Melbourne Sunset

This past Sunday, Lydia and I went to one of our favorite spots overlooking the city to watch the sunset and enjoy dinner and a bottle of wine.  I brought my camera along to get some sunset photos, and ended up shooting a quick clip of the flying foxes as they make their way towards the city for dinner:



The bats are pretty incredible, and surprisingly large, not to mention great in number.

From Wikipedia: Characteristically, all species of flying foxes only feed on nectar, blossom, pollen, and fruit, which explains their limited tropical distribution. They do not possess echolocation, a feature which helps the other suborder of bats, the microbats, locate and catch prey such as insects in mid-air. Instead, smell and eyesight are very well-developed in flying foxes.

It was a picturesque Melbourne summer evening!

5 Minutes or Less: How to Catch a Kangaroo

I can't say that I've tried this yet, but I may start carrying around a Woolworths bag just in case...

Given this fine gentleman's appearance, one might suppose that he enjoys catching kangaroos for more than just the sport of it.

A Family Affair

We have our second international visitor to our Melbourne homestead, Lydia's sister Emily.  Emily arrived on Wednesday and will be staying with us for the next three weeks, enjoying the Aussie winter and checking out  what Melbourne and greater Victoria has to offer.  We kicked off Emily's visit with a drive to the Phillip Island wildlife sanctuary (Lydia and I went with a few of our good friends a couple of weeks ago) to see and pet the Australian animals:

More to come soon!

Kangaroo's Delight

A few weekends ago, Lydia and I decided to go for a quick hike up in Lysterfield Park- about a 45 minute drive from our apartment.  We've been to the park before to check out the nature hike, as we had read online that the park has an abundant population of kangaroos and swamp wallabies, but we only managed to see a couple during the hike, and we couldn't get any good pictures.  When we returned a few weeks ago, we didn't expect to really bump into any so we were a bit surprised to find a whole mob of them, and all along the foot path.

While most of the kangaroos hopped away as we continued along the path gawking (as is our duty being non-native Australians), we found a general trend among them; the larger and older the kangaroo, the more ornery and less likely he is to move in our presence.  We were growled at a couple of times by a rather geriatric Eastern Grey who had cozied up to what appeared to be a nice patch of grass:

Grandpa Kangaroo

As we continued along, we stumbled across a few more as well as some swamp wallabies.  Swamp wallabies are smaller, more timid, and arguably cuter versions of kangaroos.  They're darker in color and have rounder ears:

Photo I took at Point Nepean last weekend

An interesting fact (as highlighted in Daniel Tosh's stand-up special Happy Thoughts) is that kangaroos can't hop backwards.  To change direction, they hop forwards and whip their tail around mid-air.  This can lead to some rather jarring encounters, as if you emerge from a blind facing a kangaroo or wallaby, they'll often hop towards you to try and flee.  I had this exact experience while hiking the Great Ocean Walk with a swamp wallaby.  Standing about 6 feet away, the wallaby hopped toward me then did a mid-air about-face before he scurried away.  Although not facing us directly (so he doesn't have to turn that much), here's a video of one of the 'roos we happened upon along the path hopping away:

It's common knowledge here that kangaroos are not the smartest walks of life and they tend to make pretty big messes when you hit them in your car, so they're not really held in high esteem.  Nonetheless, Lydia and I still find them fascinating and will probably continue to take far too many pictures and videos of them.

5 Minutes or Less: Possums Love Pizza

We've neglected our blog terribly this past month, but to break the silent streak, we'd like to share an important lesson learned last Friday night while at a work-sponsored Lawn Bowling event; Possums love pizza:

I'm told these guys can be quite aggressive, but this little guy and I formed a bond that other's just can't understand.

More posts to follow shortly to catch up over the past month and a half!

Snakes, Scorpians, and Tides, Oh My!

Thanks to the Victorian Labor Day weekend (different States celebrate Labor day on different days), we had a three day weekend to plan a hiking/camping trip.  I'd heard about the Great Ocean Road a good bit from friends, which is a two-lane highway that runs along the picturesque southern Victorian coast.  My cousin Ian took a tour bus along the scenic drive when he was in town back in October, and Lydia and I knew we to wanted to go (you can read Ian's post about it here).  With the new freedom of having the Golf, we figured the long weekend would be perfect to head down to the coast before it gets too cold.  While independently researching camping in Victoria, I stumbled across the Great Ocean Walk, which runs for about 40km parallel to the Great Ocean Rd, but actually along the coast (the road has some stretches that deviate from the coastline).  We figured it'd be worthwhile as our first multi-night trip in Australia.

Kangaroo tracks along the path, and Lydia's foot backwards

The trip was really unlike any other camping trip I've been on before.  I guess the closest I could equate it to was a long weekend up on the AT with Will back in 2010, except replace Appalachian forests with Australian scrub and brush and the threat of bear attack with stinging and biting creatures.  Unlike the AT, the Great Ocean Walk is a much more closely regulated hiking trail- Australia in general is much more of a nanny State than the US, which is both endearing and annoying.  To hike the trail, we had to submit "applications," which includes a $28 fee per night per camp site, with a requirement that you cannot stay at a given camp site more than one night and you had to hike East to West.  The application fee is nice in that it guarantees that there will be a camping site available, but annoying because... well because it was $28 for a camp site per night.  Since Lydia and I did the hike with just ourselves (so only one car), we circumvented the "one night only" rule by booking the same site two nights in a row, under different names.  There was some discussion around parking the car at the end then taking a taxi back to the trail head, but since we had never hiked (or been in the area) before, and I'm inherently suspicious of Taxis, particularly in non-urban areas, we opted to just hike in, stay two nights, and hike out.  We also somewhat overlooked the "East to West" rule, as the most convenient parking and prettiest part of the hike was West of the camp site... We figured if we got caught, we could always play the 'Stupid American' card.  Fortunately enough, we were never confronted with our transgressions.

View along the ride on the hike in

The 7.6 km hike in was incredible- the trail runs all along the natural ridges that adjoin the coast, so you're almost always 50 feet above the beach and within earshot and view of the considerable waves of the Victorian coast.  The landscape and flora changes abruptly throughout the hike- from dry brush, to coastal dune scrub, to Eucalypt forests.  The trail was pretty well-marked and labeled, and I had purchased a detailed map of the walk before we left Melbourne, so we made it to our camp site relatively painlessly.  One nice thing about Australia is there are no large natural predators- no bears to evade or coyotes to be wary of.  There's also no rabies on the continent, so if you were unluck enough to be bitten by a wallaby or Koala, you'd be in the clear.  Unfortunately the lack of teeth and claws have been replaced with well-evolved venom and stingers.  Bill Bryson muses in his book, In a Sunburned Country, about how unnecessarily potent the venom of Australian creatures are, and I have to admit that I too am amazed.  Why would a snake, who need only posses enough venom to take down a mouse or frog, in fact pack a venom potent enough to kill ten men in one bite?

Eastern Brown Snake

It just so happened that our hike included an otherwise unwanted encounter with an Eastern Brown Snake, the second most venomous snake in the world- second only to the Inland Taipan (also found in Australia, though fortunately not really in Victoria).  On our day hike we took a wrong turn and ended up in some overgrown tall grass.  When we had realized our mistake, we turned to walk out when about a yard away, directly along our exit, lay the brown snake, and it wouldn't budge.  At first I grabbed a few quick photos (after all, if it's not on Facebook, it didn't happen), then tried to jump around and stomp to get the snake to head for cover- no go.  I found out later after that part of the Brown's danger, aside from the potency of its venom, is their brazen attitude toward humans. After the passive attempts failed and impassioned insults didn't work, I resorted to strategically throwing sticks to get it to move.  It took a total of three sticks to encourage the snake to make his exit, two of which had to actually make contact before he'd slither away.


In addition to our not-so-friendly Brown, we later had the pleasure of sharing our camp site with an abundant number of scorpians.  While sitting back and relaxing as the sun set, we could see little critters scamper around our camp site.  Upon closer investigation, we learned these critters were actually little scorpians, out on the hunt.  We're not exactly suer how venomous they were, but we were quite happy to not have the displeasure of finding out the hard way.

Aside from the venomous critters on the trip, we were fortunate enough to bump into less nefarious creatures over the weekend.  We came across about a half-dozen swamp wallabies, which were always as surprised to see us as we were them.  While not particularly smart animals, we found them much more endearing than a deer or rabbit, but perhaps that's simply because we're dough-eyed Americans.  The swamp wallabies are about 4 feet tall when standing upright, and they're pretty skittish.  We found that they appeared to like the camp sites due to the availability of water (each site has a large container of rain water- quite convenient, but needs to be treated/filtered).  On more than one occasion, I walked around a blind corner where I'd find myself staring face to face with one.  Typically, they'd stare back eye-to-eye for 20 seconds or so, do an about-face (Kangaroos can't hop backwards), and spring up in the brush at a safe distance, where they cautiously and inquisitively watch.  It's kind of funny really- they just hang up in the bushes and stare at you, as if taking notes.  I kind of half-expected them to try and mimic our language at some point, given how intently they appeared to study us.

Echidna along the path

We were also fortunate enough to bump into an Echidna on the hike in, which are marsupial versions of the porcupine.  They aren't particularly gifted with hearing, sight, or intelligence, so they're pretty easy to sneak up on.  Similar to one of the wallabies we encountered, their "defense" (other than their spines) is to simply walk to the closest cover, stick there head in and pretend that since they can't see you, you can't see them, as if playing peek-a-boo.

Wreck Beach

Our adventures didn't end with the wildlife. We faced the challenge of having to gauge the tides for our Sunday hike along wreck beach.  The hike from the camp site is a loop around away and back to the coast.  It's the alternate route for thru-hikers when the tide is up, as the beach is supposedly impassable - throughout the 40 km walk, there are a number of "Decision Points" for hikers to take alternate routes depending on weather conditions and tides.  Before Lydia and I had left home on Saturday, we did have the good sense to check the tides, however we lacked the aforementioned good sense when neither of decided to write down the times.  Coupled with no cell phone reception to call the Parks Vic office or a wireless data connection, we were left to our own memories to try and recall from memory.  Lydia remembered it as around 1on, whereas I was convinced it was closer to 2:30.  We went with the assumption that high-tide was at 2:30, so that way we'd time it so we wouldn't be on the beach until after that time, to ensure that we weren't under the gun with the tides rising.  When we finally made it to the Wreck Beach, we were disheartened to find what appeared to be a high tide, and no one present who knew the actual high tide times.  We discussed it at length, weighed our options, and decided that we'd try and make a stab at making the hike.  If were reached an impassible spot, we could simply turn around and hike out the way we went in, so long as we left the beach before 4:00, to ensure that we'd have enough light for the hike back to the camp site.  Our strategy worked, where we managed to keep all but our ankles dry.  We did have a "rock scramble' where we had to climb over some rocks on the beach, but given what we had read, this was an obstacle even when the tide was out.

Lydia looking happy

Hanging by the second wreck

Aside from the imminent danger of drowning or being swept out to sea, the hike was pretty cool.  The water is absolutely beautiful and crystal clear, and along the beach you can see the remnants of two late-nineteenth century wrecks.  It's actually pretty perplexing that the ships ran aground where they did- the anchors are literally on the beach, which would imply that the captains either weren't very good navigators, or had been sipping on a bit too much rum - I'm sure that Italian cruise ship captain who's received international attention lately could better defend what appeared to be some significant oversights.

Because of our rule "circumvention", we were able to set up the second night on the best camp site, site #8, which had its own private bench overlooking the coast and ridge.  We enjoyed a dinner of Tuna Alfredo, followed by some Thai ramen, overlooking the Indian/Pacific Ocean (it's not clear to me which exactly we were looking at, and Wikipedia is not a great help).  Not to break tradition, we rounded out the evening with a bit of Wild Turkey Honey Bourbon and some Port (also known as Tawny here) over candlelight (fires are closely regulated in Australia due to the risk of brush fires, so we opted for the safer and easier option of tea candles).

Tuna Alfredo

Campsite on the ridge

On Monday, we cleaned up camp, and had a pretty uneventful hike out back to the car.  From there, we hopped in the Golf and headed 5km West to the 12 Apostles- a popular tourist spot along the Great Ocean Road which overlooks about 10 free-standing rock formations separated from the coast line.  The view was pretty stunning, which made up for the fact that there aren't actually 12 "Apostles."  We hung around for twenty minutes or so to snap some photos and see how many Japanese tourist photos we could be in, before hopping the car and taking the less-scenic (though much faster) route back to the apartment.  

"12" Apostles

Some more Apostles

To cap off the adventure, our route passed by a controlled burn which was pretty cool to see.  We got close enough to see the flames in the air, literally with the air on fire.

Controlled Burn

I think for the next trip, we'll head down to Wilson's Prom, the southernmost point in mainland Australia, and maybe with friends next time (who are better prepared in the Australian bush).  Definitely a good trip, and I give Lydia credit as a new camper.  We successfully survived our second camping adventure in Australia and are looking forward to more to come!

Teach Me How to Duggie

So this post is about a month overdue, but as work has really ramped up, I'm finding myself with less and less time to contribute to the blog.  I may have to sacrifice length and detail in the interest of keeping the blog up to date.

As indicated in one of Lydia's earlier posts, we made our first interstate trek up to Port Douglas, Queensland for a long weekend on the beach and in the warm Queensland sun.  While there is no question that Victoria is just as Australian as Queensland (and in some ways, more), we felt like we needed to head North to experience a different Australia- one where Crocs and sharks abound, where rainforests meet temperate clear blue water, and where they drink XXXX over VB.

Our chosen location of Port Douglas was not random- Lydia and I had accumulated a few free resort nights at Starwood hotels while we were road warriors in the States, and we were determined to use them before they expire at the end of the year.  Unfortunately, Australia's Starwood Restort property selection is pretty small- on the magnitude of two.

We opted for the northern most resort located in Port Douglas, north of Cairns, to experience the Australian rainforests and the Great Barrier Reef:


View Larger Map
The trip began rather dismally- in the interest of maximizing our days of vacation, (and in saving a bit of cash on the flights) we opted for a 6am flight from Melbourne to Cairns. Never again. The 6am flight meant a 4am alarm to make it to the airport with enough time to check in and get to the gate. Coupled with the fact that I was basically at the worst point of a head cold, I was not a happy camper that morning (a point to which Lydia can well attest).  It's amazing the contrast of the notion of a 6am flight when booking a flight online, versus the day of... Despite the unholy early awakening, we made it to the airport and onto our flight with no issues, and arrived in Cairns around 9am (fun fact: although not any farther West than New South Wales or Victoria, Queensland does not participate in daylight savings time) where we picked up our rental and partook on our highly anticipated first adventure; driving in Australia:

Since arriving in Australia, I'd been highly anticipating driving on the left side of the road.  It just seemed like it was a requirement to officially lay claim to living in Australia.  The novelty of it was exciting, the unfamiliarity of it a challenge.  It was surprisingly natural being on the left side of the road and the right side of the car.  Within five minutes I'd pretty much gotten the hang of it, except for the swapped "windscreen" wipers and turn signal levers (I never quite got used to that), and we only had one "uh oh" moment in a roundabout.  The trip from Cairns up to Port Douglas is a quick hour drive along the scenic John Cook highway.  The highway runs along the Queensland coast, weaving among the coastal cliffs, with some thrilling hairpin turns every few kilometers.  I had committed myself to watch the road intently, although more than a couple of times I found myself trying to steal a glance out to the right over the crystal blue water.  We found a lookout point where we pulled over to take in the views and grab some pictures:

After another twenty minutes of coastline views, we found ourselves further inland, among the sugar cane fields, zipping through tropical and pastoral scenery.  More than once we encountered some derelict construction sites complete with automated stop-light lane provisioning.  Although I've never seen these lights in the States, they are quite popular in Australia, particularly in rural or remote areas.  Essentially they replace the guys that stand at construction sites with the "Slow" and "Stop" signs when one lane is closed due to construction.  The light turns green for one direction of traffic, and red for the other, with amber (yellow) for the interim time before the lights change to allow the other direction of traffic to flow.  The system works pretty well for the most part, except it is critical for long single-lane stretches that the amber light is set to the correct amount of time to allow the traffic to clear the single lane before allowing the other direction of traffic to go.  In the event that the amber light is not timed correctly, you can essentially have two directions of traffic heading straight toward each other on one lane; not something you want when roadtrains are hauling through at 120km/hour (75m/hour).  While studying abroad in Queensland four years ago, exactly that happened to our bus on our way to Carnarvon Gorge.  Our bus driver had no choice but to quickly divert the bus onto the graded shoulder to let the road train pass, followed by an immense dust cloud.  Fortunately enough, the road workers who set the timers on the lights along our route were devoted to safety and we didn't find ourselves playing chicken with a 3-trailer tractor-trailer.

After a bit of "sightseeing" around Port Douglas (Google Maps misplaced the marker for our hotel), we found the resort and checked in.  After checking in, we made our way to the room where we collapsed onto the bed for a quick nap before heading out and exploring the resort.
We were quite impressed with the Sheraton Mirage Port Douglas resort- all of the buildings were surrounded by artificial lagoons, where we could literally step off our balcony into the water.  We stopped near the outdoor bar and ate lunch by the pools planning the rest of our day:

We knew that the resort lay on the beach, but we couldn't figure out how to get down to the water, so we headed up to the main lobby to ask.  We found the gentleman that checked us in and kindly asked him how to access the beach.  He gave us detailed instructions and almost as an afterthought before heading out, I asked him, "oh yeah, is it safe to swim?"  Without hesitation, his eyes grew wide and he responded firmly and succinctly, "No."  An awkward pause ensued where we just stared at each other- I waiting for further explanation, and he staring alertedly back at me, perhaps to add effect.  After a minute of this, my curiosity got the best of me, and I had to ask, "Why not?"  His response, which seemed well rehearsed and as if on queue, was less alarming than I was anticipating.  "It's stinger season.  We strongly urge our guests to not enter the water, as a sting can cause severe injury..." death was not mentioned as a possible outcome, but it was almost implied.  Needless to say, our concierge's theatrics paid off, and we elected to admire the beach from a safe distance, after getting in up to our ankles to test the water (hey, we've gotta live on the edge a little):

The next day, we had to wake up early to catch our ride to the pier for our private dives with Mark from Blue Dive.  We had chartered the private dive as Lydia is not yet certified and we wanted to be able to go on multiple dives together with Lydia receiving some more personalized attention.  Mark was great, he showed up right on time in the dive van with his fellow instructor Kay.  Once on the catamaran, he walked through all of the Discover Diving principles with Lydia and got us all set with gear (including stinger suits) for our first dive.  The diving was incredible!  Having dived the GBR before, I thought I could anticipate what to expect, but the reef was even more incredible than I recalled:

We had three separate dives, seeing incredible sea life on each (although my first dive was pretty limited due to my new mask fogging).  We saw countless varieties of fish, coral, and other sea life.  The highlights include four different sharks (5 foot Wobbegong, two 4+ ft Grey Reef Sharks, and a blacktip), a 4ft long sea turtle, schools of barracuda, clown fish (Nemo), surgeon fish (Dori), parrot fish, sea anemones, and fire coral.

The dives were incredible and well worth the trip up!  That evening we again met up with Ian, my cousin, to grab dinner and drinks in town.  We stumbled upon a Cane Toad race in one of the bars, which was amusing, albeit not as exciting as we had hoped.  We did get a free bottle of less-than-spectacular champagne for Lydia's efforts as the score keeper (I volunteered her :-), and we enjoyed an awesome Thai dinner.

The next day we spent lazing around the resort while Ian dove the reef.  I had my first (and probably last) professional massage- I found the whole experience awkward, and I was afraid that if I relaxed too much, I might fill the room with scents other than burning incense.  Our last day, Sunday, we picked up Ian and took a trip up to Mossman Gorge to see the Queensland rainforests:

All told, our first Australian vacation was amazing!  We had a great time driving on the left side of the road, relaxing in the resort, diving the reef, avoiding stingers, and getting up close and personal with brush turkeys.  We dropped Ian off in downtown Cairns then caught our flight back to Melbourne to head back to work the next day.

5 Minutes or Less: The Weekend in Pictures

Just a quick post of our weekend in pictures:

A view of Melbourne from Southbank Saturday night.  Lydia and I set out to see the Crown Casino Fire Show but unfortunately got sidetracked into "World Bar," which touts itself as "appealing to all cultures and tastes."  We didn't buy it and figured it's lack of discernible theme or atmosphere was due to lazy marketing...  Although we enjoyed our drinks and Entrée (appetizers here are called "Entrées", whereas Entrées are called "Mains"- Who knew the Aussies are more up-to-snuff on their French than the Americans?), we experienced first-hand the disadvantages of not practising tipping- poor service.  The wait staff were incredibly friendly, just not all-together devoted to their jobs.

On the walk home from the CBD through Fitroz Gardens, Lydia was noting how she was glad to not be walking in the park alone, for fear of someone jumping out of the bushes and grabbing her, when, on queue, this possum popped out of the trash can a mere yard away from us.  I tipped him for his performance

The next day, we made our obligatory journey to Ikea (as we do almost every two weeks) where I snapped a few photos of the Spring growth.  As we move further into October, it is becoming readily apparent that we are most definitely in a very different place.  Although still cool outside (average temperatures this week have been around 57 degrees), it is a bit odd to be watching UGA football, then walk outside to budding trees and longer days.

Melbourne in Pictures

At the risk of devaluing the literary stature of this blog (as it is obviously quite high), I've resolved to post more frequently, if only short posts with little content or just pictures... this is one of those posts :-)  Below are a handful of photos taken out and about in Melbourne over the past two weeks or so.

Fitzroy Gardens, near our apartment

Flinders Street Station- Iconic Melbourne

Flinders St station and Eureka tower (tallest building in Melbourne)

Spooky Possum

Different, bolder Possum 

Things etc Part II

I stepped back and reread my previous posts and realized that when read successively, my posts may misrepresent my attitude about moving to Australia and perhaps indicate that I am lamenting or apprehensive in moving and will feel deprived while living down under. Obviously, this isn't the case. While there is no question I will miss many things that I take for granted now, I know that there are so many things in Australia that I am so looking forward to.  In an effort to move away from the motif of "stuff that I'm going to miss," in my previous posts, here's a short, non-comprehensive list of things that I am very much looking forward to:

1. An apartment - While my parents have graciously let me use their house as my "home base" for the past 20 months, I haven't really felt like I've had my own place since college.  As nice as it's been not having to pay rent (thanks again to the parents), I am looking forward to the benefits of having a place to call my own, to furnish and decorate as I (and more importantly, Lydia) like, and a place to have friends and guests over.  After all, throwing keggers at your parents is just bad form
2. Tim Tams - I'm not really one for chocolate treats, as I typically prefer savory/salty over sweet, but Tim Tams are an exception.  While on study abroad, these Australian cookies were akin to cigarettes in prison; I could barter for just about anything with a pack of Tim Tams; extra credit from the TA, a new backpack, beer, a shiv, you name it.

Photo courtesy of gingermermaid's blog
3. Australian attitude - distinctly friendly, fun-loving, jovial, and slightly self-deprecating, the Aussie attitude is incredibly welcoming and infectious.  When traveling abroad in Europe, I consistently would find myself gravitating towards the Aussies and their hospitality and inclusiveness; in general, they are incredibly fun to hang with.  I cannot wait to be entirely encompassed by it and embrace it.
4. Pademelons - Australia isn't all about killer spiders, AC/DC-loving sharks, or menacing "I will eat your face" birds; it has some pretty ridiculously cute "I want to hug you forever and ever until the end of time" animals as well.  My favorite? The Pademelon:
   
   
   "I can haz Tim Tam?" Photo from the Robsons blog
   As the smallest member of the family macropods, pademelons are closely related to the Kangaroo, although unlike their larger cousins, they do not grow larger than 7KG (~15 lbs).  To be fair, pademelons are not found in Victoria as they're habitat is further up north in Queensland and New South Wales, so we wont be seeing them daily, but we are privileged to share the same continent as these adorable little dudes.
   
5. Water sports - Having been on several PADI "Discover Dives," including dives in the Great Barrier Reef and in Fiji, I decided that I wanted to get certified so I could dive independent of an instructor and at greater depths.  My last semester at UGA, I enrolled in a PADI Open Water dive course to get my certification.  I sincerely enjoyed the class and the instructed dives, but since being certified I haven't dived once.  Living on the east coast with the Atlantic's murky waters and shallow depths doesn't lend itself to convenient or impressive diving.  However in Melbourne, we'll be kilometers (at most) from the beach and I'm hoping to take full advantage of the close proximity to embrace diving, snorkeling, kite surfing, swimming, and surfing.
   
   
   Yours truly diving in Fiji
   
   
6. New Experiences - As noted in my first post, it has been a life goal of mine for some time to live and work abroad, particularly Australia.  While I love traveling to new destinations and seeing new places, I can't help but distinguish the difference between "seeing" a place and "knowing" a place.  I loved Dublin, but if asked how to get from St. Stephen's Green to Mount Jerome, I wouldn't have a clue without the assistance of Google Maps or my TomTom.  Similarly, I used to love visiting my sister and friends up in Athens before I lived there, but I didn't have a full appreciation for the city until I lived there for years.  Even traveling to and working up in DC for a year and a half, I still could not familiarize myself entirely with the city since I wasn't actually living there full time.  It never ceases to amaze me how one place can transform over time, how the unfamiliar can become integral to one's being.  I can't wait to have a full knowledge and appreciation for Melbourne and to Australia as a whole.  I'm looking forward to meeting new friends from different places, backgrounds, and experiences and to witnessing places, events, and spectacles that can only be appreciated by living in Melbourne.  I'm excited to gain international career experience, working alongside and with both Australian and international people.  Most of all, I'm just excited to be moving somewhere as unique and beautiful as Australia and for all of the life experiences that will ensue.
   

The best part about this list is I know its no where near complete, as I am certain there are things I have even yet to experience that would make, if not trump, the above list.