Cory U of CUExperiments

I first arrived in Brisbane beginning of August. I was still really shocked as the “winter weather” here left me wearing nothing more than light sweaters. No jackets required for me here. There were flowers blooming, the river was flowing (I miss frozen rivers in the winter time), & people were tanning & wandering around in shorts. This is so not winter to me…

Lucky for me, I had some Canadian company to catch up with just before she was parting ways with Australia herself. After almost a 2 year absence from each other, it felt so natural talking to Denise once again like no time had passed. A few days after seeing her, she was off to Taiwan for another adventure. Now, instead of heading home straight away, I’ve got it all planned to go visit her & explore another amazing part of this world. Cannot wait!

-Cory U

Park day (Taken with Instagram)

Finally caught up from Melbourne to Brisbane. Things are much more casual & relaxed here. A) Because it’s Queensland. B) Because I’m now working as an “Au Pair” & find a lot less time for myself to explore.

There’s no more trams to rely on, & like this photo, I find myself waiting at what looks more like a garden trellis than a bus stop on most weekends.

-Cory U

I’ve had a lot of people ask where I lived when I first got to Australia, & also what the apartment looked like that I lived in for 6 months. Well first off, here was my two week home!

Awesome friends, Cassie & Steve, so gratefully let us take over a good chunk of their living space before finding our own. Two weeks on a couch, & Dana curled up on the air mattress on the floor.

Worst part was rolling that mattress back up. It took a vacuum & two pairs of hands to tie it back up properly. I remember Dana tried to help, but her tiny body was no force that the air mattress couldn’t take on & defeat… Her rolled up side could barely tie together since she couldn’t push out the air properly. Good try Dana!

Two weeks later, we were loading up their Aussie car with all our suitcases again to arrive at our own “home” for the rest of our stay in Melbourne.

-Cory U

The one thing I already miss about Melbourne is the Queen Victoria Market. Open at strange hours & on sparatic days, I ended up there almost weekly for yummy & less expensive produce. Whether in need of fresh meat & dairy, souvenir finds, or even some chickens, this market was the place to go. I’d spend countless hours browsing through every aisle, every shop & hunting for the best priced kiwis each week. 10 for $2 kiwis? Oh, yeah…

-Cory U

PS I still can’t believe some Australians have “chooks” laying eggs in their backyards, but I can’t really complain since that’s the way I get them now too.

After the Gaol, I headed to the Victoria State Library to get a look at Ned Kelly’s armor & other various artifacts. The last library visit ended in a game of chess & unfortunately these upper levels were blocked off in the later hours. This time I was able to see the buildings’s original staircases, model trams, & a view from the top floor.

The most interesting was a display of someone’s old Melbourne diary. Each date was updated in short & sweet sentences with cute little stories. “A mash” was apparently her code for “flirt”… “on a tram did a mash had fare paid”… So scandalous!

-Cory U

It was super creepy wandering through the Melbourne Gaol. (Yes, that’s how it’s spelt.) Home to Ned Kelly for some time & in walking distance to the city & my apartment, I couldn’t believe that parts of this property were still used to hold prisoners only about 20 years back. The older building reminded me of something out of the Green Mile. The locks looked like they weighed more than the doors themselves & the lighting made it even more eerie in general.

Creepiest part? Taking a photo of Dana looking like nothing more than a ghost walking by.
Coolest part? Seeing a padded cell. My brother always wanted a padded room to jump around in & do crazy gymnast stunts… Still, you couldn’t really do that in this cell. Didn’t look very cushy.

-Cory U

Back to more stories from Melbourne…

One of the best parts about this city is it’s foods. Arguably, Australia’s food capital, you could find meals from around the world so easily & no matter what the price range, I never had a horrible dish. If I had the funds I’d eat out every night, but being on a working holiday I really had to choose my nights out carefully. One of our best finds were $5 dollar pizza nights which for traveling friends was a score for dinner time.

Before leaving, one of the places on the list to dine in was the Hopetoun Tea Rooms in The Block Arcade. Cute little shop with delicious desserts & top prices to match. Totally worth it though.

-Cory U

Diving into some Aussie culture, I spent a little time surfing the tv channels. Over the six+ months together, both me & Dana got hooked on watching a few Aussie reality shows that stole a good 5 hours of our lives each week. (Yes, they aired every single week night.) Arguably, we both watched these shows on a day to day basis but we still had different favourites. Dana got really hooked on “My Kitchen Rules” where regular Aussies compete to make amazing food dishes to ultimately win money. I got hooked on “The Block” where more regular Aussies renovated completely run down historic homes on a block room- by- room each week to ultimately earn themselves money from the sale of the homes.

(I also got a little hooked on a show called “Please Marry My Boy” where the mothers ended up picking the final match for their sons after getting to know the women & watching them date their sons. The drama between the mum’s & potential daughter-in-laws was hilarious!)

When I found out that “The Block” was Melbourne-based this year & that there was an open house weekend there was no doubt that I was going. Course, I had no clue how insanely popular it would be to go & families were lined up wayyy before the sun was up to get a look through all four houses on the block. With friends still visiting, there was no way I was spending an entire day waiting in line to get a look at the rooms first hand. So unfortunately I didn’t get to see the interiors, but I did get some pretty awesome free hats… & Dana did some celebrity gushing meeting the host, Scotty.

The night that followed, I wore my new “CHUMP” hat out to dinner on a crazy hat night. Each week, the losing room renovation couple had to wear a silly chump hat for 24 hours… After wearing mine for the night, I don’t think I’d mind losing to wear a fun hat like that.

“The Block” also allowed me to finally see an Aussie auction; a common way to sell homes in Australia, but not back in Canada. I got nervous just watching the entire process happen & was glued to my seat the entire episode. It makes house purchasing & selling seem like an intense sport!

-Cory U

There’s nothing like a nice walk where the waves hit the sand…

-Cory U

Beach day at Kirra on the Goldcoast (Taken with Instagram)

(Video Here)

From penguins to sharks, we saw almost every water creature that we could’ve missed on out Reef & Rainforest trip at the Melbourne Aquarium. The strange part was seeing penguins from the Antarctic even though there are penguins roaming Melbourne’s “backyard” so-to-speak. Also strange, was finally seeing the commonly served Barramundi fish before being caught & cooked… That fish is BIG! My favourite was probably sitting inside the large circular fish tank watching the sharks & sea creatures swim around us.

Funny moments: A little Asain girl mistaking me for her mommy. & a little curly haired 2-ish yr old boy taking a liking to me & joining me in pointing out different fish even though he spoke a completely different language. Still not sure where they were visiting from but he was literally running across the room to his mum, turning around & shouting hello to me through a crowd of people. What a cutie.

-Cory U

More photos walking down the graffiti laneways. You could really crank your neck trying to spot all the tags & designs. One of the coolest things was walking through a group that looked almost like a class for graffiti artists. They all had their own section, masks, & variety of cans to choose from; they even pyloned the area! I can’t think of a city I’ve been in that doesn’t publicly tag their laneways like Melbourne.

A week after our main walk down the laneways & closer to the opening of the newest Dark Knight release, we spotted the Joker near Fed Square. I have a feeling since he’d already been tagged by the time we spotted him, he’s already painted over & won’t be seen there again.

-Cory U

PS The strangest thing to come across down the laneways was a posting infront of a clean drug facility that was closed up for the day due to a brawl. If you still needed your meth fix, there was a number to call. Somehow I forgot to take of picture of it, but I’ll probably always remember the note… Still one of the safest-feeling cities I’ve ever been in though.