One Twenty Five

Despite having a place to move into this Monday (high-five! high-five! for that), I still feel like I’m traveling through Melbourne, as apposed to living in Melbourne.  This, of course, is probably because as I type this I am surrounded by five other beds, with five other girls sleeping on them.

Hostels. Hostels are da bomb (deal with it, we’re bringing that phrase back). I have stayed in a colourful array of places since September - some clean, tidy, just-like-hotels-really, and then I’ve stayed in umm… I shall not speak of Cambodia’s hostels (cough rats cough).

ANYWHO, so a few days ago there was a turn over in my hostel (PHEW. As we had a serious snorer in here) and four lovely ladies moved in with me: Maileene (19 / Holland), Jasmine (24 / Swiss), and Cathy (42 / Irish) and within a few minutes of meeting we had hashed out a plan to rent a car, and hit up Australia’s Great Ocean Road.

Spontaneous trips? One of my favourite things in the world.

Firstly, I was one of two drivers and y’all - with the exception of a few “wait. is this the wrong, or right side of the road? OHMYGOD I’M ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD” moments I was a complete rock star and we all arrived alive.

Onwards! To the coast!

The gang (L-R: Maleene, Jasmine, Mwah and Cathy) a mere hour or two into our trip stopping for some grub. And by ‘grub’ I mean pastries from heaven.

The actual drive is about 4 hours, but it took us 7 hours. Why? Because LOOK! STOP THE CAR! Photos. Photos. Photos. Photos. IT’S SOOOOO BEAUTIFUL. Kangaroo!! Self Portrait. Photos. I need to pee. STOP THE CAR.

Jasmine was very excited.

I’ve been lucky enough to drive Aruba’s coast, Croatia’s coast and now part of Australia’s coast, all incredibly beautiful in their own way. (Note: if you are ever traveling I highly recommend renting a car to drive the coast - you won’t regret it!)

Obviously this had to happen. Obviously. And don’t mind the dirty, dirty hair.

We stopped to sea (tehehe) a lighthouse and get whip lashed by the wind.

AND. Then our car broke down. And by broke down I mean spewed oil all over its hood. Luckily four British guys came to our rescue. We like to think it wasn’t the driving of a Canadian driving on the left, or an Irish who had never driven an automatic that killed the car. *insert shifty eyes here*

And then our little car was back on the road!

We missed sunset at the 12 Apostles by 3.2 seconds (true story), but still - it was gorgeous!!

Something I’ve realized-noticed-obereserved since arriving in Oz is how early everything closes. I’m used to 24 hour diners, Pizza Pizza, pubs serving food until close, but oh-no, not here. Which meant when we rolled into a tenny-tiny town at 10pm finding a place to rest our heads, and something to NOM on was incredibly hard. But once again, we pulled through, and I’m pretty sure I devoured the best. pizza. of. my. life.

It must also be noted that I tried and despised Vegemite.

And then suddenly we were back on the Great Ocean Road, learning about each others pasts, each others stories, and singing along to Gavin Degraw (seriously, the radio didn’t work and we only had one CD).

Here some of my favourite photos, from one of my favourite road trips. If you get the chance, I hope you dance drive Great Ocean Road. It’s spectacular!

(Ps. You can view my complete Great Ocean Road photo album here)