Take Me Back to the Great Ocean Road

Hello everyone! I am safely back in the United States (very bittersweet). I arrived a few days ago and I am currently writing this at 3:30AM because I am not tired. I thought I was getting back on a regular schedule, but it turns out that I was wrong. I figured I would take this time to write about my trip to Melbourne that I promised!

The weekend started on an interesting note. On Thursday night 12/3/2020, Alyssa and I were having dinner and preparing for our trip to Melbourne early the next morning. We were leaving dinner when we ran into two of our friends. Neither of us expected what they were about to tell us and we were in shock. They told us that both of their home universities had requested that they return to the United States immediately. They were both very upset and confused as their universities were very vague with their emails. We told them to keep us updated on the situation throughout the night.

After talking to them, we instantly started freaking out. If their universities were sending them home, there was no doubt that more and more universities would begin to do the same. It was not until that night that I started to understand that the coronavirus was serious and our time was limited. We walked back to our rooms stressed out beyond belief. We had no idea what any of this meant. At the time, many people thought that their universities calling them home was ridiculous.

We spent that night with a group of friends, including the two girls who would be leaving that weekend. We stayed up very late to say our goodbyes and to spend quality time together. I am very glad that we did.

The next morning, Friday 13/3/2020, Alyssa and I left at 5:30AM for the airport (yes, we did fly on Friday the 13th during a pandemic, but luckily nothing bad happened (which is an achievement for the two of us). Some of you may be thinking it was crazy of us to get on a plane at this time, but you have to understand that we were still completely unaware of the severity of the virus at this time as things in Australia were still normal and the country had made it clear that no restrictions were in place. At this time, Australia was functioning regularly. We had an easy two hour flight to Melbourne that morning. When we landed, we got more bad news. Alyssa’s roommate was being called home too. It was getting more real by the minute. We decided that we were going to have the best weekend that we possibly could as we knew our time in AUS was running out.

We arrived at our hostel 2 hours before check-in so we walked around the city for a bit and tried to keep our minds off the uncertainty of the virus. We checked in at 2PM and both passed out from exhaustion (we stayed up so late the night before our early flight). After napping, we got dressed and found a place to eat dinner. We went to bed early that night since we had a long day ahead of us.

Saturday morning, 14/3/2020, we woke up at 6:30AM for our 7:45AM pick-up. We were headed out onto the Great Ocean Road!!! Our first stop was in Torquay, the beginning of the Great Ocean Road. Our tour guide made us banana bread, so we ate while looking out at the beautiful ocean view.

We made a few more small stops during the morning portion of the drive, including one to spot some wild koalas (we saw 4!!). The views from the bus were stunning as we drove on the winding roads along the ocean. On the bus, we learned a lot of interesting things about the Great Ocean Road! Here are some of the things I learned:

• the road is the world’s largest war memorial. It was built by WWI veterans between 1919 and 1932 as a memorial for their fallen soldiers.
• the road is 243 km long (~150.67 miles)
• the Great Otway National Park (which we visited) is a cool rainforest where dinosaurs once roamed.
• History of Loch Ard Gorge: the location of a famous shipwreck (the boat can be seen by deep-sea divers), in which the only survivors were two 18 year olds, Eva Carmichael and Tom Pierce. Tom saved Eva and they spent the night in the “Love Cave” until the next morning when Tom went to find help. Tom eventually proposed to Eva (as he had been in love with her for some time), but she declined and returned to her home country, Ireland, because she couldn’t stay in Australia as it reminded her of the deaths of her family. (Our tour guide had a lot of fun telling us this story)

Our lunch stop was in Apollo Bay, Victoria. This little town was adorable. It was lined with beachfront shops and restaurants. The ocean was beautiful and it felt like we were in our own little world there.

We continued on the road, making a few more small stops, but my favorite stops were the last two: the Loch Ard Gorge and The 12 Apostles.

The Loch Ard Gorge was STUNNING. I could’ve spent all day there. There was so much to explore and so many angles and heights to view the area from. The next time I go back there, I want to picnic there and spend hours just taking in the views.

The 12 Apostles were just as amazing. The geological features of the area truly amaze me. Fun fact: there are not actually 12 “Apostles” there and eventually there won’t be any left.

We had a long bus ride back to Melbourne that night (luckily we slept most of the way) and arrived back at our hostel around 9:45PM.

The next morning, 15/3/20, we had a much needed later start to the day. We found breakfast and began walking around the city. We explored the famous street art alleys (Hosier Lane and ACDC Laneway). We took a lot of pictures, you can see for yourself below.

We did a lot of walking this day, as we trekked across the city to the Queen Victoria market. It was crowded with people so we did not stay long. We were still on edge about the uncertainty of the coronavirus. We walked back to the hostel and again, we both passed out and took long naps. That night, we explored the city again. We walked a few blocks to Vapiano’s (a classic GW restaurant that some of you may be familiar with) and had dinner. We spent a lot of time there laughing and talking about our abroad experience so far.

On Monday morning, 16/3/20, I got up early and went for a run. It was SO MUCH FUN. The most fun I had had on a run in a while. I loved exploring new areas for running and Melbourne reminded me a lot of DC. There are people biking and running along the Yarra River in Melbourne constantly (big Potomac river vibes!), so I felt at home. I went for a chill 5K run and took in the scenery around me. It was a beautiful morning for running and the coolest run (62 degrees) I had had since leaving MA.

Later that morning, Alyssa and I took the local train to Brighton (a suburb in Melbourne). Brighton was nothing like I expected. It was a very quiet town, but the houses were mansions. They all had fancy gates and you could easily tell that the people who lived in this town has MONEY MONEY. We walked a few blocks before reaching Brighton Beach, the home of the famous Brighton Bathing Boxes. We spent a lot of time appreciating all of the different boxes, the perfect weather, and taking lots of pictures with the different boxes. Each bathing box goes for typically $300,000-330,000. So like I said before, these people have MONEY MONEY.

Afterwards, our hunger started to set in and we both craved acai bowls. We found the nearest place on Google Maps and headed there. It was a 1.5 miles away so it was a bit of a walk, but it was completely worth it. After enjoying our bowls, we headed to St. Kilda (the next town over). St. Kilda is another cute beach town. It is home to the famous Luna Park, penguins, boats/yachts, and windsurfing. We spent some time there appreciating the day and view of Melbourne from afar.

Later that night, we went out in search of a place to eat. We ended up at a small Italian restaurant and walked around a lot afterwards, since it was our last night. We saw many interesting things that night and we had a lot of fun just walking around and exploring. After exploring, we picked up our favorite cookies from Woolies (I am going to miss these cookies so much) and headed back to the hostel. Little did we know, the hell that was awaiting us.

That night, I fell asleep around 11PM since I was pretty tired from all the walking. Alyssa shook me awake right before 1:30AM and told me to check my email. ANDDDD there it was. The email. I have discussed this email already in my previous blog post so I won’t go too much into it, but I was awake all night. I was laughing at the situation because I just didn’t have the capacity to be sad yet.

That day, we tried to enjoy our last moments in Melbourne, but it was hard. We knew that returning back to Bond was going to bring a lot of stress and there was no way to prepare ourselves for that. We returned to Gold Coast safely and met up with our remaining friends that night.

Overall, I had a fantastic weekend in Melbourne!! I am so glad that we were able to fit the trip in just in time. I can’t wait to return to the Great Ocean Road one day and hopefully spend multiple days driving along it. @The Great Ocean Road, don’t worry, I’ll be back for you 🙂

Post completed at: 5:00AM (on the dot). Jet lag is cute

Next post: reflection on my abroad experience and my travels/adjustment back to the United States.