Hailey Goes To Oz

HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY! January 26th was Australia Day and a 3-day weekend so Rob and I took a weekend trip to Melbourne to visit Nathalie and celebrate the holiday.

We left Sydney EARLY in the morning on Saturday and landed in Melbourne at around 7:30am and Nathalie picked us up from the airport exhibiting true Australian hospitality.

She first drove us around Geelong which is where she grew up and we had breakfast and toured the town for a little while.

Breakfast at Sailors' Rest

Some of our mates in Geelong

Geelong

After that we headed out to do the famous Great Ocean Road drive. It is normally recommended to take 2 days to do the entire drive, but we knocked it out in about 12 hours. Again, Nathalie was great and drove us around like a champ. Rob and I were so grateful and kept saying to each other, "I don't know if I would do something this nice for anyone!"

Great Ocean Road

Photo Ops along the way

Light House

Erskine Falls

Gorgeous

We had to pull off the road because we spotted some KOALAS in the trees overhead! Can you see him curled up in the middle?

Windblown

The 12 Apostles

12 Apostles

We finished the Great Ocean Road Drive and finally headed into the city. Nathalie dropped us off at our hostel: The Elephant Backpacker Hostel

Classy. This place offered the BARE MINIMUM! But that's all we really needed, I guess.

We were pretty exhausted after the long day and the long drive, but we met up for dinner in Chinatown and drinks that night. Here we are at Rooftop Bar with Nathalie and her cousin Olga...

And Marc.

The next day we got out and toured Melbourne on our own a little bit. Here is Flinders Train Station

Docklands

Eureka Tower. The Skydeck at the top is the highest public vantage point in the Southern Hemisphere

The Skydeck

At some outdoor market on the water

Federation Square where people were gathering to watch the Australian Open

St. Kildas Beach

HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY!

Geeks in matching shirts

Transport Public Bar watching the parade

Some Aussies doing beer-drinking push ups

Section 8 Bar

In the lobby of the Eureka Tower. It is not only the home of the Skydeck, but it's also a residential building so we met up with some friends of Nathalie's for some wine and then watched the Australia Day fireworks from there.

We finally made it to the Australian Open! We watched Venus and Serena play doubles and win.

Serena

Venus

My overall assessment of Melbourne is that it's a nice city, but you could probably see it all in a day or 2. If the Australian Open and Australia Day weren't on while we were there then we might have been bored. But I wouldn't dare tell that to a Melbourne local! I can liken Melbourne-ites take on Sydney to Candians take on America. They are kind of the little brother so they are constantly telling you how much better they are than Sydney (USA) but Sydney kind of knows it's better so they don't retaliate. It was a great weekend though and Nathalie was terrific for showing us around. I'm definitely glad I got to see it!