Short and Pale Travel: Great Ocean Road, Coffee, and American Bartenders

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Ok, so we have been in Victoria for just under a week, but we've packed in quite a bit. As Kels mentioned, we stayed in Torqauy at the entrance of the Great Ocean Road. Were told that this is pretty much the mecca of Australian surf. From what we were told, both Quick Silver and Rip Curl have large offices directly in the area. Ripcurl holds their RipCurl Open (part of the World Championships) 5km's out of town on Belles Beach (For all you Point Break fans, that's the beach where Utah handcuffs Bodhi in the final scene). Unfortunately we missed the surf competition (and I like to think, Gary Busey and Keanu) by one day, but the beaches were still amazing. The Great Ocean Road is very similar to highway 1 back home... only with more animals that can kill you.

We stopped in a handful of towns on the way out, but when we came across Lorne, we decided that was the spot to stick around for a while. A lot of these little towns are similar to the central coast, but I would say Lorne was most similar to Carmel. It was extremely nice, with a small but impressive downtown. Their main street is right across from their local beach. The town and beach are surrounded by some sort of pine, eucalyptus, and cypress trees (like I said, similar to Carmel) . Just like every other Aussie, these people didn't have a care in the world. Side Note: Aussies are coffee snobs! But for good reason, they have the best coffee They have things called “Flat White” (coffee with milk), “Long Black” (double shot of espresso with water), and “short black” (single shot with water). If you don't tell the barista that you want sugar in your coffee when you order it, THAN TOO BAD, YOU'RE NOT GETTING IT! There is even a local joke that puts the coffee culture in perspective here: you know you're in Melbourne when people are more impressed by you being a Barista than a Barrister. Seriously though, I don't even like coffee, but it is amazing here and I look forward to it everyday. We stopped by at Eskine Falls, which at this time of year is more like “Erskine Water Trinkling Down Cliff,” but the scenery was beautiful. We decided to skip the 12 apostles (it was another 2.5 hours out, then it would be 5 hours back to Melbourne), and take our time heading back to Melbourne. We stopped back in Torquay and hit up some of the surf shops. Kelsey took over driving, and surprise surprise, she is far better than I am at driving out here.

We finally arrived in Melbourne proper around 7:30 that night, met our host at our 2^nd air-bnb, and were given the rundown on the area. We are staying on the Southbank in S. Yarra, right next to the domain and botanical gardens. Melbourne is known for it's food, in particular it's varieties of Asian cuisine. We stopped at a Japanese restaurant on Chapel street and were not disappointed. I wouldn't call it the best food we've had out here, but it was definitely satisfying. The vibe of Melbourne is similar to that of Boston, or New York on a very slow day. Metropolitan but not over whelming. We stopped into a “cocktail bar,” which from what I could gather is just a bar where it is acceptable for guys to drink girly drinks (Kyle, you'd LOVE this place). We had our drinks, then called it a night.

After spending about 9 hours traveling in the car the day before hand (it was a great 9 hours though), we were still pretty tired (it is surprisingly mentally exhausting driving on the other side of the road). We spent a lazy day in the botanical gardens reading and doing some over due trip planning. Then we got ready to meet with my cousin Brian, and his wonderful fiancée Vanessa. For those of you who don't know Brian, he grew up Burlingame then went to UCLA, met a lovely Aussie girl named Vanessa while studying abroad then moved half way around the world to be with her. He's been out here for 4 years working on his PhD in chemical engineering (he's probably the smartest guy I know) and Vanessa is a Melbourne native. Well, they took us out for a great dinner in one of the many lanes ways and then on for a night on the town. We saw the CBD, the Casino (and Kelsey was able to fight her gambling urges), and the rest of the South Bank. We even met a bartender who grew up in San Mateo, he bought us our beers (which is a very American thing to do apparently), God Bless America!