Hello everyone! There is so much to talk about in this post! Be prepared for a long one, with lots and lots of pictures!!
My last post was pretty short and mostly just talking about the upcoming events I had going on. Well, most of those events have happened now and it has been absolutely amazing! So a week after my last post, I first went to Nan Tien Temple. This temple is in Wollongong and is a practicing Buddhist temple. The architecture and the landscaping of the place was stunning! Here are a few pictures but trust me when I say, they do not do the place any justice.
I went there with a few of my friends, one of which stayed at the temple for a week, practicing Buddhism. She was able to tell us about each room we went in and the proper way to pay our respects, as well as the day to day life she had while living there. It was really cool to learn about and see it all first hand!
That same week, I was also able to go to a festival in Sydney! It was called Cool for the Summer and mostly had internet stars there to perform. If you know me, then you know I pretty much live and breath YouTube so being able to see some of my favorites and meet some more people to follow was absolutely amazing!
I unfortunately had to go by myself so i didn’t explore too much of Sydney on my own but I was able to see a bit of the Sydney Olympic park before the event!
When I bought tickets for this event, I also bought a backstage pass for myself so I could actually meet some of the people! To say I was a little excited about this festival was a very BIG understatement! I ended up getting there 2 hours early and I still didn’t get into the festival before the first band started to perform.
Once I was able to get in though, the atmosphere was great! I watched the first band and made my way up to the meet and greet area where I made some friends and was able to meet Take Two, Tana Mongeau, and Mashd N Kutcher. I watched a few more acts after including In Stereo, Nash Grier, Alec Bailey, William Singe, Dan and Phil, and Lindsey Stirling. I also went to another meet and greet later that day and was able to meet and talk with In Stereo, Alec Bailey, and Kid Zro. All of the people I met were amazing and so so nice even if Take Two poked fun at my american accent! Pictures meeting them to come though! I haven’t been able to pull them off my phone yet! Overall, the entire night was something absolutely amazing and I definitely came away with even more people to watch on YouTube! Here are a few pictures I took at the event!
The following week was “spring” break so I went home with my friend Matt Spann who is from Wodonga, Victoria. His family was so cool and super easy to get along with! They reminded me a lot of my family back home. Not to mention his dog was super cute!
We left for Wodonga the day after the festival and it takes about 6 hours to get there from Wollongong. Once we got there and was introduced to his family, we went over to Kale’s to meet up with the rest of his friends to just hangout. I met up with some friends I had met the last time I was there, as well as meeting a few new ones! There, we decided that we were going to take a spontaneous trip to Melbourne int he coming days!
A couple of Matt’s friends go to university in Melbourne so we rode with them to get there. The first night, we had some really great pizza and went out to experience some of the night life. The next day, we went to the Melbourne aquarium, which was fantastic! Probably the coolest thing there besides seeing all the different kinds of fish was the fact that they had a massive shark tunnel! Some of my favorite pictures of not only the shark tunnel, but the aquarium itself are pictured below.
But not only was the aquarium really awesome, Melbourne itself is a really beautiful city! Just walking around to different places, I was able to take so many stunning photographs of everything around me including the tallest building in the southern hemisphere! Honestly it left me pretty speechless. See for yourself!
The last day we were there, Matt and I went and did some exploring on our own including the shops around Melbourne. If you have ever been to the shops in New Orleans, it is very similar to those! There was a lot of stuff to see and a lot of touristy things to buy and see! So of course, I had to buy a thing or two while I was there.
We also went on the Melbourne Star. The Melbourne Star is a giant ferris wheel in the Waterfront City precinct in the Docklands area of Melbourne. It’s 120 meters high and all the cabins have windows all around it so you can see everything! It moves about 1 km an hour so it takes about 30 minutes to get all the way around. It also had a guided tour on the cabin so you can learn about some of Melbourne as well.
After that, we took a train back to Wodonga and hung out the next few days there and came back to Wollongong. This last week has been very chill after the last two weeks but next week, I will be traveling to Cairns to see the Great Barrier Reef and go on a few more adventures! I can’t wait to keep you guys updated!!
If you want to see more pictures from my trip go look at my Facebook!
And if you want to see what I am doing daily, add me on Snapchat! My username is ehoodle.
Until next time!
- It’s Almost Time to Say Goodbye - June 25, 2017
- Port Stephens/Blue Mountains Beauty - June 5, 2017
- It’s Adventure Time! - May 13, 2017
- Traveling, Traveling, and More Traveling! - April 29, 2017
- Long Time No “Sea” - April 7, 2017
- First Trip Out of Wollongong! - March 20, 2017
- Classes, Hiking, and Fun Times - March 4, 2017
- Australia vs America: Random Observations - February 25, 2017
- The Experience Begins! - February 15, 2017
- Hello from Australia - February 8, 2017