Sydney Craziness

Back to the farm for our last week after a mad and yet chilled weekend in Sydney!! I had a fab time and have to say I preferred Bondi on our second visit! I had wrote it off entirely when we first went there! But it was lovely! We stayed in a hostel on the main street which is right on the beach! Was really handy because it was close to some great restaurants, like Blue Orange where we had breakfasts both mornings! They had an amazing watermelon, orange and banana juice and chocolate and banana pancakes! Amazing! I can't find a website for them but I have found that it was recommended on the trip advisor, eatability and urbanspoon websites! And now here too! We also went to a place called Hurricanes on Saturday which was a steak and rib house and sold Massive meals! It was like a Man Vs Food dinner!! Pretty yum too!! :D
So Friday night we got to Sydney a little later than expected, as usual we are awful at planning!! So when we got there we got ready as soon as we could and headed out for a few quiet drinks with the Sweedish girls from the farm! We went to the Beach Road Hotel first which has a pretty cool smoking room upstairs where we met the girls' housemates and some of their other friends who were visiting! Afterwards we headed to the Bondi Hotel as it was still early really! :) Some of us ended the night with a stroll on the beach and a bit of a paddle! Was lovely!

Saturday, after breakfast the boys went shopping and myself and Lisa had a stroll around Bondi and then headed to the beach because it was too hot to do anything else! Not a bad complaint at all!!! Anna and some of their friends from the night before came down to meet us too! The water was lovely and cool and it was nice to just chill out with the girls! A big difference to the cottage at the moment! Myself and Lisa got some amazing frozen yoghurt too in Twisted. Mine was strawberry shortbread with marshmallows  strawberries and broken up timtam! B-E-A-UTIFUL!
And then came Saturday night! We headed to a place called The Canteen for a few drinks to all group up. Thankfully we got a table outside because inside was a hotbox! It didn't seem to have aircon at all and it was a bloody hot night! It was a hipster kind of pub and was kind of cool! Was a good start point! :)
Next we headed to the CBD and went to the pub that Steve used to work in called PJ Gallaghers on Kent Street. Was a quiet little pub but Steve was able to get cheaper drinks in there so we didn't mind at all! When we left there it was pretty late so we didn't think that we would get into anywhere in the centre so we headed to the Kings Cross Hotel. It was a great spot! It has five floors of different music and rooms and was the best part of the night! We all danced for hours, to the point we were a bit on the sweaty side, but who cares, we had a great night! Ended up not going back to the hostel until 5.30 in the morning! Seemed like a great idea at the time until check out time came at 10am! Yuck!

And to top my weekend off Conor bought me the Canon EOS 600D! I am in love all over again! It is my birthday present and I can not wait to torment everyone with it! First though I need to do some more playing around with the modes on it! 

Here are some of my playings around so far.. I think I'm going to have fun!

Amy :) x

Easter Weekend

Had a rather busy weekend this weekend for Easter. As Conor had four days off we said we would make the most of it and keep ourselves busy! Aswell as that it one of our roommates birthdays so he has christened it his 'Easter weekend birthday bonanza'!

Friday it was a lovely day so we headed to the beach with the roommates and went and got some lunch in Branch afterwards! The food is great and you can not argue with a $5 pizza on offer on Fridays! They have some great deals on a daily basis! :)
Lunch was nice, however we had a bit of a scare when as we were sitting chatting we heard a car screech around from Barkly and hit into a cafe! I only heard the bang of the car hitting the wall and the screams from people who were sitting and standing near-by though. Fortunately no one was seriously injured but one person did have to be taken to hospital, but the woman very narrowly missed the people eating outside of the cafe and it was an extremely busy day. I hate seeing stuff like that, not that anyone does like it, but it makes me extremely uncomfortable.

But yes once we finished our lunch we headed back to the apartment to get stuff ready for our BBQ later. (Yes, I know on Good Friday! Don't tell my grandmother!) So because it was Alex's birthday his friends all came around we had some food, some drinks and played a beer pong tournament! I can officially say that I suck at beer pong, and can reconfirm that I do not like beer, of any variety! Bleugh! Conor is also pretty bad at it so ended up pretty merry with himself by the end of his turn!! It was lovely to meet some more people who live in Melbourne, although we were most definitely a minority with eight English and only two Americas, two Australians and us the only Irish!!

So Saturday morning we headed off to Phillip Island for the day. (I love having a car!) We booked our tickets on-line for the three places as it was cheaper that way! So first we headed to Churchill Island, which is pretty much a big farm on its own island! It's very pretty and there's loads of animals there (obviously) including these super cute chicks, to keep in theme! The old house built by the man who owned the island was there and had been refurbished to look as it would have done originally. It was cool to see that. They had a lot of children's activities on  for the weekend that was in it, including Punch and Judy, which Conor watched a lot of, and they had a table where children could built their own wooden cars and things! It was very cute and everything was like the kinds of things that I did when I was younger which was nice! With the wooden toys there was a man working on a laid, to say Conor was mesmerized is an understatement! They had lots of things to see here like watching dogs round up sheep, working horses, which were beautiful, an animal nursery, where  we found the chick, a calf and some guinea pigs! they also had old cars and caravans which were pretty cool!!


Next stop, Koala reserve!! You get to walk in around the area where they are up on boardwalks or else on a nature trail. One cheeky little chappy decided to put on a bit of a show for everyone and came down around to the railings for a look see!
They look so cute and cuddly but my oh my those nails!! 

Out for a stroll

As we walked around the nature walk we saw kangaroos and some birds that I do not know the name of too. And of course, lots more koala's! I found out as well that they sleep for 20 hours a day, simply because their diet is so low in energy! Craziness!


We headed to the Nobbies centre next, which is free to do I may add! It's an beautiful part of the island which is where the seals gather, unfortunately there were none about when we were there however!! But the view was so worth the drive over! We also went some kind of back road along the coast which was amazing to see! And it was where we saw this little guy who struck a pose for us!

View from Nobbies centre

By this time we were starving so we headed back into Cowes to get some grub but there wasn't very many places to go that we could see so we grabbed a quick pizza and headed back to the Phillip Island Grand Prix Track, which I know my Dad would have loved as it is where the Moto GP is held in Australia! We went into the History of Motor Sport Museum for the track which was cool, we got to see some seriously old leathers and a Mercedes worth $1.4 million!! I was afraid to breathe near it!! From there we also got to go out to a view point and see the actual track which was cool!

$1.4 million car!

Next we headed to the penguin parade, our main attraction for the day, which we had to join a massive queue to get too! Was so glad we had booked our tickets as it had actually sold out for the night! We weren't able to upgrade to a better viewing point but to be honest I think we had the best seats in the house. We ended up sitting right down on the beach and could see them all coming out of the water and wandling their way up the beach as if they were fighting against a big wind! They are so cute and soo little. I think the guide said that the biggest they get is one foot! One foot! Adorable! You're not allowed to take photos of them as the flash from the cameras can damaged their sight so if you want to see what I mean you'll just have to go and see for yourself! After we had seen a few come up the beach we walked up around the boardwalk where you could be a foot or two away from them as they headed to their burrows! Two little guys waddled the whole way up to the visitors centre pretty much beside us!! The penguins come in just after sunset so if you are going bring hoodies or blankets, it gets cold but it would definitely recommend it!!! Easily one of my favourite things that we've done so far! :)

Sunday we had a decidedly chilled out day, only venturing out to get some lunch in a place my cousin recommended called Iddy Biddy's! True to form with everywhere she recommends it looked like an old fashion kitchen!! The food was lovely howsever and the place is very cool looking! They even had Disney and fairytale stories books as there menu's! Loved that!!

Considering it was Easter Sunday, I didn't get an Easter Egg from Conor, we kind of forgot about it being honest but my lovely Mammy sent me over some goodies including dairy milk bars and mini eggs cakes! Yum! So we tucked into some of those Sunday nigt as we Skyped home!! Then we watched a movie called the Devils double which was actually pretty good! A little horrific but good!

Monday we decided we were going to go and watch an AFL game but the weather was absolutely miserable! It was raining on and off and so cold that we said we'd rather watch it in a pub and get some grub! So Joyce and Aaron joined us in Federation Square and we watched some of it, in between chatting!! We will definitely have to catch a game properly the next time, once we've invested in some winter clothing! Ha!!

So that was our weekend, hope everyone had a nice, and chocolate filled weekend!! 

Amy :)

Here we are..

In Melbourne!! Have settled into our apartment in St.Kilda and all!! It is lovely, we have the master bedroom and the apartment has balcony with a barbecue on it and our sitting room has a projector for a TV! It's also only five minutes walk from the beach, a short tram ride to the CBD and has busy little streets full of nice restaurants and pubs for us to go to, aswell as only being a short tram ride away from Chapel St.! Living with two English couple's who are so nice! So far we've had a BBQ and a poker/card night with them all and they've been good fun! Having a girls night this Saturday with the housemates as a friend of one of the girls is down from Sydney for the weekend for the F1! Really liking Melbourne, its very chilled out but keep finding myself drawing comparisons between it and Sydney! Not cool!!! Ha!


So we're on the job hunt at the moment, applying to everything that there is available to us so fingers crossed we'll be working soon as we are not made of money! Ha! And we have been here a month now so I reckon it may be time to stop being a tourist!!


In saying that, in our unemployment we have got in some touristy things in Melbourne, a lot of which has been free which is cool! In Federation Square, which is pretty cool itself, there is the ACMI, which is free. It has an exhibition of the advances in technology, going from television to the internet. It has some cool stuff like Mad Max's car on display in there and costumes that Australian actresses have worn in movies, for example they have an outfit worn by Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge!


WE also went and saw the shrine of remembrance and the Sidney Myer music bowl, which we will definitely be catching a concert at! Its very cool! We did this while the Moomba festival was on too! It was a big free music festival with amusements, skate and bmx competitions and waterboarding comp. It was pretty deadly! There was a band at it called The Bamboo's, they are an Australian funk bad. If you ever get the chance to see them grab it because they are unbelievable! If the singer sang me a breakfast menu it would still give me shivers, and the band we're fab too!!

Notice the sunburnt face on him!

It was Conor's birthday on the 11th aswell so obviously presents had to be bought and I wanted to get him a guitar because he didn't bring his but seems as how wouldn't know the slightest thing about picking one I brought him to Allans and Billy Hyde music store to pick one out! So he got himself a nice Takemine, which came with a case, plectrums and a tuner. Sorted! We went out with a friend of ours who was in Melbourne for the weekend too to celebrate.


We have spent a lot of time on St.Kilda beach which is lovely! The other day we went down at five in the evening and it was still warm enough to go swimming and sun bathing! Around sunset every day you can go down to Jacka Boulevard and out to the pier and watch the fairy penguins come in from their days swimming! They are tiny and very, very cute! They were molting as well when we saw them so they were fluffy too! You can't take pictures of them because the flash disorients them, and in some cases blinds them but there are volunteers there with special flashlights (flashlights with duct tape over the lens!) to point them out to you in all the rocks! Apparently the best time of year to go see them is Sept/Oct because they have all their little babies with them! I WILL be going then!!

On Weds myself, Conor and a couple that we live with headed up to Brighton Beach for the day to see the bathing boxes and to do a bit of sunbathing! It's a lovely beach and the bathing boxes are v.cute! They are all multi-coloured and look deadly along the beach! There is a bike path from St.Kilda to Brighton that you can do which I think takes about half an hour which we might do the next day, when it's a bit cooler perhaps!


So yes, that is Melbourne so far! As Isaid everything to do is pretty cheap and cheerful and Melbourne is seriously laid back and cool! Hopefully next time I post I will be a working girl and I can let ye know of anything else we get up too!!


Amy :)