Australia Day 6

Day 6. Today, we are going to do a road trip to the beach. Initially, we planned to rent a car, but it's expensive! Fortunately we found an alternative: cheap open trip. lol.

So the meeting point was on the Arts Centre. I always have this kind of anxiety everytime joining an open trip. Will they really show up at the meeting point? lol. Thankfully, they did.

Another thing that made me worry: weather. It won't be fun if it's cloudy, like when we visited the Bondi Beach. and that morning, we couldnt even see the sight of the sun.

No matter which country you visit, if you go with a tour, you will be brought to at least one partnering store.

In this case, we visited a chocolaterie, that actually quite interesting, since it offered various types of chocolate, such as choco lip balm, 1 metres long chocolate, and so on.

I also remember that in this place, when I wanted to pay and gave my credit card to the cashier, the cashier tapped it onto the machine and nothing worked. Well, sorry ma'am, most of Indo cards hadn't, and haven't been embedded with contactless technology.

My heart was happy seeing the sky turned blue, kinda. lol. Since the cloud was going disarray. But you could't be so sure, right?

The photo was taken from inside of a moving bus

Memorial Arch, the gateway to the Great Ocean Road. The arch was built in honour of the 3,000 returned soldiers who worked on the road and its creation during World War I. .
The sculpture is of two returned soldiers working on the Great Ocean Road. During the construction of the road, some soldiers lost their lives due to the gruelling task of building a road by hand.

We had our lunch at the fish n chips joint on Apollo Bay Seafront. It's basically a rest area like where we could find few restos, souvenir markets, and so on. And no, it's no included in the tour package so we had to buy it ourselves.

I was always ecstatic when seeing the flock of sheeps through the window. hmm I dont think 'flock' is the right term for sheep. Anyway.

Well, the bright sky unfortunately turned cloudy.

Going to The Twelve Apostles.

Finally, we arrived at the famous tourism object. We could see a bit of blue part in the sky, which is good.

Well, the good thing was we didnt have to go thru a challenging pathway to enjoy the view.

Although the name of this object is twelve apostles but actually it was only consisting of 8 limestone stacks (now - by the time I post this, is 7. Read below).

The Twelve Apostles were formed by erosion. The harsh and extreme weather conditions from the Southern Ocean gradually erode the soft limestone to form caves in the cliffs, which then become arches that eventually collapse, leaving rock stacks up to 50 m high. The stacks are susceptible to further erosion from waves. In July 2005, a 50-metre-tall stack collapsed, leaving seven standing at the Twelve Apostles viewpoint.

See what's missing on the board I posted on the n-th slide.

The Twelve Apostles is a collection of limestone stacks off the shore of Port Campbell National Park.

It's kinda interesting to see that the board is written with a poetry, altho I cant really comprehend its meaning.

Were you halted marching south,
or anchored climbing to the beach?
Did you yearn for freedom through the endless years?

Is the mystic Southern Ocean,
yours to rule or empire lost?
The mists around you rain or wasted tears?

Are you prisoners or guardians,
at the clash of rock and wave?
Do you feel us gaze in wonder at your might?

You have seen the stars before us,
and beyond us you will stand.
Forever at the edge, through day and night

Take a moment to stop. Listen and reflect upon how you feel being here today. (well, they're not my words. It's actually written on a board there).

Healthy parks improve your physical, mental, and spiritual health and wellbeing and generate jobs, contributing to productive communities - as shown by you being here now.

At the end of Geology Walk is Razorback. It exemplifies coastal evolution. This massive limestone islet was carved away from the cliff by pounding surf. The point is cracking in two places, preparing to collapse and potentially form sea stacks. In the middle is an indentation. It may take hundreds of years, but eventually this will form a cave followed by an arch. Once that crumbles, huge rock columns will be created. This cycle has been repeated for 15 to 20 million years.

I love the beautiful scenery. But human always wants more. The cloudy sky left me not that fully satisfied. lol. Hey, but at least at the previous spot, the weather was not that bad.

Oh well, Melbourne has a pretty interesting weather I should say. It changes, fast!

Frankly speaking, I want to finish the Great Ocean Road theme soonest, along with the #raustraliatravelog, so I can move to the next one. Bare with me guys...

Ohya, to get to the beach, we had to walk down the stairs. No worries, it's a well paved one.

How I miss sitting on a beach, feeling the sands between my toes, listening to the sound of the sea touching the shore, the breeze, the smell of the ocean. Everything!

Strawberries, purchased at the market on the day before. Actually I was having difficulty to finish them off. lol .
The gorge is named after the clipper ship Loch Ard, which ran aground on nearby Muttonbird Island on 1 June 1878 approaching the end of a three-month journey from England to Melbourne. Of the fifty-four passengers and crew, only two survived: Tom and Eva. .

The feature now appears as two unconnected rock pillars. They have since been officially named Tom and Eva after the two teenage survivors of the Loch Ard shipwreck.

My friend once said that in Melbourne, you could experience 4 seasons in a day. Oh boy, he was no kidding. 
Well, it's actuaĺly not in Melbourne city, but what we encoutered was similar. A second it could be extreme cloudy, and then around 10-15 mins later, the sky turned clear and blue.

Like these photos were taken only 15 mins apart. Guess what, 15 mins later, the sky turned grey again😅

I tried to google on the reasons, it seemed more on the geographical reasons that I'm not eager to fully comprehend. One of them is Melbourne is located among cool temperature south sea and hot desert on its north.

This beach and its cliff somehow reminds me to a beach in West Sumba.

On the way back to Melbourne, and a big city kid like me was, and is always in awe of seeing scenery like this 🤣

I think in some countries, there's this peculiar habit of throwing coins into fountain. Well, correct me if I'm wrong. But we saw many coins were scattered around on the fountain floor, that a homeless person was collecting the coins at night.

Night view

Australia Day 5

 Day 5 of #raustraliatravelog. It's time to explore Melbourne.

One thing that I did notice when arriving here, that it's noticeably colder than Sydney. Perhaps because geographically it's more southern (or more south? whatever).

First place that we went to was the Federation Square. Why? since it's located on the city center. Federation Square is a venue for arts, culture and public events on the edge of the Melbourne central business district. It covers an area of 3.2 ha (7.9 acres) at the intersection of Flinders and Swanston Streets.

At that time, in October 2018, many parts of the Federation Square was under renovation, so the view wasn't at its best. However, there were many landmarks nearby, such as the town hall, St. Paul Cathedral, and so on. And no, we didn't enter any of them.

In my personal opinion, the Fed Square was quite mumbo jumbo at that time. Well, I thought because of the ongoing construction. But after having a look at the wiki, it seems I'm not alone. Quite many people disliked(s) it, lol. Altho I'm pretty sure it's a grower if you get used to it. .

Nope, we didn't enter this large exhibition building. Since, well, it seemed too quiet (altho not sure whether we came from the correct entrance or not xD)

Well, apparently it's the first building in Australia to be awarded UNESCO World Heritage status, being one of the last remaining major 19th-century exhibition buildings in the world.

It is the world's most complete surviving site from the International Exhibition movement 1851–1914.

Well, I should say that the exterior of this museum perhaps not photogenic. It could have been taken from a better angle but..

Located adjacent to the Royal Exhibition Building, it is the largest museum in the Southern Hemisphere.

The world's largest IMAX Theatre screen, which is also part of the museum complex, shows movies and documentary films in large-screen 3-D format.

With $15 entrance fee, actually it's not that expensive come to think of it.

Then we went to Melbourne Uni. Well, my friends who studied here had already graduated, so no "tour guide".

The campus is so pretty, and the weather was nice too. .

Hmm, after posting this, I just realized that the cropping on below right is soo :/.

It's apparently the largest open air market in the Southern Hemisphere. With the high ceiling and large space, and of course good hygiene, strolling inside the market was enjoyable.

However, if you want to find souvenirs, Haymarket @ Sydney still has better price I think.

The market is also known for the hot doughnut van which has operated for over half a century and become part of local tradition, being known for its jam donuts (dan saya baru tau sekarang).

Next destination was the State Library Victoria. It's Australia's oldest public library and one of the first free libraries in the world.

It is also Australia's busiest library and, as of 2018, the fourth most-visited library in the world.

Unfortunately, the famous The Dome and its La Trobe Reading Room was under construction, so we could only see the less picturesque parts of the library (ini niatnya mo ngapain sih?).

Well, apparently visiting library could be fun! I mean, if you're in the mood of reading. Well, I prefer to read with greens around me actually. Hmm, it depends.

So, in the afternoon, we went to the outskirt of Melbourne by train. Arriving at the station, it looked pretty cool! I mean, different than modern type, it had old-town-ish vibe.

Well, from the station, we ought to walk to reach our destination. and we didn't see any public transport around.

After quite a long walk, finally we arrived at the spot that we were aiming to. Not.

Well, the place we wanted to reach actually was already in sight. You may see the little dots on the right side on the far away coast. .
This spot is nearby the parking lot. and not crowded at all.

Intersection. Actually we had no idea which way that we should take. Alhamdulillah the weather was good, so that's fine. Just keep walking.

Arrived! Finally those famous colorful mini houses are in sight!

Fishing by the beach

Feeling the breeze of the sea, watching the birds flying above the water and occasionally swooping down catching the fishes. A lovely afternoon.

(3/3)The bathing boxes may only be purchased by residents paying local council rates, and as of 2008 were selling for prices in the range of A$200,000 (wow!) with annual council rates of around A$500, despite their lack of amenities.

(2/3)Do you know what bathing box is? A bathing box, or beach hut (also known as a beach cabin) is a small, usually wooden and often brightly coloured, box above the high tide mark on popular bathing beaches. They are generally used as a shelter from the sun or wind, changing into and out of swimming costumes and for the safe storing of some personal belongings.

The famous bathing boxes in Brighton are known to have existed as far back as 1862. The boxes share a uniformity of size and build, and a regular arrangement along the beach, and are the only surviving such structures close to the Melbourne CBD.

(1/3) Brighton is named after Brighton in England. Brighton is also well known for its Dendy Street Beach with its 82 colourful beach boxes.

So, sans the first photo, they are the pics of the place where we stayed at. It's a 1886 Victorian Guesthouse, so yes, please expect no elevator. So we ought to bring our luggages to our third floor by ourselves.

Overall, it's a nice place providing nice reading room and simple breakfast. I think I kinda miss various of oats and cereals that it served, that unfortunately difficult to find here. Well, apparently light breakfast affect how's your body feels throughout the day. It feels light too!

Australia Day 4

Day 4 in Sydney. After checking out from the accommodation, we still have few hours prior our flight schedule. So we decided to go to The Grounds of Alexandria based on some recommendation.

From the train station, it's actually not that near. We ought to walk for quite a while. It's suburb area so the buildings and structures were different than in the city center. In here, mostly were industrials buildings, altho not huge factories per se.

Located in a former industrial precinct from the 1920s, The Grounds of Alexandria is a landmark cafe, restaurant & bar, garden, bakery & patisserie, coffee roastery, animal farm, florist, markets and more.

I should say that the place is pretty. The subtropical flowers decorating the place were beautiful. I could imagine that a similar place (a copycat) could be built in Lembang. But the atmosphere might be different.

We only bought coffee, and @bayuadipersada bought some coffee beans in the cafe. There's a giving fountain in the area. I think this is so nice, since it's designed and dedicated for charity. I dont know, perhaps in first world countries, people are itching to throw some coins whenever they see fountains (trevi fountain anyone?)

That day was the day when we went to Melbourne from Sydney, but why I don't remember on how to reach the airport. Since what I took was only pictures of Central Station, so it must've been by train. .
However, I don't remember at all on how the airport looked like. Bahkan saya ga inget apakah itu airport yg sama ketika saya baru tiba 🤣

Avalon Airport only had one runway, and it's located around 50km from Melbourne CBD. Come to think of it, the airport was so small that this photo reminds me of small airports in remote area in Indonesia.

From the airport, we took a coach (with a pretty slow wifi) that brought us to the city center. Man, the airport was really in the middle of nowhere.

Okay, the other photos are only fillers 🤣