Before you all stone me to death HERE THEY ARE!

I doubt any of you are reading them anyway, but finally, finally, here are the blog entries from spring break and such! It's all a month late and there is a lot here, but I am queen of long blog entries!

The first set of entries are from Spring Break (because remember it's fall in the usa and spring in aussie), and then an entry about my weekend in Melbourne.

So spring break started out very fun! The first night I spent in Cronulla with some of my friends from school who live there. It's about 35 minutes from Wollongong, and they live with their parents, which is very common for uni students in Australia. I take classes with them and have always been bugging them to take me home. So they did and I spent the night there. Cronulla is like the Greenwich of Sydney. It was a really nice area with these adorable shops on the beach. We went out to dinner and out on the town. It was real fun and it was nice to be in such a high class area. Remember Wollongong is an industrial city, and I'm not a snob, it was just night. Then the next day Kirrilly, the girl I was staying with, drove me to the airport to meet DADDY!!! We went to the airport to pick up daddy and I was obviously very very excited to see him. He was exhausted but was a good sport and dealt with my hyperness about seeing him. Then from there we went straight to the eye doctors because I had hurt my eye earlier that week and needed to go to a specialist in Sydney. (All is okay now btw). After that daddy must have gotten his second wind, because we dropped our stuff of at our hotel and daddy and I walked around Cockle Bay and Darling Harbour. Sydney is known for it's harbours and clear water. The weather was beautiful and it was even better because my dad was there. At that point, daddy began to fade a little and we went back to the hotel so daddy could have a nap and get use to the time zone. After some resting (I fell asleep too!) we went out for ITALIAN food in Cockle Bay. Italian food is like the one thing I have missed very very much. Afterwards daddy announced that it wasn't that good. I agreed and explained to him that's why I was starving for Italian. We even went to a nice Italian place where the waiter was Italian and it still sucked. But that's okay. After that we went to a National Rugby League game. Cronulla Sharks vs Melbourne Storm. It was actually a semi-championship game. NRL is their American football, but daddy and I did not know ANY of the rules so we had to call my friend Mitch who was actually from Cronulla and watching the game. He explained to us the rules between cursing because the sharks were getting absolutely killed. After that we went straight back to the hotel, because daddy was nearly falling asleep in his chair. But he was a great sport and a great true blue aussie rugby fan with me for the day!

The next day dad and I got up semi-early and walked to Circular Quay. For those of you uneducated Aussie ones, that is where the Opera House and Harbour Bridge are. It was fun showing dad, because they are really awesome structures and breathtaking to see the first time. So dad and walked around there and took pictures and made fun of the other tourists. After that we walked up some of the streets and had breakfast and a cute little hole in the wall place. Following that, we decided to go to Bondi Beach, the most famous beach in the world. (If any of you watch true tv there is a show called Bondi Rescue which is a reality show about the life guards on Bondi beach). The bus ride there took forever but it was worth it. After that we went back to Circular Quay and took a Harbour cruise of the city. That was really fun because we looked at all the good real estate and laughed at the Japanese tourists going nuts on the boat. They would run to either side of the boat to take pictures. It was quite humorous. The habour cruise is a great way to get to see the Sydney, since it is mostly harbours. After that we went back to our hotel via the monorail where we had a good nap and then went to dinner at an Aussie Pub. I, of course, felt like a big shot because in a lot of the bars you order your food at the bar and get this number and they have this system and I knew it and didn't feel like a tourist. Then I introduced daddy to some aussie beers, legally!

Next day, we got up early and spent the day flying to Cairns (pronounced Cans). Cairns is the home to The Great Barrier Reef. We got to our resort and lounged by the pool and enjoyed the rest of the day, and then had dinner at Red Rooster, which is in my opinion the best fast food in the entire world.

The day after that we got up early again, and took a forever long bus ride to a boat. Then we climbed on the boat and went two hours and finally arrived at THE GREAT BARRIER REEF! Wikipedia tells us this: The Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef system in the world, composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for 2,600 kilometres (1,600 mi) over an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometres (133,000 sq mi). The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland in northeast Australia. The Great Barrier Reef can be seen from outer space and is the world's biggest single structure made by living organisms. It was truly amazing, because the moment you put on snorkel gear and jumped in and put your head under you saw it. Seriously breathtaking. Everywhere you looked would be another color, another beautiful structure and another nemo fish. It was low tide so we literally layed on top of the reef. There is nothing else you can really say other then you have to experience it yourself because you honestly believe you are dreaming when you see it, because you feel like something that beautiful can't really exist.

Next day made daddy be an Australian tourist. I took him to a wildlife area, where I took a picture of myself holding a koala, which I REALLY wanted to do. I can't put it online because I don't have a scanner, but I will show you all when I come home. Then I made daddy pet all the Australian animals like the koalas and kangaroos. He was not pleased with my paperatzi attempts at pictures of him and kangaroos, but finally he gave in. After that we had a show put on my aboriginals. I danced on stage (obviously) and can say I fit in pretty nicely. After that, there was a boomerang competition. Dad and I had a competition with ice cream on the line, who could throw better. Dad's went further but mine was more accurate so we called in a tie. Then after that we went on this real high sky rail, which we are not going to talk about, because it went a lot high then my dad liked. After that we went out for dinner in cairns and I FINALLY had a decent chicken parm although it did come with French fries and I had to explain I wanted it with pasta instead. We walked around Cairns a little, then Dad went to the hotel and I met up with friends from uni. At the bars out in Cairns I bumped into people from high school and back home which was super weird, but then again everyone in aussie has the same spring break and everyone goes to cairns to see the reef.

The next day we went to cairns and walked around the city. We went into all the stores and walked to the beach. Then we just went back and sat around in the sun and pool. We also at night walked around where our resort was, which made me really happy because daddy got to see redneck (bogan) Australia. It's pretty funny, because people walk around (like into grocery stores) with no shoes on and stuff and do very bogan things, so I was glad dad got to see that too.

Sadly the next day daddy left aussie. It was amazing to have him here. Just seeing a familiar face was wonderful, but getting to share even a sliver of my time was wonderful too. When daddy flew home I flew to Darwin. (I'll put up a map on the picture site again so you can see where Darwin is.

So then I got to Darwin. I went to the hostel and immediately tried cooling down my body. Seriously, this is the hottest place I have ever been to in my entire life. So I met my roommate in the hostel named Barry. He is irish and had been spending the last 5 weeks or so in Darwin. After very little convincing, he took me out on the town in Darwin. We went to all the different bars, which was a lot. Darwin is pretty much just one big bar city. The next day I walked around the entire city because my tour of Kakadu was not till 4:30. So I just got ready for my tour and walked around the city. It is a great city and my favorite town/city in Australia. It just has this really laid back Aussie feel to it. Also it was the first time I truly felt like I was in quintessential Australia with the red dirt roads and seeing for miles. So anyway my tour was going through Kakadu National Park. Here is what wikipedia says about Kakadu:Kakadu NationalPark is in the Northern Territory of Australia, 171 km south-east of Darwin. The National Park is located within the Alligator Rivers Region of the Aldinga beach of Australia. It covers an area of 1,980,400 ha (4,894,000 acres),extending nearly 200 kilometers from north to south and over 100 kilometres from east to west. It is the size of Israel, about one-third the size of Tasmania, or nearly half the size of Switzerland.
So on that first day my tour picked us up and we went straight to our first campsite (about 2 hours away from Darwin for the night). It was located on the marrakai floodplain. But it was like a 5 minute walk from this NT bar. So after dinner and setting up our tents we all walked to the bar and had a couple of drinks. The best part about this bar (other then the true blue aussie locals we met) was the fact they had baseball on tv. I was the only American on the tour, and in the bar, so I explained the game to everyone. Sadly it wasn't the red sox playing, it was the phillys and the brewers but I still loved watching baseball. That night we slept under the stars, in just sleeping bags. It was the beautiful thing I have ever seen. The sky was amazing. I could see all the stars and the milky way. Yes the milky way. It was incredible.

Next day we headed to a tour of a river in the corroboree billabong which is part of the mary river system. We went on this boat tour. They told us about a million times to not stick our hands out of the boat, and ten minutes later we learned why. We saw crocodiles. Not just one either, like a lot. It was so cool. Then we went into this huge area just full of lily flowers. We just sat there for a while playing, and eating lily seeds (taste a little like cashews).

Later that day we drove to kakadu national park and went to Ubirr rock and Nourlangie rock. They are two of the most famous aboriginal rock art area in Australia and date back 20,000 years. We then went on a few more hikes to see different parts of kakadu. There was amazing scenery, and what was cooler was to know that in 6 weeks that area would look completely different because it would turn to the wet season (I obviously went in the dry season). After that hike we went to Jim Jim Falls. During the wet season they are nearly impossible to get to, because it's a water fall, but during the dry season the water fall dries up and you can swim in the bottom part. It was overwhelming because you would lay on your back in this pool of freshwater and you were just surrounded by rock that were has high as building. The cool thing was you could climb up on parts of the rock and go cliff jumping, which we did, which was also really fun. Later that night, we started a camp fire made some yummy camp fire food and sat around and drank beer and talked. I really grew to like some of the people in my group. That night I also saw my first shooting star. It went through nearly half the sky. I honestly cant say enough about how beautiful the stars were, they were so bright because of lack of light population that they nearly lite the whole sky up.

The next day we also spent in kakadu going on more hikes through out the park. We also went to twin falls, which are two waterfalls. Sadly, they were barely waterfalls because it was the dry season, but it was still really pretty to see. Plus I love twin things. After a 4wheel drive tour of another part of kakadu we were off back to Darwin. BUT on the way back our air-conditioning broke. And you couldn't open the windows of the van. I seriously think it was the hottest I have ever been in my whole life, like my body was melting. But it was all in good aussie spirit, and I felt like quite the explorer. Later that night in Darwin my whole group met up for dinner and some drinks. Darwin bars are known to have drinking games, and the American in me won a lot of them and won us all free beer, so needless to say I had many friends that night at the bar. But I went to bed pretty early to catch my plane the next morning. People think things in Aussie are close, but they are defiantly not. My plane ride was 4/5 hours. I'll show a picture of the size of aussie compared to the us on my picture website so you can see too. My friend

Last weekend I traveled to Melbourne. It's the second biggest city in Australia. (Sydney being the biggest, followed by Melbourne. Wollongong is rated 9th biggest). The first day I was there I walked around the center of the city. Melbourne is known as the shopping capital of Australia, and although it was very very hard I didn't buy anything. It is a great city though, very clean and chic. Street Art is legal in the alleys and the alleys have these massive cool murals and paintings on them. I spent a ton of time just walking up and down the alleys looking at them all. The next day I headed out on a tour of The Great Ocean Road. The Great Ocean Road is a 273 km stretch of road along the south-eastern coast of Australia between the Victorian cities. It's just this huge stretch of road with all these beautiful beaches and mountain views. The most common tourist attraction is the 12 apostles. When our bus reached this area we had the option of going up over the road and the 12 apostles in a helicopter. For 70 aussie dollars, which is about 50 american dollars how can you pass that up? Well I didn't and I am so glad too. Because the sky and water was so clear, you could literally see dolphins in the water if you wanted to. So in the helicopter I saw the landforms: 12 apostles, London bridge, The Gorge. They were really spectacular. Then after the helicopter we drove down to see them all. We rolled back around into Melbourne later that night and I went out with my friends and experience the town. The next day was one of my favorite days I SAW THE PENGUINGS!!! IN THE WILD! Now we all know how much I love penguins and happy feet (which was made in/by an Australian company) and I got to see those penguins in the wild. We couldn't take pictures because it hurts their eyes, but on the picture website I have pictures I stole from the internet. The penguins were sooooo cute. We had to wait till night time to see them, and when they came up to the beach I swear I almost cried. The waddled up to the beach right by us. They were all chit chatting to each other and were soooo cute. Seriously it was like my favorite thing ever. I'm so lame I know. Then the next day before my plane flight I walked around the city with my friend matt. We went to the Botanical gardens and the major touristy city things. Then, we took the plane back later that night. Only thing that would have made that weekend better would be if the red socks won, but hey, I understand there good luck charm (me) is not in Boston at the moment ;)

Well there you have it. Looking at all the pictures should keep you all busy for a while. Expect more entries soon because I'm going to Uluru (Ayers Rock/The Outback) on Tuesday. Also I have been on a ton of day trips that I need to write about too. Love you all! miss you!

<3 me