Melbourne, Perth and Home

Finally...the eagerly anticipated blog that I promised so many! Sorry it has taken me so long, though I have only been home less than a week, I have had all sorts of school work due this first week back. Also my apologies in the start becauae I did a lot of really cool stuff over these past two weeks so this will probably be a longer blog.
Ok, I got a lot to say, so I am doing this one paragraph style... anyways, Melbourne. Melbourne is a beautiful city. I flew out of Adelaide Thursday afternoon and met up with my friend Pip from Aquinas. We took a tram through the city and we stayed at her parents house for the night. We didn't do to much, hung out, had dinner and played with her dogs Jack and Zoe (actually they were just babysitting Zoe). It was really nice to stay with a family for the first timer really since I got here, a real bed, a real shower, etc, and Pip's family is super nice. The next day Amber met me at Base, the hostel we were staying at and we went to the beach and then took a tram into the city (we were staying in St. Kilda, a suburb of Melbourne). We went up to the Rialto Tours for a 360 degree view of the city from the 54 floor observation deck and then we headed over to Federation Square to take a look at the funky artwork and see a free comedy show as part of the Melbourne Comedy Festival. We saw some smaller acts and then we saw Tripod, a group of three guys who sing funny songs and do stand up as part of their routine, they werereally funny and we were really lucky to see them for free. During the entire show the bells in the cathedral across the street were going off, but other than adding it into their routines, it didn't bother the performers or the audience. The next day Amber and I woke up super early and got on a tour bus that took us out to see the Great Ocean Road. It is a bit like highway 1, only it connects a bunch of tiny towns that could only be reached by boat until the road was built after WWII. We went to Bells Beach for all those surfers out there (or fans of Point Break...it is the last scene when he rides the perfect wave at Bells Beach and disapears, sorry if I ruined that for those who haven't seen it). We saw Koalas at Kennet River and we saw a rainforest and lots of beach. Our last stop was the shipwreck coast (because of all the shipwrecks there). There we went on a helicopter ride over the 12 Apostles. The 12 Apostles are these pillars that were once natural bridges but that were worn down by the ocean so that all that is left are the pillars. There are actually 14 of them, there are two extra in case some fall down. The helicopter ride was amazing and the view was breathtaking. Absolutely beautiful, we were up high above the beach and we could see all of the different bays and gorges and inlets and islands and apostles and what not and it was indescribable. I will try and post pictures, but I am still having some trouble with that. After the 12 Apostles, we headed over to the Loch Ard Gorge where long ago a shipwreck deposited only two survivors and then over to London Bridge, a natural bridge that has a very funny story. It used to have two arches in the bridge, but one of them fell down, and if that isn't funny enough, two people got stuck there and it turned out that they were having an affair and both had called in sick to work, ironic how those things work...moral is: don't have an affair, right? After watching the sunset over London Bridge, we headed home to Melbourne and crashed. We spent the next two days going to some museums and seeing the city. We also went to a footy game! Melbourne Demons vs. St. Kilda Saints. It was a great game and St. Kilda won by over 30 points (we were supporting St. Kilda because we were staying there). The Telstra Dome where it was played is a really nice new arena and the stands were packed with avid fans yelling all sorts of varieties of cheers and drinking beer. The team songs were pretty funny as well, the Saint's is to the tune of "Oh When the Saints Go Marching In" and the other is to the tune of "Your a Grand Old Flag", Amber and I really got a kick out of that. The game was a lot of fun, but I decided that next time I go (and hopefully there will be a next time) I will have to go with someone who supports a team so that I can cheer along with them and be really happy when their team wins. On Monday night (our last night in lovely Melbourne) I met up with my cousins, Michelle and her daughters Elana and Tali and had a kosher meal for dinner...yummy meat!!!!!!! It was great to see them and I enjoyed dinner. Then Amber and I headed over to the crown casino complex which is about a block long. There are resteraunts and shops and a light and water show inside and a huge vegas style casino and outside at night every few hours they shoot off fireballs, unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of that.
Tuesday Amber and I got on a plane to Perth, the other side of Australia. We went to there botanical gardens (called King's Park) which are beautiful and then we went to the Swan Bell Tower. It is a interesting piece of architecture with copper sails and a tower that goes up pretty high and inside are 18 bells, 16 from England which you can actually see ringing, in fact, Amber and I got to ring one of them. It is apparently the largest instrument on earth, pretty crazy. It also has a really nice view from the 7th floor observation deck. Amber and I took a train to Fremantle the next day and saw the Indian Ocean, the oldest building in Western Australia (the Round House) and the shipwreck museum with an actual ship and contents from the bottom of the ocean, it was a very nice day. That night we met up with Emily and Blair (one of the IES people that I met through Emily and Amber) for dinner and to hang out. The next day the four of us went on a wine tour and we stopped at a chocolate factory...yummy... and that night we went out with some of the Adelaide Ultimate Frisbee team (which was the reason that Emily and Blair were in Perth originally and why Amber and I decided to go there instead of Cairns which I am still planning on going to). Next day Amber and I headed home to Adelaide. Though we had fun, we both had to admit that it was nice to be back at Aquinas and it was great to see all of our friends here who we missed while we were travelling aroung Australia.
We are now back in Adelaide and Uni (university) has started again. We all have work to do, but Emily and I still managed to wake up this morning at 6:30 for a really fun footy training. Lots of really exciting things are happening these next few weeks, Adelaide Cup (a horse race that the state takes a day off for and Aquinas gets a pavilion and we all go to the races), and a ball between all the colleges in Adelaide are both pretty soon so I am heaps excited about those. Footy also starts soon (the actual games) and soon I will get my footy gurnsey (jersey)! Passover is almost over and so I canot wait to eat bread, so that is also really exciting.
Happy Passover to those who are Jewish, it was great to talk to those of you I talked to during the seders! I miss everyone and I am still having a great time here. Okay, now I am going to go finish my essay, but please keep emailing to say hi or posting comments on my blog, I do love hearing from everyone and getting pictures and what not. Ok, hope all is well for everyone. Off to do some work.