Love Me

WARNING: Beast of a blog ahead….

Characters: Devin, Elyse, Cameron, Caitlin, Lindsey, Patrick (Lindsey’s brother), Ned (Cameron’s surprise) and me…duh

Friday…

…started with a train ride to Sydney to board the 9:50 PM flight to Melbourne. Our flight got in at 11 something and we stumbled off the tiny jet plane into the smallest airport that I have ever seen in my life. A bus drove us the 45 minutes to our hostel, which I mistakenly assumed was from another planet. I guess they call it the Discovery Hostel for a reason because we definitely discovered some new things: rotten smells, yellow and brown stained pillows, fights that you can hear through the walls, and 'men' who cake on the makeup. But at 1:30 in the morning when your day started at 5:15, you just are thankful for a bed.

Saturday…

…We picked up the rental cars in the morning and began our journey through Melbourne to begin our trek down Great Ocean Road and see the sights. Boy, were we in for a drive! Devin had mapped out a few mandatory stops on the way and we drove that coastline like Jeff Gordon on happy pills. We affectionately named our cars Rape Dust (like ruffee) and Bloody Knuckles. Don’t laugh, Lindsey and Cameron are really creative.

This entire day was epic but I’ll try to stick to the good stories…

We stopped for lunch in Lorne and got some amazing smoothies and burgers and such…I almost ate at this place called The Bottle of Milk so I could order things off the menu like “What Everybody Gets,” “Bingo Bango,” ‘Hell Yeah,” or “Italian Stallion.” Creativity gets me every time. Then we happened upon a little park with in ground trampolines. Like a little kid of Christmas, I raced down there, slipped my shoes off, and bounced down the line of 5 trampolines as quick as my little legs would allow. After knocking several children over, (just go with it, it makes the story better) the loudspeaker comes on and a voice from heaven (or hell) says “You’re not supposed to be doing that. You have to pay for these, you know!” So I scampered away, obviously delighted with myself.

We managed to see the lighthouse and met the tour guide who recommended that we drive up Grey River Road and see the koalas that chill out in the trees up there. Supposedly they were full of them. Like the tourists we are, we bee lined for that and weren’t disappointed. Well, not that we saw a bunch of them, but we saw five or six. But the highlight of the trip was unexpected: on our way back to Great Ocean Road from the koalas, we saw a huge flock of parrots all over these four or five people. Of course we stopped and we quickly figured out that all it takes is a few peanuts for these friendly (but greedy) little guys to perch all over you.

We spent a good amount of time here, laughing at Lindsey dancing with birds clinging to her hair and Patrick, who looked like a man of the birds. Go figure, they loved him. Ten minutes later (or an hour…time flew!.....sorry, that was a really corny joke) we were on the road again.

It was really easy to get distracted by all of the places we saw along the way to stop at so we were making slower timing than we had planned. Our main goal was to reach the Twelve Apostles before the sun went down so we pushed for that. Make that Eleven...one of them fell. Wow. That was the best decision we made the entire trip. We made it just in time for sunset and were rewarded with some of the most spectacular displays of God’s glory that I have seen since I was in Greece last summer. It was one of those places that you just stand there and are overwhelmed by how tiny you are. Here is one of our 50 billion amazing pictures of those apostles taken by one of the photographically-gifted girls on our trip...After the Twelve Apostles, we set off for our hostel in the far away city of Port Fairy. We made excellent timing, so we got in around 8 and had a nice early sleep. We actually had a little cottage-like thing with bunk beds and a king bed. It was delightful and we laughed at our pictures and marveled at all of the breathtaking things we had experienced. Caitlin and Elyse provided late night entertainment with their sleep-talking conversations and we awoke ready for another blissful day in paradise.

Sunday…

…Paradise ran away from us. Clouds and rain found us. Luckily, nothing was going to damper our spirits! Well, several things tried to get Devin, but we got back up, wiped off our grubby selves and got right back on adventurer’s avenue. Want to hear about Devin’s misfortunes? Of course you do. Hmm…allergy-stricken eyes in the hostel, toe stubbed open at home, leaf cuts, and THEN….at the Grotto, we were standing on this overpass that looked down into mirror pools of turquoise water. Devin was having fun throwing rocks into them but just decided that rocks weren’t good enough so she decided to send her nice Nikon camera on a little trip. Patrick retrieved it and miraculously enough, the memory card is still fully loaded! Jesus likes to insert beauty into sadness. It’s refreshing. So two seconds of tears later, we were on our way to the Blowhole, Thunder Cave, and Sherbrooke River. Cameron was sweet enough to capture the moment of Devin needing a shoulder to cry on. This is real life...

Umm…yeah. That’s all I can say. I really can’t think of any way to describe the awesomeness. The ocean waves crashed with such an intensity, you could feel it resounding in your soul.

Then we found a little hole in the ground. Devin wanted to know if it was mud, quicksand, or rock so she asked me to test it out for her. Being as brilliant as I am, I jumped on the opportunity to ‘explore.’ I found out pretty quick that it was a puddle of sucky mud. It was actually like ice skating on mud. I like to say that I was just saving Devin from another mishap.

Back in the car we went and finished the drive back to Melbourne. Hours of windy roads, dramamine, and sing-a-longs later we parked it at Victoria Hall Hostel in the heart of the city... seemingly sketchy on the outside but wickedly cool on the inside. The group went to the casinos and skytower while I sat in our room like a good little student and worked on my final paper. Lame, but the end is in sight! Classes finished last week and we are busy turning in our final papers and taking final exams.

Monday…

…rise and shine! Cameron, Caitlin, and Lindsey woke up at the buttcrack of dawn (5:15) to take Elyse to the airport to catch her flight home. She had a final exam in the afternoon so she had to leave early. Then we drove to Brighton Beach to see the colorful little shacks that litter the beach. We took way too many pictures and even found a Clemson one. We took the compulsory Clemson flag picture with it and called it a day. We had to be back to catch the bus to the airport at 1:30 PM so we drove back to the city, grabbed lunch at a little café, turned Rapedust and Bloody Knuckles into the ‘authorities,’ and waved goodbye to the beautiful city of Melbourne. Really, it is such a gorgeous city…Devin is already planning her return trip.

Well, congratulations for powering through that mini-novel! We are now sitting on the train from Sydney back to Newcastle, reflecting on the weekend’s happenings and preparing to make it through one last week of school. Wait, did I say sitting? I mean dancing, singing, and marching through the train to Caitlin's favorite: Justin Bieber. What is this world coming to?

Brandi, our roommate, left for home today and we can’t believe it’s already June. Our group of seven is now six…reality is setting in. Our time here is dwindling …but we can’t wait to see all of you!