I’ve been a rubbish blogger lately! Shameful. But now that I’ve been here about a month, things like university work (the awkward moment when you realise you’re in Australia to study) have been massively piling up.
So, I’m going to do about 3 separate posts, hopefully by the end of today (as well as doing my reading – such a multitasker) on the worthwhile things I’ve done.
This one will be dedicated to the lovely day I spent with my parents in Melbourne. They’re on a world cruise which left about one month before I flew out to Australia, and we had arranged from the very beginning that on 11th March, when they stopped in Melbourne, we would meet up. I was so ridiculously excited to see them – I hadn’t even heard their voices in 2 months, let alone seen them. That’s the longest I’ve gone without my mum and dad giving me a hug or even hearing them tell me off about something I’ve done/not done! Weird what you start to miss…
I met them at 9am and gave them huge hugs. It was a nice, sunny day, which I was really hoping for when they came. I’ve now become so accustomed to the variety of Melbourne weather that I started out with a short sleeved t-shirt (mornings are cold wherever you are, even Australia) but packed a vest top in my bag just in case it turned out warm, which it did. Already starting to become a true Melbournian…?
We had a coffee by Federation Square, always a busy area, but at this time on a Sunday morning it was pretty calm. It was really nice to catch up with everything my parents had been doing and had seen on their world cruise – me, my brother and my sister get frequent email updates from them, but it’s just not the same compared to hearing the little funny stories they had to tell and the pure excitement and joy they had telling them to me. It even got to the point where they had to make the effort to stop talking about their adventures so they could listen to what I had been up to. I didn’t mind in the slightest though, I had been so looking forward to the vibe us Powleys have when chatting together – basically always talking over each other, laughing and enthusiastic about everything we have to say.
It was a relaxed day – the main focus was catching up with each other. We got on the free Circle tram and got off at Parliament House. But one of the highlights of what we saw was after we had been walking around Melbourne for a bit. The Royal Exhibition building was really impressive and grand, built in 1880 and now a World Heritage site. You’d think more people would suggest seeing this in travel guides as it was pretty spectacular (and we couldn’t even go inside that day), but it seems relatively unknown.
I mentioned St Kilda beach in passing conversation to my parents, but because they had heard of it, we decided to get a tram there. We had lunch in one of the restaurants by the beach, and oh my, it was GOOD. All of us decided kangaroo steak was the way forward (my mum had never tried kangaroo before!) and it was amazing. Even now my mouth is watering just thinking about it. We shared a bottle of wine while we ate in the sun, and especially at this point, I was so content with everything. That may have been slightly the influence of wine, but I should point out, I was content the whole day anyway.
We had to head back after lunch as my parents needed to get onto the ship. I didn’t want to say goodbye, but my friends Rachel and James met me in Melbourne while I was about to part ways with the parents, so it was a bit less teary than it could have been!
I was quite down after my parents left. It was a bit of a double-edged sword – it was amazing to see them, but it’s made me miss them all over again! But I’m so pleased they’re having such a good time on the world cruise, and I think they felt better about me living here when they saw I was doing well. Us Powleys are living pretty exciting lives at the moment :)
