February Of The Penguins

Melbourne, Victoria

Australia

Currently going on a month in Urban Central, a fantastic hostel. I give it five stars, and a heartyrecommendation to anyone visiting Melbourne. Free pasta, rice, seasonings, milk, tea, coffee and breakfast (if you manage to get up in the AM). And free towels -- love the fluffy. Not to mention rooms of only four, and the bar. There's a bar. Where they hold daily happy hour and themed nights: karaoke, ladies night, competitions. All forms of mayhem.

And a personal victory: I scored a bottom bunk. No but seriously, my bunk is prime. It’s ridiculous the things that make you happy when you’re backpacking. For example: I got to the room first so I got the bottom bunk – so I don’t have to climb the ladder to get into bed every night AND I can hang my clothes from the top bunk AND I can keep my suitcase under my bed. PRIME. AND my night light works AND I got the locker closest to my bed AND my bunkmate is super cool. Livin' the dream, right?

Melbourne is great. Now THIS is my favorite city. The main thing I love is the good vibe. It’s busy and there are tons of young people, everybody’s super friendly, lot’s to do, CRAZY nightlife.Although I still have a lot of exploring to do because I have been staying near the hostel (but there’s so much even here!)

Since I got to Melbourne I have become penguin obsessed. That’s right, penguins. Now you may be saying to yourself, “I didn’t know there were penguins in Australia,” and you see, this is where the obsession begins.

In Melbourne, you can go down the pier in an area suburb called St. Kilda, and watch the penguins waddle out of the water and climb into the rocks on shore. This is such a thing to do, even the Australia’s go to see it. So me and Garrett, went to go see the penguins in St. Kilda and had been warned that it get’s really cold out on the pier at night. Heading the warning and clad in pants and sweaters and a bag of wine in our backpacks we set out on our adventure. That was one of the hottest days Melbourne has seen this year. It was literally about 110* F out, even after the sun was down it was still hot. We’re out on the pier just sweating and drinking hot wine and watching penguins waddle up the shore.

They were adorable! About a foot tall and roughly 2 pounds each, I wanted to steal one!!! Even more than I wanted to steal a koala, I had plans to case the zoo and steal a koala. They’d waddle up sometimes two at a time, into their little nests where they feed their even tinier and fluffy baby penguins.

That was round one of Mission “See more penguins than you even cared to.” Round two was about a week later. We decided to go again because last time we didn’t get there until 9:30 PM so we thought we might have missed something. We didn’t. This time we got there an hour and a half before the penguins did and it was freezing and I had to pee and I was with a big group of guys who thought this was hilarious. Fun.

But that’s not all! Oh no, there’s a round three! Round three was going to Phillip Island where

they have the Penguin Parade – this was truly impressive. But first it should be explained that we were on a tour so did a couple of other activities before the Penguin Parade. For one, we went to this look out because there are usually penguins in that area even during the day. However, there were not because it was so heinously windy that day. Now I had been cold that whole day so I went and bought another sweater to put on top of the one I was already wearing and pants to wear underneath my dress. I know, sexy. Actually, I kinda looked like a penguin, like, a cold penguin.

Not the point, so now I’m finally warm and kind of cocky about it, teasing my friends about how cold they are, like I do. We take this long trail up to the lookout and even though there were no penguins, it’s just breathtaking. We do the tourist thing and take a bunch of pictures, when out of nowhere it’s just starts pouring. And remember, it’s already crazy windy, so when it begins pouring it’s rough and it hurts. My ear was giving me trouble the rest of the night because the rain had been assaulting it in what we so euphemistically call a “shower.” Everyone totally freaked out and went running for the bus and people are slipping and falling all over the place like we were racing down a Slip’n’Slide, the rain just pummeling us the whole way. We finally get back to the bus, only to realize that now we’re going to wait for the penguins outside, in the cold, in soaked clothes. Can I just say, less than ideal.

Frozen to the core, the 700 penguins marching out of the water and up into the hills made it worth it. And they walk beside this boardwalk that we walk on, so you’re literally a foot away from them.At this point it’s cliché and kind of redundant, but I can’t help it: They’re soooooooooooooo cute!!!!! They run like in little packs together, and even when they pooped midrun it was adorable – sounded like squirting ketchup on a hot dog.

It was just really really cool. That day we were we also went to a beach (which was a frigid kind of cold), a chocolate factory and the “Australian Garden.” The Australian Garden was really beautifully groomed and there were like themes and modern architecture throughout . One of the coolest gardens I’ve been to here. Keep in mind they have gardens here like Foster City has parks -- we’re talkin EVERYWHERE.

And the chocolate factory. Oh the chocolate factory. Chocolate everything, including chocolate penguins (seriously, I never need to see another penguin for the rest of my life). Chocolate shoes, chocolate village, chocolate mural - impressive. And they give you all these free samples while you tour the place, and you get to make your own chocolate bar – including the option of wasabi chocolate. I passed on that one. Mmmmm.. I need to go buy some more chocolate. And penguins.

I also went on another tour where I went swimming with seals and dolphins. It was really sweet because they’re wild animals totally in their natural habitat, and then we're just there, swimming in the ocean.

That was a hell of a day. We got out there and first we went snorkeling. Now I love snorkeling, but I truly wish we hadn’t gone snorkeling that day. It was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cold. Oh. My. God. Now we got in the water three times: to snorkel, to swim with seals, and to swim with dolphins. And I wish we hadn’t gone snorkeling because I had no idea how ferociously cold it was until we hopped in, then I had to get out and KNOWINGLY subject myself to the shock another two times. I mean we had wet suits, but even once I was in I wasn’t willing to put my head under because I was already so cold. It wasn’t snorkeling so much as it was just swimming around in circles whimpering.

But then we went swimming with the seals and that was really cool. They’re so adorable and funny. What it is, is there’s this platform that a bunch of seals gather and sit on, and then we just swim around it and them. They’d swim around you and dive under you. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to touch them because it promotes the spreading of disease, but they were still cute. But oh baby do they stink. And their breath is, well, there’s no way to describe it without being profane. So take my word for it: it stinks.

And then we went swimming with dolphins. At this point I was so borderline hypothermia that I did not even want to go in, but then they get you all ready and you have to jump in on their cue, so there was no time to think about backing out. So I went for it, and it was pretty similar to the seals, they play and swim around you and dive under you. They are one of THE most graceful animals I’ve ever seen. But what I really enjoyed about that part was sitting on the boat and spotting dolphins because they’re everywhere. Even though there was this big huge sailboats race, they just swim alongside the boats and they love playing in the wake of the boats. That part may have even been better because I got to take off my wetsuit and put on my sweater.

And the sail boat race was really cool, too. As we were coming back from the dolphins I’m looking out on the water and I see a white flag. And I don’t think anything of a huge white flag in the middle of the ocean until I look back and it’s suddenly smaller. It was a sailboat sinking.

Take it in, reread it. It was a sailboat sinking.

The “flag” was the sail. It was crazy how quickly that thing went down, too. I mean kind of frightening. So our boat high tailed it back and picked them up until the coast guard came and took the stranded back to shore.

And the people didn’t even seem that freaked out, although they might have been in shock.There was one guy was all freaking out about where it went down, because he wanted to try and get it back. I guess these boats run about seventy grand, and if you can get it back you can restore them and race them again. Crazy.

In other news: I am currently, reluctantly, looking for a job and an apartment. Very reluctantly.Honestly, I’ll be a little more enthusiastic when something turns up, but for now the hunt is on! (because the money is low!)

Love you guys, and miss you a boatload!!!!!

XOXO