/s: the first time I went to RMIT, I thought it was a shopping complex (minus the shops). Few minutes walk from RMIT was the State Library of Victoria. For tourists, it's well-known for the pictures taken from the dome. We also went to the dome gallery and all rooms in the library.
Tango, Ira, Farah and Sherry arrived in Melbourne on the 29th of June. Brought them to the place we should be staying (not my house because we were packing our things to move out) and after a little break, we immediately started our Melbourne exploration.
Oh, I would like to remind you that the daytime was shorter and it was during Ramadhan as well.
First, we brought the guests to Melbourne Museum because it was within walking distance - about 3 blocks away. Plus, it's located next to the Royal Exhibition Building. Killing two birds with one stone, no? We tour in the museum and took pictures like for every single thing if possible. Well, comparing to when I went alone and with bunch of friends, of course it felt different. Oh, if you're a student, just show your student card and ta-daah, free entrance for you !
After that, we still have a lot of time before sunset so we brought them to the Shrine of Remembrance. You could enter the building and go to the balcony to have a very nice view of Melbourne city BEFORE 5.00 pm. After that, we brought them to the Botanical Garden which situated next to the shrine since they were very keen to go to a botanical garden. I dunno why.
The next day, it was universities tour day ! Isn't it normal for students to visit universities in cities that they visited? It was a visit to UniMelb and RMIT because both of them were nearest to Melbourne CBD. Melbourne Uni is full with old but eerily beautiful buildings because it was founded about 122 years ago whilst RMIT is sooooooo modern that it even has escalator inside their building ! p/s: the first time I went to RMIT, I thought it was a shopping complex (minus the shops). Few minutes walk from RMIT was the State Library of Victoria. For tourists, it's well-known for the pictures taken from the dome. We also went to the dome gallery and all rooms in the library.
the compulsory library shot
It was the first day in July 2014. We woke realllllyyyyy early and took a train to uh, I forgot where, to get our rented car. After that, off we went to the Mornington Peninsula. It took about 1 hour from Melbourne to our destination. Our first stop was Ashcombe Maze and Lavender Gardens. This one was suggested by Sherry because she saw someone on Instagram posted his picture there and it was indeed beautiful because the lavenders were in full bloom. The entrance fee: $18.00/adult. Not only lavender maze, there were rose maze, hinge maze as well as woodland garden. Hinge maze is always my favourite even though I always got lost in there. Since it was 3 metres tall and 2 metres thick, by hook or by crook you need to find the way out. It just the matter of time. Slowly but surely, you'll find the exit. If you couldn't imagine which one, it is the one in Harry Potter movie (minus the magical power, etc). After a lot of pit-stops to take pictures, we finally reached the lavender maze. However, it was winter and not much of lavender were blooming but at least there's some rather than nothing. *cried*
the hinge maze
the surviving lavenders
We continued our journey to Point Nepean. Nope, they are far from each other - about 45 minutes to 1 hour drive. We parked our cars because it was no-car zone starting from the carpark. So we walked in to the woods and poof, it was white sandy beach stretched in front of us ! Some more time was spent to take pictures and walked on the sand. We didn't stay long because it was too cold --> winter + sea breeze = perfect combination for extra cold.
We walked into the woods again and this time, we followed the sign to get to the main road. Our next target was the army barracks because Sherry's father was an army and he used to camped there. We walked along the road and it was tiring you know walking uphill ! One thing, the view was breathtaking. You could see the turquoise sea water and also cliff and the ocean. It was perfect. Subhanallah. However, we didn't manage to get to the barracks but we were almost there. I could see one from afar. Why? It's almost sunset. We need to find a place for iftar. It was about 10 minutes drive and we stopped at a nearby town. It was a small one and we ate at a small park (we brought our meal along). There were people walking by and one lady asked, "aren't you cold eating there?" Yeap, it was. That park in next to the sea and it has a jetty. It was so cold that my eyes were teary until we got into the car again.
On the next day, we left the house around 8.30 am because it's going to be a very long journey. A 3-hour drive to the famous spectacular Great Ocean Road ! We went to the 12 Apostles and nope, we didn't go to the Loch Ard Gorge due to time constraint. Sherry suggested that we should get back to the city before nightfall because there were a lot of road maintenance on the way there and it's quite dangerous at night. At the 12 Apostles alone, we spent few hours taking pictures and walking along the trail. Heh heh. After that, we drove back and break our fast at a R&R. Duhh tak ingat la versi omputih ni apa nama dia.
12 Apostles
2 days of driving out of city, we decided to do something more relaxing on the next morning. First, Sherry and I went to send the car back to the owner house and took a train back to the city. Thank you Sherry for being a very good co-driver. Muah ciked. Only after that, we brought them to the Direct Factory Outlet (DFO). Yeah, shoppinggggg *White Chick's style* I told them the time and place that we're going to meet again. Let them tour the place and of course every sofa provided meant a lot to me >.<
That night, we decided to go back to my own house regardless it was packed with boxes because we need to wake up super early the next morning and go to Federation Square by foot. No trams were working that early.
We woke up at 3.30 am and left the house an hour later. My friend, Ren also joined us and she lived in the same building as me but different floor. It was chilly and the wind almost blew us away. While walking, suddenly there's a (drunken) guy approached us. He's heading to Flinders Station which is opposite of the Federation Square. He asked us all the compulsory-to-international-and-muslims-students-questions and after that, he asked this, "You're Muslims, I'm Jews. Do you guys hate me?" Then, he proceeded with the story of his life, well, he's about 2-3 years older than us and he had a lot of money from his late grandmother's will. So, he's going to travel to Europe. I've never seen him again and I don't remember his face.
Oh, we're waiting for the tour bus to Mount Buller. Yeay. It's a snowy mountain and we bough the ticket via Groupon. There were other people waiting as well - most of them are families. The bus arrived at 5.30 am and once we got into the bus, we compensated our deprived sleep. When I woke up, we almost reached our destination. The bus made a stop at a small town for everyone to go to the toilet and wash their faces. We were so excited that it was so cold and deliberately breathed using our mouth because we can see our breath !
When we continued to the top of the mountain, everybody was trying so hard to keep calm and listen to the instructions from our tour guide. You know, it was the first time seeing snow with our own naked eyes. We had about 6 hours to enjoy ourselves before heading back to the city. We took a tour around the village. Let's see what we can do and take pictures (of course). We decided to try toboggan (if you don't know please Google) or in simpler word - slide on snow using sled. We rented the sled. Just one and shared it among 7 people. Returned the sled and more photo taking session. Duhh - it's not everyday we can see and play with snow, plus our country is a tropical country !
That's the sled (with our model tak berbayar). You should sit on it and slide down the hill.
After that, it's chair lift time ! Oh, the chairlift pass was included in the Groupon's offer so we should maximised it although we're not going to ski. The feeling while on the chairlift was... I don't have a word for that. It was so beautiful subhanallah. Everything was so white, so pure and there's no footprints because nobody walked there. When we got off the chairlift on the summit, there were kids practising ski. Adults with snowboarding. And there's us, a group of potatoes taking pictures. After that we had snowball fight. Sorry Tango I hit your face - bullseye gituh ;p then we made a snowman. His white and his muffler was white as well so I gave him my shades. Then, we took a commemoration picture with our first snowman ever. Duhh, what was his name again? Not Olaf, please.
Teletubbies (photo credit: Ren)
photo credit: Ren
photo credit: Ren
photo credit: Ren
photo credit: Ren
Salam perantauan ! (photo credit: Ren)
After that extra one round, we went to the museum with a post office inside it. Ren posted postcards for her family and friend. After that, we discovered a great place to take pictures which was behind the museum. Hahaha girls worked so hard to find place for taking pictures.
another Salam Perantauan (photo credit: Ren)
When the time came, we boarded the bus and went back to the city. That day, we break our fast inside the bus. It was a great experience though. We had homemade sandwiches and sushi. No nasi berlauk that day.
It's not complete coming to Melbourne but not visiting the Queen Victoria Market. We brought our guests there the next morning. Even though they're from Brisbane, there's thing that can only be found in Melbourne such as t-shirts with Melbourne written on it. I also bought a phone case, uh, it's Pikachu, who would resist?
On the final day, we took the train to Brighton Beach. It is popular with the colourful beach boxes. Despite it was cold, these girls were very enthusiastic taking photos and videos.
Ah, finally I finished writing this post !! *pat on back* I don't want to think about Adelaide, Canberra, Sydney and Japan posts yet T^T
Exam is coming soon. Please pray for my friends and I. Thank you :)
xoxo,
nadi
