Australia Day 2010

This year's Australia Day marked my 2nd year of living in Australia. We celebrated it locally having come from a long drive down the South Coast. Just hoping everyone had a wonderful Aussie Day too!

Fireworks at The Rooty Hill

Sculpture by the Sea 2009

When I went to my Aunt's workplace some couple of weeks back, one of her workmates told me about her plans to go to Sculpture by the Sea with her family. She told me that it was an annual public art exhibit on the coastal walk from Bondi to Tamarama. All of it sounded interesting and I obviously wanted to go, unfortunately, she knew for a fact that the day that they were coming to see the installations was the last day of the exhibit.

Disappointed, I went home trying to figure out how to get there on that same weekend. However there really wasn't time to go. I thought that I wouldn't be able to go this year, but when I searched for the website, it had been extended another weekend. I excitedly asked a friend if he had wanted to come. He wasn't the type to go to art exhibits and such but he willingly agreed to accompany me.

The following weekend we decided to catch the train to Bondi Junction and when we got off the train there were signs that led to the busses to Sculpture by the Sea. I liked the fact that it was well organised, especially for those who take public transport. When we got to Tamarama there were also shuttles/cars that brought people down to Bondi for free.

We took the Tamarama bus without knowing that it was the end of the walk, hence we kind of had to start at the last set of sculptures. I first noticed the beautiful rock formations along the area and I was really amazed by them.

See how I mean?

It was over a hundred although there were some that were missing. These are the ones from Tamarama:

A skull made out of plastic bottles

Huge timepiece made of wood & steel

The biggest diamond I've ever seen in my life! Haha

This is what I would call a good representation of living in technicolour

I honestly thought this was a real naked baby from a distance. Hahaha

Over life-sized soy sauce container. Took me awhile to realise this

Then we walked up the coast, until we reached a hill - I have already forgotten its name but it's the biggest place where the sculptures were installed and where most of the people were. A lot of the pieces were interactive and I really enjoyed this section the most. Here are some photos:

This oddly reminds me of the homunculi we drew in class

Literally, a sea of shoes! (Pun intended, hello, seaofshoes!)

In detail: these are actual shoes covered in sand

Such intricate woodwork!

One of the crowd (yes, not just the young ones) favourites - a playhouse!

In detail: lots of little toys stuck onto the house - can you name them all?

Such an interesting wood & steel piece. One of my faves.

Lacquered tree stumps

Reminds me of Mayans

Concrete underground sewage things painted neon (my arms were to short to stretch out to the diameter... many of the guys were able to, though...)

A massive domino effect

Flags marking the beginning of the way down to Bondi

After that, we moved along downhill, going closer to Bondi. We took a few photos of rest of the pieces there until my camera's batter gave away. Since it was scorching hot, we rushed down to the beach. Luckily, the water was really cold that day but the undercurrent was too strong and as everyone knows, I'm vertically challenged and easily wiped out by waves. Haha. Here are the rest:

Love this 3D piece of a human face

Another pretty rock formation!

Last but certainly not least, a giant straw in the ocean!

All in all, it was a 2.5 km walk full of creative, contemporary pieces on such a beautiful backdrop - the Sydney coast. I'm glad I was able to go to Sculpture by the Sea this year. It's one of the most fun, interactive art exhibits I've been able to visit ever and the best part is that on either ends of it are 2 awesome beaches that you can chill out at after enjoying the art made available to the public. I can't wait to go back next year because all the pieces will be different yet again, and that's something to really look forward to.

Seeing sights pt. 2

With limited time, my friends and I knew that we had to move fast, and we had to know where exactly we were going throughout the entire day. We hastily planned our trip but it still went great, thanks to Melbourne's great public transport system. We got the day pass which only costs $6.80 and it covers all train, tram & bus rides. Talk about extremely cheap means of travel (Sydney sucks at this!!!).

Based on that lesson learned, here's a handy travel hint: if you ever go on a weekend trip, plan it out couple of weeks beforehand and make sure you've got the maps & means of transportation together as well. Know exactly what you want to see, and make sure each person has a contribution to the list of places to visit - this makes it all the more fun because it involves a mixture of different interests!

Anyway - I always end up going on a tangent here - my apologies.

On our second day, we first headed to St Patrick's Cathedral, which is in East Melbourne. We took the train from our place, getting off at Parliament station. It is a beautiful early 19th century structure, still very gothic, I would say. Here are some photos I took -

Cathedral's entrance

Side view

Interior

I'd have to say, St Patrick's looks really beautiful both on the inside and out, and it is well maintained. We didn't hang around for the mass but we all said our little prayers then headed for other equally worthy spots.

Our next stop: the Parliament House of Victoria (right across St Patrick's). It was still closed when we arrived, so we just took photos outside. It's another one of those classic buildings which (I suppose) has Roman influences, there being the presence of columns and such.

Approaching the Parliament House

The part I love most about the Parliament House's exterior: Mosaic-like tiling!

My 15 seconds of fame with Australian media. & I don't even know what channel it is. Oops.

Our next stop definitely isn't in any travel guidebook. We made a (rather long) trip to the toilet in Sofitel Melbourne. It isn't your regular toilet, I promise you that. Situated on the 35th floor of Sofitel, it has a really great bird's eye view of the city, where you see the Yarra, and all the other things Melbourne has in store for its visitors.

The 35th floor toilet view of Melbourne

The Yarra in sight

Now, with that view, who would pass up a chance to go have a toilet break here?!

Sofitel's atrium - isn't it lovely? :-)

When everyone was done with their business, we knew we had to explore the rest of the landmarks in East Melbourne. The City Museum was in sight, and that had to be next. It's actually in the Old Treasury Building of Melbourne, right next to the Victorian Marriage Registry:

We actually witnessed someone get married that day - cheers to that!

What the Old Treasury Building looks like across the street

Me sizing up my height against the City Museum sign.

The City Museum is the perfect place to go if you really want to learn about the making of Melbourne. Artifacts in the permanent exhibit go as far back as 1835, from old dentist chairs to vintage bicycles, the governor's toilet & clothes back in the day. It also shows the life in the Old Treasury, specifically, its old caretaker John Maynard & his family. In the basement is another permanent exhibit is Built on Gold which shows visitors the story of Victorian gold in 8 interactive "vaults".

Being a group of 5 we were able to avail of the Family ticket which costs $18. I reckon it's worth it. We spent heaps of time there just learning about Melbourne and its rich history. Get ready for an information overload as well. To avoid that though, follow my mantra: "Take photos now, read later". Haha.

After lunch (which needs to be reserved for another entry), we decided it was perfect weather to go for a stroll. The closest one was the Carlton Gardens which led straight to the Royal Exhibition Building as well as the IMAX & Melbourne Museum.

Me & my friend Erick in the background. Lol

I find this to be astounding, what do ya reckon?

At the end of the path is the Royal Exhibition Building. It's one of the oldest remaining pavilions in the world.

Right around this building is the IMAX theatre & the Melbourne Museum. Both of which are post-modern structures.

My friends Erick, Brenda & Nadine walking towards the museum

Exhausted after trying to tour the whole place in an hour

Yup, we came around the museum too late. You need a good 2-3 hours to see everything in this building, maybe even more. The perk is that if you're a student, you get in for free so long as you're able to present your student card. :-)

This is how our 2nd day in Melbourne ended, getting closed up on by the Melbourne Museum. Feel free to try the same route on your next visit, but maybe spend less time walking and hop on more onto the buses & trams, especially if you've got the day pass anyway. Then again, walking, getting a tad bit lost and seeing everything is so much more exciting. :-)

Seeing sights

Melbourne is such a beautiful city - full of art, life and history. I was blessed with another chance to come visit again this year, but this time I went along with some friends. It was a great experience and this time I got to know the city a lot more.

We flew in really early on the 4th of June (and I mean we took the 6.15 am flight). Melbourne was bound to have a beautiful day:

This is the aerial view of Melbourne just a little past 8am.

Right after breakfast we decided to visit Queen Victoria Markets which is comparable to Sydney's Paddy's Markets. It has everything, and I mean everything in it, from shoes to boomerangs to flowers and food. I reckon it is much, much larger than the Sydney one, though I can't be too certain. One thing I know that is worth heading to while in the QVM area is this mobile doughnut place:

I assure you fresh & hot doughnuts, for an affordable price (6 for $3.90). It's certainly a classic and nothing too complicated. You can pick from a plain sugar sprinkled one, and a jam-filled one. Both are good and it's even better if you have one after the other, alternately ;-)

The Queen Victoria Markets are open from Thursday-Sunday, with varying opening & closing hours.

Afterwards, my aunty gave us the idea of taking the City Circle Tram so that we'd get to see the entire place then just choose to hop on and off wherever we wanted to go after the ocular inspection. It seemed to be the most practical idea since we wanted to maximise our time to explore the entire city, so we did that. It's good because the City Cirle Tram is a free service that takes tourists (and locals just the same) to the different hotspots in the city. If you're the impatient type (like me) you will love this service because it comes around every 12 minutes, and it runs from Flinders Street to Spring Street and back. It's easy to find compared to the normal pay trams because it is small & very vintage-looking (and more importantly, labelled City Circle, lol).

I find that the best place to come back to after a long day of going around Melbourne would be Flinders Street as it has the train station for one huge landmark:

See what I mean when I say it's a landmark? It's one of my favourite spots in the city, as it is always busy and Flinders Street Station is just a lovely sight. Right across it is something extremely modern, the Ian Potter Centre:

If in any case you get lost this is the side that you have to go to because this is where the really big information centre is complete with all the train, tram & bus routes, events lists, tour booklets, maps & of course, friendly volunteers to help you find your way.

As for my friends & I on the first day- we hopped on and off everywhere (& sneaking cat naps on the tram), took a walk at the Docklands, ate at Flinders Lane (parallel to Flinders Street) & ended up doing some shopping at Bourke Street Mall where the biggest Myer is located. I'd have to say - it was a pretty long & exhausting day, especially if you hadn't slept at all.

Who knew

that I would find a love for salsa dancing and everything Latino here in Australia? Ever since I've started hanging out with my friends from Chile, I've been learning everything there is about South America. I've been learning Spanish on my own as well. It's quite interesting how closely it relates to Tagalog, which is the language of the Filipino people.

Anyway - back to salsa. The first time I went was when our friend from Greece dragged me and my Swiss and Chilean girlfriends to a place called Vivaz. At first I was being very resistant to it because I really had no idea how to salsa or anything. Of course, my friends finally got me to dance with them and by the end of the night I really couldn't wait to get back!

Two weeks later, we headed out to Vivaz yet again! I was really happy that we went there to dance the night away. Entry to Vivaz costs $15 but if you're there for dinner there's usually a buffet that costs $44 including the entry to dancing after. There are salsa classes which you can take for $10 for an hour I reckon.

It's pretty good in there, as there is a mix of a DJ spinning different latino tunes as well as a live band. The best thing about it is that it is located at the Rocks! The Rocks is such a wonderful place to take walks before and after good dancing and drinks. Obviously, I can't wait to go again next week :-) Anyway here are a few photos:

My friends Brenda & Erick dancing with the crowd

Hidden in this photo are my German & Swiss girlfriends dancing salsa like they're actually latino. See how much fun everyone's having? :-)

In other news, I realised that I haven't blogged in a month and I should probably should do some catching up with all the writing I've got to do with regards to my (mis)adventures here Down Under ;-)

Get beached!

It's probably not the perfect time to be blogging about beaches, but I thought I had to sometime. Since I can't sleep I will now. Hah.

The first two times I've been to Australia, the only beaches I've seen were 2 of the most popular ones, which are Bondi Beach and of course the Gold Coast. Below is my photograph of Bondi from 2009

And this was from 2008:

Bondi is such a nice place to go to as it is close to the shops and there are a lot of food options and of course, lots of girls and boys to watch all day. But if you actually want to absorb the scenery and feel the serene ebb and flow of the ocean waters, I reckon it would be best to go to Palm Beach. It is about an hour drive from the city, and it is not crowded at all. Here is a photo from when I went around last month:

(In photo: my friend Cecile taking photos! LOL)

My experience of Palm Beach was pretty good - it was quite a drive from where I live and upon getting there you can see that it really is a place to unwind. It's also close to Whale Beach, which, unfortunately, I haven't been to yet. We tried walking it through the cliffs but the rocks just got really sharp and the tide was getting high so we decided to walk back probably less than halfway to it.

Most recently, I've been to Manly Beach, which is probably my favourite one so far. It is crowded as there are lots of tourists that visit, and it's a pretty commercial area. It seems a little bit like Gold Coast, but it is smaller and it's a little bit more peaceful, I suppose. I reckon the most fun way to get to Manly is to take a ferry from the Circular Quay, which now costs $12.80 for a return ticket. The trip is about half an hour long and note that the gates close 2 minutes before it actually departs! I'm emphasising that because my friend and I got left behind just because we got chips&wedges 5minutes before the ferry's departure and had to wait another half an hour. Hahaha.

This is the walk towards the beach, where the shops and food places are at:

And this is the actual beach:

(In photo: my friends Brenda & Nadine getting splashed really hard by the waves)

We've discovered as well that there is a scenic walk in Manly, and a calmer (but deeper) beach called Cabbage Tree Bay Reserve (will have to double check that name). We went for a swim there as well and it was pretty good. The water was freezing but it was okay because there wasn't a strong current pulling us in. It looks like this:

There is also Bronte Beach that is about a half an hour drive from the city (if you know your way) but I haven't got any photo of it. It is nice because there are grounds for picnics and a barbeque. We went there last week, but we arrived late and so it was too dark to take actual beach photos.

So far those are the beaches I've been to this year (and when I say I've been to it means I stayed there for a day and not just drove by because I've seen most of the beaches along the coast but never actually got to stop and enjoy it), and all I can say is that I'm sure there's so much more to see and I can't wait for our next beach adventure! ;-)