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Andrew Sarkipato: Local Attractions in Melbourne

There were so many options in Australia for things to do on my mid-semester break that it was difficult to decide.  I had originally started making plans with my New-Mexican friend Mark to fly to Brisbane and see the city as well as the Gold Coast.  Soon after, however, we learned that our Scottish friends bought a 14-day backpackers train pass and were planning on seeing Australia via train.  The pass only costs around $220 AUD and allows unlimited train travel between Melbourne and Brisbane.  This sounded like the best idea for a 10 day vacation with no itinerary, so we decided to go for it.  The group consisted of Mark, Jake, Kyle, Jeff and I.  Jake and Kyle are two friends of mine from California and Jeff is from Maryland.  Now that I am looking back on the trip and writing a few things about it, I realize that one of the best things about traveling in Australia is how flexible your plans can be.  We bought the 14-day train pass the day before we left, packed a bag and took the night train to Sydney with no plans and no place to stay.  In the end it worked out perfectly.  Here are some of the highlights of our trip day by day……

Day 1.  Thursday, September 13th

We all met up at the Glen Ferrie train station (the station on campus) and took the train to Southern Cross.  Southern Cross is the station used for any trains leaving Victoria.  Our plan was to take the overnight train to Sydney.  We left around 7 PM and the ride lasted around 12 hours.  It was a long first night on the train, but we were all excited to be going on holiday and passed the time playing cards, watching movies, and drinking some wine.  We met a couple of girls on our train that were from Sweden, who we invited to join us.  For some reason, the girls that we met from Sweden were daring my friends, Jeff and Kyle to kiss, which of course they were refusing to do.  Out of nowhere, while the girls from Sweden were trying to convince my friends to kiss, the strange guy walked up from the back of the car, said something like, ‘Oh get the game on already’, and kissed Jeff on the cheek.  Let’s just say we were relieved to finally be in Sydney, and away from these fellow-travelers. One of the greatest things about being in Australia is all the random encounters you have.  This last example was probably a little more on the extreme end, but the natives all have vivid personalities and a boldness with approaching strangers.  Most of the strangers I have met provided a high level of entertainment through conversation and their general outlook on life.  It is certainly different than in the US, and in general the people of Australia are more than willing to talk to, and more importantly help out, complete strangers. 

Day 2.  Friday, September 14th 

We arrived exhausted in Sydney at 7 in the morning.  Since we had absolutely no plans, we decided to find a place to stay first, so we left the train station to find a hostel.  We found one nearby and checked in, but we weren’t allowed in our room till after noon, so we decided to do a little site seeing first. Jake has a friend of a friend in Sydney named Jess, so we gave her a call to find something to do at night.  We met Jess and some of her friends at a club in the city, but we weren’t allowed in because we were all wearing t-shirts, which was disappointing, so we went to a local pub instead

Day 3.  Saturday, September 15th

After a solid night's sleep in an actual bed, a wonderful change from the train ride, we headed out for breakfast then met up with our new friends from the previous night and headed to Bondi Beach.  Bondi Beach is the most famous beach in Sydney, and for good reason.  It is a beautiful U-shaped beach, crowded, but very clean and enjoyable.  You can walk down to one end of the beach where it ends into rock formations and water pools.  The water was surprisingly cold, but refreshing.  After spending the afternoon there, we headed back to our hostel and found a place to eat dinner.  At night we walked down to Darling Harbour, which is another famous landmark in Sydney.  It consists of a harbour and a crowd of buildings, restaurants, and bars.  The harbour looked amazing at night and there were all kinds of places to hang around and have a drink outside.

Day 4.  Sunday, September 16th

Sunday we split our group in two and headed in different directions for the day.  We were planning on taking the night train to Surfer's Paradise, so we decided to meet at the train station at 7.  Kyle and I took the train to the wharfs, where the Sydney Opera House is located.  We didn’t have much time, so we decided to save the opera house for later in the trip (we had another night in Sydney planned for the end).  The boardwalk by the Opera House contains 5 or 6 wharfs with ships that take you to different destinations.  We decided to cruise over to Manly Beach and check it out.  The ride on the ferry offered amazing views of the opera house and other attractions in Sydney.  It was about a 30 minute ride over to Manly Beach, which is a typical beach town with restaurants, shops, and people everywhere.  We checked out the beach for awhile, did some souvenir shopping, ate dinner, and headed to the train station.  We met up with the rest of the crew and jumped on the train to Surfers Paradise.  This ride was even longer and totaled around 13 hours of traveling time.  We had to take a night train to Casino (a small town south of Brisbane) and then switch to a bus.  The bus dropped us at Surfers Paradise at 7 am.  You certainly learn how to fall asleep and stay asleep in extremely awkward positions.  Most of the Connex employees let passengers sleep on the floor, but since you are laying in the aisle, you often catch a number of kicks to the back/abdomen.  Let’s just say I’m glad I am doing this while I am young.

Day 5.  Monday, September 17th

When we arrived in Surfer's Paradise, we again didn’t have a place to stay, so the agenda was to find a hostel, eat breakfast, and hit the beach.  The town of Surfer's Paradise is relatively small, and we walked around aimlessly for at least an hour before we even saw a single hostel.  Looking back, we passed right by several of them, but somehow didn’t notice.  I suppose the benefit of actually making plans is that you know what to do when you get somewhere.  We finally found a good hostel, but there were only 4 beds in a room, so one person would have to stay alone.  We didn’t want to stay there so we kept walking and ended up circling around to the bus station where we first arrived.  Shortly after, we found a relatively cheap hostel located very near to the beach and the bus station.  The rooms could sleep 5 people, which was perfect for us.  We booked a room and headed to the beach.  The beach at Surfer’s Paradise is absolutely amazing.  The sand is clean, the water clear, and the beach stretches for miles in both directions.  We spent a few hours scoping things out until our hostel room was ready.  When we finally got to our room, we were pleasantly surprised.  We had our own bathroom with a shower, a refrigerator, a TV, and a balcony overlooking a pool and hot-tub.  It really seemed like we had hit the jackpot with this hostel.  It was more like a hotel room for five people at a hostel price.  That night, Jake and Jeff literally slept from 6 PM until morning, but Mark, Kyle and I walked around the city and soaked up the absolute lack of night-life they have there. 

Day 6.  Tuesday, September 18th.

The day consisted of almost nothing more than a lazy day on the beach.  We bought a football to toss around and met up with our Scottish friends who were taking a similar trip.  They had a footy, so we spent hours on the beach relaxing and playing around.  Australian Rules Football is a great pastime activity for the beach.  The game is played on an oval-shaped field with goal posts that look like the field goals in American football.  There are a lot of rules that are somewhat difficult to follow, but the main objective is to kick the ball (footy) between the goal posts.  Anyway, at this point in the trip, I realized how far behind on my training schedule I had fallen.  I was in line to run the Melbourne Marathon in 3 weeks, and I hadn’t run in 2 weeks.  This being said, I decided to go for a beach run to try and stay in shape during vacation.  After the day on the beach, we lounged around our hostel and spent some time in the hot tub.  We all went out that night to a little bar in town with some live music and American baseball on TV.  The town is really small, but they have a street with some bars and clubs on it, so there was enough to keep us decently entertained. 

Day 7.  Wednesday, September 19th

You would think that spending three days on the beach in Surfer’s Paradise would result in at least some surfing, but that was not the case.  I am determined to try surfing before I leave, but this was simply not the place to do it.  The waves were not really ideal, and no one else wanted to spend the day surfing or learning how to surf.  So, Wednesday was just a repeat of Tuesday.  We spent a majority of the day on the beach.  In addition, we spent some time walking around the city checking out the different stores.  The plan was to take a bus in the evening to Byron Bay, so we didn’t really have many options during the day except for the beach.  It took around 2 hours to get to Byron Bay, so we arrived around 8PM.  Again we didn’t have a place to stay, but it worked out.  Some girl approached us as we got off the bus and asked us if we needed a place to stay.  I must say that I am impressed with the idea of catching backpackers straight off the bus, because it worked for us. 

Day 8.  Thursday, September 20th

Unfortunately, there had to be one crappy day on our trip, and this was the day.  Nothing particularly bad happened, but we just had some nasty weather and not much to do.  We tried to go to the beach in Byron, but it was simply too windy.  The city itself did not offer much to do, either.  However, we did run into a group of 10 international students from Swinburne that we all knew, who were also vacationing in Byron Bay.  It was nice to hang out with them for a little bit, but they soon left to take surfing lessons for they day.  In the afternoon, we took a bus back to Casino and jumped on the night train to Sydney.  Before the bus ride, we found a bank and all changed a 10 dollar note in to 20 cent coins so we could play some poker on the night train, which worked out nicely.

Day 9.  Friday, September 21st

We went back to the lobby of the hostel we originally stayed at in Sydney to regroup.  The original plan was to take the night train that night back to Melbourne, so we didn’t check in to the hostel.  After catching a quick nap, we were off to see some more of Sydney.  We all jumped on the train and took it to the Olympic Stadium to get a tour.  The Olympic Stadium housed the 2000 Summer Olympics.  The place is truly incredible, and we got to go down on the edge of the field for a better view.  We also got to walk through the locker rooms and walk up the tunnel where the athletes enter the field.  It was really an incredible experience.  After the Olympic Stadium we headed back to the wharfs to see the Sydney Opera House.  We couldn’t go inside, but it was still amazing.  I have seen pictures of the building countless times, and it was almost surreal to be standing outside of it.  We spent a few hours near the opera house, and within 1 hour of our night train leaving for Melbourne, we decided to stay one more night in Sydney.  We ended up getting another hostel and booking the morning train back to Melbourne.  The night was spent at a house party that our new friend Jess invited us to.  The party was a bit ridiculous (they had a jelly wrestling pit in the living room), but it was fun to meet some new Aussie’s and enjoy Sydney for one more night.

Day 10, Saturday, September 22nd

The last day of the trip, our train left at 8 in the morning and was due back in Melbourne at 7 pm.  It ended up being the best train ride yet.  The whole crew I went on the trip with immediately fell asleep, but I wasn’t very tired, so I spent the train ride viewing some amazing scenery and studying for my Law exam.  The studying was great because I had an exam in two days and the train gave me an opportunity to finally prepare for it.  As I mentioned, the views from Melbourne to Sydney were incredible, so I was very glad that we decided to take the day train instead of the night train.   I feel so lucky to have been able to experience everything I have seen, and I hope for another chance to travel at the end of the semester.