A lot of catching up to do...

Oops. That is all I have to say about that... oh wait, one more thing... thank you to those of you that I have not lost on my little hiatus from writing. I value your loyalty and hope you find these next entries to have been worth the wait.

Melbourne...

Melbourne I must say is my favorite city in Australia. I think it might be number 2 on my list for coolest cities, clearly NY being #1... defo for the bar seen at the very least. I arrived on a Friday, which also happened to be Australia day... it could not have been more perfect, filled with fireworks and all.

I went to Melbourne to visit a very dear friend of mine, Craig- but he is truly a cool dude and is worthy of a blog entry all to his own (or maybe I write this because he loves himself so much that I would never here the end of it if I didn't give him enough 'face' time in my entries and I really don't feel like hearing him go on and on about it).

It was cool to be in a house again... he lives in Port Melbourne with 2 other housemates and a guest, Dave that never seemed to leave. It was quite the mix matching of people which made for some great laughs. We had a barbecue during the day and then went out to my new favorite bar in the whole world... St. Jerome. We went to a few that night... all really cool... but St. J was rockin. I twas very small inside and they had an outside yet is was covered... but the walls were the neighboring buildings with graffiti on them...

The really cool thing about Melbourne is that if you don't know where the cool bars are you would never find them. They are all down small and dark ally ways... once again reminds me of old school NY. If you combined NY and San Diego, you would get Melbourne... it's the best of both worlds. The shopping is really great too... there are a lot of really cool boutiques. There are sections of Melbourne that are very Williamsburg, LES- esque. I think that is why I liked it so much.

My first few days in Melbourne I really spent bumming around the house in my PJ's. It felt great to have a clean shower, comfy bed and privacy! More than anything it felt great to do nothing... I had been on the go for quite some time and it took a toll on me! Craig's housemate, Becca- her boyfriend thought I was nuts... They made fun of me for staying in my PJ's for the first 4 days... but I had to do it! I watched lots of TV and melted into the couch. I stayed in Melbourne for about 10 days.... and it got pretty eventful!

After getting my lazy time in... it was time to trek on and see the sights! I had a great day shopping- and this was no backpackers shopping trip! I seemed to have been possessed by a wealthy, uber stylish, needing far too many expensive but amazingly unique hair clips, chick ... who was that girl?! I need to keep her suppressed or I will be back home in a week!

I did some touristy day excursions... the great ocean road drive and Philip Island (please do not add an 'S' to the end, Ozzie's get very touchy on that one). I am mixing the two day excursions up so we will morf them into one, after all you have no no way of knowing my lies... did I really do any of this at all?! (I kid... unbelievably, I have done it all). We went to what seemed to be a petting zoo, however rather than goats and sheep there were kangaroos, wallaby's, koalas (not allowed to be within a foot of them... they are ferocious little devils!). I even got to feed an emu... most excited- I saw a kangaroo with an erection... I never thought I could ever make that claim! Surprisingly I was hte only one to take a photo of it... who wouldn't want a photo of a Kangaroo with an erection?! I know you are wondering what it looks like... it is actually curvy, almost cork screw like... but very thin.... like your pinkie finger. That's all I really want to say about that.

On Phillip Island I went to the Penguin Parade. At night time hundreds of penguins go from the water to their little caves of a home to feed their youngsters. It was really one of the coolest experiences! I sat with an 85 year old lady and we had a ball... she was SO MURIEL CONKY!!!! Along the way to the Penguins, we went to some of the most beautiful beaches and cliffs I have ever seen. The sun was shining... and everything seemed to glow!

Among the beaches, HJF get ready to get jealous because I know you love this movie as much as I, we went to the one where they filmed Point Break... so cool... just too cool.

On one of the tours I bumped into the girls I met in Cairns... they were on the very same tour. That is what I love about travelling- you bump into friends you met elsewhere... it's really cool in that respect.