Travel: PHILLIP ISLAND (AND PENGUINS!), AUSTRALIA

I had a late pick-up for my Phillip Island tour so had a leisurely morning in Melbourne (read about my time in that beautiful city here), before waiting outside my hostel to be collected for the days adventures. With longer drives like this one, tour companies often put a midway point into the journeys, and ours was Maru Wildlife Park. We had a brief talk on koalas from one of the keepers and were then given free rein to wander around until we were due back on the bus. 

Having been in Australia for a year, there were few Aussie animals that I hadn't seen many a time, but this was my first time seeing albino kangaroos, and I also enjoyed getting up close with gliders and Tasmanian Devils. 

We continued on to Phillip Island, our main destination of the day. Our first stop was Woolamai Beach, a glorious and practically deserted stretch of beach which was very pleasant to walk along, albeit rather windy.

Our next stop was the GP Racetrack where we spent a few moments watching bikes tear around the course. Apparently anyone can use the course, but I have to say, at the speeds some of those bikes were going, you could definitely count me out!

We next went to a Nature Reserve where our guide took us through a walk through the bush, stopping to sample some plants favoured by the island's unique residents that we would be meeting later that evening. The walk culminated at a huge lake brimming with bird life, including black swans which I was amazed to find out actually existed outside of the Natalie Portman film. Apparently, swans in the Northern Hemisphere are white, and those in the Southern Hemisphere black. The more you know! 

On we went to the Nobbies, the furthest point of the island. We had time here to walk along the boardwalk and admire the beautiful scenery as well as the animals who make it their own. I was thrilled to spot a wombat and an echidna, both the first of their kinds that I'd seen in the wild. 

By now, it was basically the end of the day. The sun was setting, which meant it was time for the main attraction - the Penguin Parade! Indeed, the main reason people visit Phillip Island is to see the Little Penguins that reside there - who would have thought Australia of all places would be home to penguins? 

We were dropped at the plush visitors centre and basically told 'be back at the bus for 9:25pm or pay the $300 fare taxi ride home'. I knew where I would be come 9:25! I was dying for food so bought something to eat from the overpriced bistro and then scanned my ticket to head down to the beach.

I walked along a boardwalk where little penguin huts stood, a small number actually with a penguin in them. This was my only chance to take photos of the little guys as once the sun was fully set, cameras were a no-go.

Down on the beach, I sat nice and close to the front, and the crowd waited in anticipation for the parade to begin. I pride myself on my observational skills so was thrilled to be the first one to spot their white bellies come out of the ocean. Initially the penguins stood timid in the surf, before a group of them would rush up the beach and into the safety of the grasslands. 

I sat there for about half an hour or so as it got darker and darker and more and more penguins made their way up the beach. An added benefit of the night I got there was the spectacular moonrise we saw as it crested over the surrounding hillside. Pretty cool! 

Back in the carpark with plenty of time to spare before our 9:25 cutoff, we took the quiet ride back to Melbourne and almost instantly into bed. What a cool experience to have had, and one I never would have anticipated finding in Australia of all places! 

I hope you enjoyed reading about my Phillip Island adventures - what other Australian hidden gems are you familiar with? Please let me know by dropping me a message in the comments below or on Twitter @CiarasCountry where you can also stay up to date with all of my travel adventures!

Travel: MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

After Canberra (read all about my time there in this post), much of the next day was, quite frankly, wasted, as I travelled from 9am to 5pm to Melbourne. Dropped off at the bus station, I walked the bustling streets up to Space Hotel, a cool hotel with lots to do, although I was put off slightly by the distinctly camera-looking objects in each of the showers. Probably not what they were, but I'd be really keen to know what they are actually doing there. 

I was just in time for a Cultural Centre walking tour taking place from outside the State Library, just down the street from me. This hour and a half tour took us down some of the city's many laneways covered in plenty of street art and lots of exciting looking bars and restaurants. I was particularly interested to learn that Melbourne has the most live music venues per capita. I could get used to something like that! 

The next day I planned to do yet another walking tour, but first, breakfast. Melbourne is foodie heaven, and I've recently discovered that I am indeed a foodie. I headed down to Lune, easily recognisable due to the line pouring from its entrance. Lune is home to some spectacular croissants - I was torn between the almond croissant or chocolate and pistachio. Both gloriously overpriced, even more so as on this day there was the public holiday surcharge, but I was convinced to go with the chocolate and pistachio when I was told it was limited edition. Fingers crossed I'll be back in Melbourne before too long to test out that almond croissant too.

I ate my new acquisition as I walked briefly around Fitzroy Park before heading back to the State Library in time for my City Highlights tour. We spent the next three hours checking out the best of the city before ending up at Southbank for great views back over the skyline. 

Now on the other side of the river, it made sense to see what was around, so I walked down to the Shrine of Rememberance. I arrived just in time for a minutes silence as a light drifted across a quote in the floor as the sun naturally does each year on November 11th at 11:11. 

From the balcony of the Shrine, we got views back over the city and the nearby Botanical Gardens, which is where I headed next for a quick wander around. 

Up the road was the National Gallery of Victoria, so I took some time to check out the Asian, European, and pretty weird contemporary art housed in the museum before getting kicked out at closing time.

What to do with no more museums to go to? Dinner, I think. And this was no ordinary dinner, but the world's best pizza, as decided in 2014. Whether the pizza is still as good now as it was then, I can't say, but I was still heading to Gradi to find out. It was the simple margherita which took home the prize, and so that was what I ordered. Pretty nice. 

I had a look at the dessert menu, but not in the mood for an $18 tiramisu I opted instead to try Pidapipo, often claimed to be Melbourne's best ice cream. I was expecting good ice cream, what I was not expecting was a Nutella tap, which really is the stuff of dreams, so obviously I had to top my scoop with some Nutella too. Obviously. 

I wandered home via Hosier Lane, the city's most prolific street art street. Did you know street art is so ingrained in Melburnian culture that they even have a street dedicated for budding artists to practice? Pretty cool. 

I'd booked myself a trip for the next day, but it didn't leave until close to midday, which meant more than enough time to go in search of brunch. My Googling led me to Hardware Societé, a very hip joint which was surprisingly not busy when I arrived. 

I ordered a chai latte and some French toast, which arrived generously draped in a mound of lemon curd and meringue. The first bite, I remember thinking 'this is good' It really was delicious, wonderfully fluffy toast and creamy curd, but so rich I could barely finish half of it. I assured the waiter that me leaving some on my plate was certainly not because I hadn't loved it! Then it was off for my tours, until I returned to explore Melbourne a few days later.

On my second free day in Melbourne, I’d created an extensive route to tick off our the tourist hotspots I hadn’t manged to hit already. But first, breakfast. Melbourne is somewhat of a foodie heaven, and as a newly-discovered foodie, I had to try the weird and the wonderful. That morning’s breakfast was certainly more on the weird end of things, as I headed to the aptly named Weirdoughs.

Weirdoughs is a plant based bakery, and they had a selection of croissants and donuts on the counter stuffed to the gills with jams and vegan nutellas. I already knew what I wanted – a cube croissant. Yep, it’s exactly what it sounds like – a croissant baked into the shape of a cube. Did it need to exist? No. Did I need to try it? Absolutely.

My cube croissant was filled with raspberry jam, and I took it to go as I had the best of intentions to catch the number 35 tourist tram, a free tram which takes you in a rectangle around the city centre. As I approached the tram stop, I saw one waiting. Shall I run for it? Nah, I’m sure there’ll be another one along soon. Reaching the stop, I couldn’t have been more wrong – 37 minutes! You’re having a laugh!

At this point I did end up running after the tram, but it remained just out of my reach, so I wandered around the riverside before the 37 minutes finally elapsed. The tram was certainly a means to rest your legs, but little more, as I couldn’t hear the informative tannoy over the sound of the tram, and the seats weren’t exactly placed for best views of looking out. Still, it’s not a bad way to get from A to B if you don’t mind the wait!

Resting my legs had probably been for the best, as I had a huge walk ahead of me as I was making my way down to the beach district of St Kilda. This had the potential of being a pleasant walk, but was hindered by the setup of the Australian GP Course which diverted me completely and meant I spent most of the time walking alongside a highway rather than through a nice park as I’d planned.

Not the nicest walk, but I did arrive there eventually. I walked along the beach which was surprisingly busier than I’d expected, and over to Luna Park. Luna Park is St Kilda’s theme park, and has a huge gaping mouth at its entrance which I was keen to get some photos of. The park was closed when I arrived due to coronavirus concerned, but coincidentally I ran into a Channel 4 filming crew who were there filming B-roll for the GP (which subsequently also got cancelled, meaning no doubt my starring role will never be broadcast!)

After my run-in with celebrity, I returned to the beach and walked up to the pier, along which you got excellent views of the city skyline. I wondered whether the sun set behind the skyline – how spectacular that would be. Over the course of that day, I would end up walking almost 25 kilometres, so naturally had built up an appetite, so it was time to check out the wonderful end of the Melbourne foodie scene.

Melbourne is famed mostly for its cafes, but also for its Asian fusion scene, and so I headed to Chin Chin for salt and pepper silken tofu with greens, oyster mushroom, and spicy eggplant chips. It was rather delicious, but I could feel the spice creeping up on me the more I ate. Subsequently, it was only right that I have a cool dessert to soothe the burn, and chose a coconut sako with sweetcorn ice cream. Niche.

I adored Melbourne, and sincerely hope I’ll be able to come back to visit, if not live here for a short while too. I’m sure there’s so much more to discover, and even more great food to sample – I can’t wait! 

Thanks so much for reading about my time in Melbourne! Have you visited the city? If so, I'd love to hear what you recommend doing and seeing for the next time I'm there! Drop me a message in the comments below or on Twitter @CiarasCountry, where you can also find out as soon as a new blog is posted!

Travel: CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA

Five hours on a Greyhound bus travelling between Sydney (read about my time there here) and Canberra is not the most fun way to spend the day, and I began to wonder whether it would have made more sense to have just booked a flight between the two cities, but alas, one must have these experiences to realise such things. 

I arrived in Canberra in early afternoon and made my way to the YHA where I would be staying for the next few nights. The hostel was reasonably nice, and the first I'd stayed in that had a pool and sauna. 

Canberra is a very educational town with plenty of museums, many of which I was pleased to find offered free guided tours. I thusly dropped my bags off and took a leisurely stroll through the pretty and peaceful tree-lined streets up to the Australian War Memorial. 

At 2:30, a small group of us were corralled by a British ex-pat who took us around the Memorial for 90 minutes,  including showing us the long walls of Anzac soldiers killed in wars which was now decorated with poppies; the grave of the unknown soldier; and into the extensive museum with its exhibits on the First and Second World Wars and beyond. Whilst I wouldn't call myself a history buff in the slightest, I really enjoyed this glimpse into Australia's military past and present.

The following day I had planned myself a full day of museum-hopping. The first of these was Parliament House, perhaps the most important building in Canberra given the city's role as Australian capital. 

My tour here took me through the Great Hall, the Senate chamber and the House of Representatives; the latter two of which had obvious influences from the British House of Lords and House of Commons. It was interesting to see how these rooms had been adapted to be more Australian, such as the colour schemes adapted to represent green gum leaves, and the red dirt of Central Australia. 

Whilst our hour long tour only scratched the surface of the 4500 room Parliament House, I did pick up some really interesting facts like that the building has 2700 clocks to make sure no members are late for votes, and that the flag atop the building is bigger than a double decker bus. 

After new Parliament House, I headed down the road to Old Parliament House. This building was significantly smaller but still had an impressive 900 clocks and even more British versions of the Senate and Representatives rooms. Nowadays, Old Parliament House is more a museum than a working building and had exhibits ranging from the press to letter writing, and even bees. 

All that information had made me build up quite an appetite so I walked off in search of Agostini's. The main pull of this restaurant for me was not only its high TripAdvisor rating but offer of a four cheese pizza which, much like mac & cheese, I find hard to resist. It was indeed rather yummy and I followed it with a tiramisu which was literally dripping in espresso - perhaps part of the reason I didn't get to sleep until the wee hours that night. 

I walked along the banks of the lake across to the National Gallery of Australia. Whilst the gallery was bustling, it was only me who opted to take a tour from one of the volunteers, which meant a private tour around the museums collections of Australian, European and Asian art. I thought the museum was well curated with its combination of Aboriginal and European settler art juxtaposing the different eras and perspectives throughout Australia's history.

I left the museum close to 4pm and figured I had enough time for a quick run around one last museum. I opted for the highly rated Questacon, Canberra's interactive science museum. However, upon arrival I discovered the museum had a $20 admission fee - probably worth it for the whole day, but not for less than an hour. 

With that off the list, I hurried to the National Museum of Australia. It really didn't matter that I only had a half hour left before the museum closed because this was really all that was necessary as only two exhibits were open, and I managed to see them all in about ten minutes, spending the rest of the time being regaled by a member of staff about a massive racehorse whose heart resides in the museum. And with that, it was time to bid farewell to Canberra and onto my next destination - Melbourne!

Having visited the city, I've come to the conclusion that Canberra is really nice, and I hope reading this blog encourages you to visit - it doesn't get enough credit, but it really is worth passing through! Have you visited Canberra, or do you have a desire to? I'd love to know - drop me a message in the comments below, and be sure to check me out on Twitter @CiarasCountry to keep up to date with future Australian adventures!