Melbourne

This past weekend I went down to Melbourne, Victoria and stayed with my friend Marla Musgrove from home. Marla actually lives in Geelong, which is about an hour outside of Melbourne. She is down in Oz working for Campus Crusade for Christ. Friday night I got to meet everyone on her team and we enjoyed a nice meal together at a restaurant in the city. Seriously the biggest chicken parme I have ever seen!

Saturday Marla took me all around Geelong. We walked along the water front and took funny pictures with all the ridiculous painted wood statues that were strewn about along the way. Later in the afternoon we went to see her friend Dave play rugby and then enjoyed another meal all together at a Thai place, followed by sundaes at The Chocolate Room. Yum yum...

I spent a decent amount of time exploring the city on my own Friday afternoon before meeting up with Marla, but Sunday we took the train in together and had a great day running all over the city. It reminded me of my time back in NYC...just wondering the streets, checking out all the cool buildings, people watching, shopping, running to catch a tram, and overall just enjoying the adventure of being all alone in a new place. There are parts of Melbourne that remind me of NYC and 3rd Street in Santa Monica. It seriously is such a cool city and very visitor friendly. The architecture was really neat around Flinders Street and Federation Square, the Queen Victoria Markets created a fun environment, and the live music by the Yarra River was so nice. Marla's friend Mike made us a gourmet dinner Sunday night once we got back and later on we just relaxed in the hot tub.

It was nice to stay in a house for a weekend and be off campus and yet not in a hostel. Also nice to reconnect with an old friend. To sum it all up- Great city, great company and great food all weekend long!

PS It was cold, in case you can't tell from my attire...first time I have really ever been cold in Australia. I guess it is Fall here...weird...Brisbane is still warm and sunny though :)