Day 1 – Friday, December 29^th

The day had finally come. After counting down for hundreds of days, the day that I had been anxious, hesitant, and super excited for had finally come. When I woke up, I got some breakfast in bed. After I finished, I packed up some last-minute toiletries in my carry on and then we were off. Both my parents were generous enough to take off work to drive me to Toronto Pearson International Airport to see me off. We left Victor, NY around 7:30am, stopped and got some coffee and then hit I-90. We arrived at the airport around 11am for my 2:40pm flight. I got in line with Cathay Pacific airlines to check my 40L backpack.

Once I said an easy goodbye to my bag until Melbourne, Australia, my parents, and I grabbed some lunch at the airport to enjoy. Once we finished, it was time for me to head through security and find my gate. At this point I was no longer nervous or anxious about this trip. I was determined to have an unforgettable trip no matter what could go wrong. I found my gate and just relaxed until we started boarding around 2:15pm.  Once on the plane, we sat on the tarmac about an hour and a half due to snowy conditions on the runway. This leg of my flight went from Toronto to Hong Kong, with a flight length of 15 and a half hours in the sky. I tried to stay up majority of the flight since the time during that flight was daytime for Australia. To entertain myself, I watched movies, TV shows and listened to a lot of music. The airline served two meals during my flight which were delicious, except I wasn’t expecting caramel ice cream as the flavor for dessert.

Day 2 – Saturday, December 30^th

I landed in Hong Kong around 9:30pm and then I found my next gate to catch my 9 and a half hour flight from Hong Kong to Melbourne that was due out at 12:05am on the 31^st.

Day 3 – Sunday, December 31^st

On this flight, there was not a lot of people on the plane, so I was lucky enough to get the whole row to myself, so I could lay down and sleep for majority of the flight. This leg of my journey served two meals as well, I had Sesame pork, rice, steamed vegetables, bread, vanilla ice cream and prawn & quinoa salad for dinner. Then for breakfast, I was served an omelette, sausage, bacon, yogurt, and fresh fruit. Both meals were way over my expectations for airplane food.

The flight landed very smoothly (best landing I’ve ever experienced on a plane) at 12:30pm in Melbourne, Australia. Once off the plane, I claimed my bag and then headed to find the SkyBus that takes you from the airport into the central bus/train station in Melbourne.

The whole bus ride only lasted about 20 minutes and then from the bus/train station, I had about a 5-minute walk to my hostel. I stayed at Melbourne YA hostel for two nights, both nights in a 3-bed female dorm. Once I checked in and dropped my bags off in my room, I was very ready for a shower after traveling for the last 36 hours. Once I got all freshened up and dressed, I planned where I wanted to go that day. I decided on the Melbourne Aquarium which was conveniently right down the road from my hostel. Once there, I picked up the Merlin Annual Pass that I had purchased which gave me admission to over 7 attractions in Melbourne, Sydney, and Auckland.

The aquarium was lovely, and they had a lot more tropical fish and more Australian-specific fish than any other aquarium I have ever been to. My favorites were the blow fish, sea horses and the penguins. Once I was through with the aquarium, I headed back to the central train station to go to one of their well-known grocery stores, Woolworth’s. I got some food for myself for a late lunch and dinner that day. After that, I found a Krispy Kreme’s and for you from Rochester, NY you know that our location in Henrietta, NY closed about 10 years ago. Obviously, I had to get some Krispy Kreme donuts, so I got a 4-pack of a variety of flavors. Back at my hostel, I had an Asian sesame salad for a late lunch and had one of my donuts for dessert. From there, I went down in the lobby of the hostel and planned more of what I wanted to do around Melbourne. Around 6pm, I headed to Mad Mex to get some nachos for dinner (it was their version of a Moe’s). I stopped at a liquor store on the walk back to the hostel to grab a small bottle of sparkling rosé wine for New Year’s Eve. I ended up napping from about 8pm—11:30pm since I was so exhausted from traveling. At 11:55pm, I got locked out of my room because my room key stopped working and I didn’t have my phone or anything. I went downstairs to get a new key from reception, but they were not there (which was only slightly annoying even though it said 24-hour reception). Finally, one of my roommates came back from the fireworks and let me into the room around 12:30am. One of the perks of getting locked out was that I did end up getting to see the 12am fireworks being set off around Melbourne. I facetimed my boyfriend once I was back in my room to say happy new year and catch up a bit. Around 1am, I finally got to bed.

Day 4 – Monday, January 1^st

• Breakfast: pineapples, cheese, and cliff bar
• Lunch: noodles and chips
• Dinner: Ham and pepperoni pizza

This morning, I woke up around 9am to get an early start to my day. I had some breakfast in the lobby of the hostel and figured out some tran routes to get to where I wanted to visit today. I took the tran into East Brunswick to see the Carlton gardens, royal exhibition building and went into the Melbourne Museum.

The museum was the best museum I have been in to date, it had psychology, animal, history, aboriginal, aquarium, and forest exhibits. It was definitely worth the $15AUD to get in and I highly recommend going to it.

After I was done at the museum, I walked a few blocks to Parliament park which was also beautiful. There was a large water fountain in it as well.

I then took the tran back to the hostel and explored some of the shops and local area around the hostel. I then went back to the hostel and relaxed in the lobby and met some people and talked about our travels. Since it was New Year’s Eve back home, I facetimed my boyfriend at 4pm Melbourne local time for midnight in New York’s time. For dinner, I got a Domino’s pizza (only $5AUD!) which I shared with my roommates then chatted with them for a while before I called it a day.

Day 5 – Tuesday, January 2^nd

• Breakfast: cheese, cliff bar
• Lunch: The Elephant & Wheelbarrow (got a burger with fries and white wine $20)
• Dinner: none (whoops)

This morning I had to check out of my hostel and so I put my luggage in their lockers, so I wouldn’t have to carry it around all day. I took the tran to the parliament stop and got to see the parliament building.

This morning I wasn’t feeling too well so I went to the pharmacy to get some throat lozenges. After that, I headed to my Japanese bath house appointment at 11am at Onsen Ma. I had a 60-minute sauna/steam bath followed by a 45-minute relaxing oil massage and it was incredible. The bath house was very traditional with taking your shoes off and putting on a robe.

The bath and massage were exactly what I needed after flying over 36 hours a few days ago. After my massage, I got lunch at The Elephant & Wheelbarrow where I got a burger with fries and a glass of white wine for $20AUD.

I then walked around the shops in that area for a while then took the tran back to the hostel. On the tran, I met an older couple, so I talked to them while waiting for my stop to come up. Since I didn’t have a room at the hostel anymore, I just sat in the lobby and used the wi-fi. Then around 5:45pm I headed to the SkyBus station to get on the 6:20pm bus that was heading for Melbourne Avalon airport.

This bus ride took about 45 minutes and I sat with an American girl from Colorado who had been living in Sydney. The flight departed around 8:30pm and then we landed in Sydney at 11pm. I took the train from the domestic terminal into the central station of the city which only took about 10 minutes. Then I only had a 5-minute walk to my hostel, The Village Surry Hills. Once there, I checked into my 4-bed female dorm and went to bed as soon as I got to the room.