Tag Archives: Australia

Travel Guide

Travel Guide: Melbourne

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Here is the third installment of our October break trip to Australia! We started in Sydney, drove down the coast, and ended up here in Melbourne, which I absolutely loved.

We arrived in sunny Melbourne after leaving Lakes Entrance in the rain, so it was already off to a good start. We checked into our third and loveliest Airbnb with floor-to-ceiling windows that gave us views that reminded me just a little of New York – and made me realize that I miss it! The rest of the city did much of the same.

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We ate a very late lunch and then began to wander, which is my favorite way to get to know any new place. I loved the hustle and bustle of the streets full of shops, people, and streetcars. I loved feeling neighborhoods blend and change. I loved being with so many people after thoroughly enjoying the exact opposite on the road. Many people were dressed head-to-toe in black, which we hadn’t seen elsewhere in Australia, and there were little alleyways and hidden streets with shops, restaurants, and cafés. Australia’s same-sex marriage vote was ongoing and there was pride everywhere, which was so great to see. It had been the same in beachy, chill Sydney but much more creative in bolder, grittier Melbourne.

Our first stop was the State Library of Victoria because we had read that it was pretty. And, truth be told, I adore libraries and don’t really need a reason to visit. I’ve waxed poetic about the NYPL more than once and still donate to them (because I just realized that I can still download e-books!).

Because libraries are the best, there was a free exhibit on the history of Australia since colonization and we thoroughly explored it. As in the Australian Museum in Sydney, I read everything in the exhibit and really enjoyed it because Australia’s history isn’t something I’ve ever formally studied. Outside the library, people were playing chess with giant chess sets. So cool! So community-oriented!

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The next day was our only full day in Melbourne and I loved every moment of it. We spent the morning at Queen Victoria Market, though I could have been there for so much longer. I seek out markets in every country I visit and they’re always a highlight. Since I love fresh vegetables and seek out anything locally sourced and locally grown, I would have loved to buy produce and other ingredients to cook dinner. Alas, we’d made a reservation at a very hip, cool restaurant and I didn’t want to miss it!

I did, however, have the foresight to ask my friends to arrange a meeting place and time in case we get separated. I’m a kid in a candy store when it comes to markets (and bookstores and libraries) and envisioned wandering off. Self-fulfilling prophecy.

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In addition to some cool local artists’ stands that I felt badly photographing without buying, Queen Victoria Market had a section for stuff . . .

. . . a section for produce and an entire building for perishable food items . . .

. . . and a bunch of restaurant and coffee shop stands. The picture below of the sign is specifically for my dad, who introduced me to (and perhaps invented) the word “under-caffeinated” many years ago. Caffeine, specifically from black coffee, plays a very important role in my family; claiming under-caffeination is the best way to get anyone to empathize when you’re having a moment or in a mood.

In the afternoon, we tracked down some of Melbourne’s famed graffiti streets, which we overheard a tour guide tell his group change almost nightly. It was really neat because nothing on these streets escaped the artists’ hand. There’s clearly a set of rules and norms that are associated with these streets and I’d love to know what they are. I didn’t see anything that could be considered obscene or anything that looked like it was encroaching on anyone else’s work. The streets seemed to be art, and respected like street art usually is, rather than graffiti, which sometimes seems more hurried, frazzled, and incomplete. I took a lot of pictures and narrowed down the list as best I could, but I really just want to share all of them!

We walked along the quiet, still Yarra River that afternoon. It was the only hot day we had in Australia and there was a noticeable heaviness to the air that we hadn’t felt since Singapore.

It was a nice break from the noise of downtown but somehow left me itching to return to the flurry of daily living that was present in the city streets. No one else shared this sentiment, but I don’t mind being out and about alone. I found another pedestrian alleyway, this one full of open-air restaurants and bars, and sat down at a popping wine bar. I flipped past the wine list and promptly ordered a beer, sneakily munching on the granola I had in my backpack.

I people-watched and journaled for a good hour. Some of my best personal reflection has been while traveling because I consider travel as time just for me. And since I’m in new places, or at least places different from the everyday, I seek out new things that make me reflect in myriad ways. I usually don’t travel with cellular data and don’t seek out wifi, so it’s easy to remain in the moment. I generally don’t miss being connected, either. It’s nice to be able to sit and dream every now and then without feeling obligated to do something else or be part of something else.

Melbourne, you are a vibrant, energetic, and liberating place. Thanks for ending the week in Australia on such a high note.

Travel Guide

Travel Guide: NSW to Victoria Road Trip

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This post details the second part of the week my girlfriends and I spent in Australia over October break. We started in Sydney and, after three nights there, were ready to exchange urban life for something a little more remote. We picked up a car and followed signs to Wollongong, which our trip planner (and also DJ!) promised would take us along the coast for small towns and pretty views. When we saw signs for the Grand Pacific Drive, we turned off the A1 to follow them and I’m so glad we did!

I was driving so I couldn’t take pictures, but I absolutely loved the winding, twisting, narrow, tree-lined roads of Royal National Park. The trees were thick and green on one side of the road and there were signs of fire on the other. There were so many different types of trees, too, many that I didn’t recognize. At times, we couldn’t see more than one twist in the road in front of us, which was challenging because bikers also enjoy the park – and with good reason. We rolled the windows down and felt the fresh air all around us, drinking in the blue skies and sunshine. I haven’t been on a road like that, one with no place to stop and only places to go, in a long time. It felt like flying.

When there was finally a place to pull over, we did. I was glad to take the time to actually look at my surroundings instead of darting glances out the passenger window with half an eye on the road.

We stopped in the town of Bulli for lunch and ate outside in the cool breeze off the ocean, which was so beautiful and relaxing. Perfect weather for a hot coffee, too! Australia has a very hip coffee culture but I have to admit, I prefer American-style filter coffee to the long black that is Australia’s next best thing. But it was fun to be on the other side of the Pacific Ocean with a coffee in hand!

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A short while later, we also stopped in Kiama to see Cathedral Rocks. We went around in circle in a neighborhood a few times before we realized that there’s no official “get out of the car here” spot. After agreeing on that and making sure we weren’t doing anything illegal (after all, ours wasn’t the only car), we pulled over and looked down.

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I climbed down, too, which truly made me feel like I was in a different world. I walked along a sandy patch that is definitely under water in high tide, surrounded by cliffs and rocks that have been weathered over so many years. The sound of the ocean and smell of salt in the air completely drew me in. I could have stayed down there a long time.

The final stage of the first day of driving led us past fields, farms, and pastures with cows, horses, and rolling hills. It was beautiful and green, but a very different landscape than the forests we’d been through earlier in the day. It was sunny and warm and we rolled the windows down to feel the air. (It’s amazing how much weather impacts attitudes and enjoyment. I found myself energized and able to breathe more easily just being in air that floated rather than hanging thick and heavy as it often does on the equator.) It was such a joy to drive and just laugh, sing, and listen to Australian political news on the radio.

When we arrived in Batemans Bay to spend the night, the weather had cooled and the sun was in that stunning position between late afternoon and evening.

Without meaning to, we left for dinner at just the right time to capture the most beautiful evening of the whole trip. This time, we pulled over into an empty parking lot and watched a family fishing on the beach.

The following morning, we left Batemans Bay to continue our drive south through New South Wales into Victoria. Before really getting on the road, we stopped for breakfast and coffee at a café that I think I would frequent often if I were a resident of a small coastal town in southern Australia. They had a sign that largely echoed my view of the world and it made me very happy. I took the picture on my phone, so that’s what you’re seeing.

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Over the course of our second day in the car heading towards Lakes Entrance, we watched the landscape change from hills and mountains in the distance to expansive farms with cows, sheep, and horses. We passed dairy farms advertising their cheese and wineries advertising their wine. We also saw a fair number of signs indicating the level of fire threat for the day; all indicated that the threat was low. Every so often, the two-lane highway would slow down and we’d enter a tiny town with little more than a local school, church, and traffic circle. Several of them had used bookstores, too!

About halfway through the drive, we stopped in Eden because it’s supposed to be the place to see whales. We had no interest in taking a boat cruise so instead we stopped at the harbor just to see the boats . . .

. . . and then headed to the highest point we could find to look down at the ocean. We weren’t the only people scouting for whales from up there, either. The water was suspiciously disturbed in certain areas and while we didn’t see anything that we could identify as a whale, I’m sure they were there!

However, we did manage to see live kangaroos! We’d been passing signs telling us to be careful of kangaroos and wombats the entire time we were on road but had only seen them as roadkill until the last half hour of our drive. We saw three or four in quick succession, each standing alone at the side of the road. It was very exciting.

Our Australian colleagues had warned us that Australia is expensive and they weren’t wrong. Lakes Entrance, however, was not. We stayed a cabin I found on Airbnb, walked to the grocery store (which we also did in Sydney thanks to another Airbnb), and made ourselves dinner. And by “made”, I mean opened crackers, sliced cheese, heated up soup, broke chocolate into pieces, and uncorked two bottles of wine. It was delightful.

It was raining the next morning, which sort of added to the appeal of the cozy cabin but was also a nuisance; I forgot how tiring it can be to drive through heavy rain! But the sky ultimately cleared and the sun was out by the time we made it to our final location – Melbourne! Stay tuned!

Travel Guide

Travel Guide: Sydney

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Last week, I explored a tiny fraction of a huge country and I can’t wait to go back. Two girlfriends and I flew to Sydney and took a road trip south along the coast to Melbourne. We ate a lot of delicious food, drank excellent wine, and sang more than a few Disney songs. We laughed, took pictures, and walked everywhere we could.

The first thing I noticed upon arriving in Sydney was the weather. It’s spring in Australia right now and I was cold. I tend to run cold, which helps out in Singapore but is a detriment elsewhere. Feeling the fresh air of Sydney and being able to dress in layers and walk around comfortably undoubtedly had an impact on our positive feelings throughout the trip.

We started our Sydney adventure with a wander towards Circular Quay (that’s where the Opera House is) and through the Rocks, which was hosting a neat artists’ market. It was there that we first recognized the laid-back, beachy, relaxed vibe of the city. People everywhere were friendly and welcoming. There’s a certain calm, even in large groups of people, that reminded me of my trip to Southern California last December. The atmosphere felt like California, but the architecture and style reminded me a lot of New Orleans. We saw these wrought-iron balconies everywhere!

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I rarely do any shopping when I travel and didn’t buy anything at the market, but did enjoy looking at everything for sale. Lots of good gifty things if you’re into that. Eventually, we made our way to Harbor Bridge, walked across it, and looked out over the water. That was my personal “must do” for Sydney and the view did not disappoint:

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From the bridge, we followed the road around the harbor back to Circular Quay where we saw some really beautiful foliage and the bridge itself. I absolutely loved the purple trees! It was also fun to watch the sun begin to set, which happens later in the evening in Sydney than in Singapore. That was nice, too.

The following day started with a walk through Hyde Park, which made me laugh because that’s the name of the Chicago neighborhood where my family spent a year when I was very little. Hyde Park in Sydney was full of runners and bikers and is also the home to the Anzac Memorial. I first learned about Anzac from an Australian colleague in Malaysia a couple years ago; I’d seen a lot of war memorials but never one for Anzac.

Later, we made our way to the Botanic Gardens (walking through pretty areas with greenery was a theme of the trip), pausing at St. Mary’s Cathedral. The church itself struck me as odd because the architecture just didn’t seem to fit. But church architecture is church architecture the world over. I love identifying human commonalities because they act as a reminder that we are indeed similar, despite the very different ways that we interpret the world.

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The Botanic Gardens, located across the harbor from Circular Quay, were really beautiful and a charming place to be on a Sunday afternoon. Like Hyde Park, they were also full of people. We saw more than one garden party complete with stylish hats. Legacy of colonialism, methinks!

When it started to rain, we visited the Australian Museum where we were happy to learn about some of Australia’s history. We saw the same names repeated over and over on street signs as we traveled and I appreciated the sense of grounding that comes from knowledge, a glimmer of understanding of what makes a place what it is.

For our last full day in Sydney, we decided to take a bus out of the city (Opal cards for public transit work throughout the state of New South Wales – so cool!) and visit Bondi Beach to see Sculpture by the Sea, a really cool annual art show set in a beautiful place. Many thanks to the Uber driver who told us about it! The bus ride took us out of where we were staying in the CBD through parts of Sydney where real people actually live. It was nice to see regular neighborhoods and get a brief glimpse of their individuality and character.

As we knew it would be, Bondi Beach was beautiful and so was the weather, another theme of our trip. The sky really was that blue!

Sculpture by the Sea was a really engaging show because the sculptures were designed to fit into the landscape. It was a very enjoyable walk up along the rocks, admiring and trying to understand the art while looking down at the beach below. Admittedly, my favorite piece might not have actually been part of the exhibition. I didn’t buy the booklet with the information so I can’t be sure, but it was too amusing not to share. Please enlarge the photos below. I promise they’re not all the same!

We headed back to Bondi and took the bus through rolling hills that gave us gorgeous views of the Sydney skyline. I was tempted to suggest getting off but we didn’t really know where the stops were or when we could expect another bus to arrive. All we knew was that we were heading to the bus terminus at Watsons Bay, again on recommendation of the Uber driver.

Upon arrival, we found exactly what we were looking for: lunch and a nice spot in which to eat it. The pelicans (enormous birds – I had no idea!) thought so, too!

Again based on the advice of our Uber driver (goodness, we are trusting people!), we used our Opal cards to take the local ferry from Watsons Bay back to Circular Quay. I love boats and was so, so happy to spend about 20 minutes standing at the railing, taking pictures in between closing my eyes to absorb everything I could from the water, sun, and air.

In a poetic sort of way, our Sydney adventure started and ended in Circular Quay. That was the first place on our list of places to go and where we were heading when we got distracted by the artists’ market at the Rocks. It was also the last real “sight” of this part of the trip, with a sense of familiarity this time instead of awe. After all, new sights are only new once. (Arguably, they’re new again if you see them through someone else’s eyes, but that’s a different discussion for a different time.)

After three nights in Sydney, we embarked on part two of our Australia adventure. We rented a car and drove about 1,000km along the coast to see pretty places on our way to Melbourne!