The Eastern trip - part II

On the Easter day, with my trip mates (my italian flatmate and other 5 girls studying with me in Sydney) we rent 2 cars, we left Melbourne and we travelled along the Great Ocean Road, famous to be one of the most scenic and beautiful roads in Australia.

First of all, i have to confess you my “pleasure” in driving again! After more than a month without a car, I really enjoyed driving again! And it was my first time driving in the “wrong side” of the road! yeah, in Australia (like in England) the wheel is on the right side of the car and you have to drive staying in the left side of the road! It’s such a strange thing to drive in that way!! And as the Australians know that, they put a lot of road signs remembering “drive on the left in Australia!”. Anyway, i’m here telling you that, so that means I didn’t have any car accidents!!

Apart that, i drove along one of the most amazing roads i saw in my life! The road runs along the Ocean and across some forests. It’s a pity i’m not a photographer and i don’t have a professional camera, as I won’t able to let you to appreciate the beauty of those places at the most... i’m posting some photos, but believe me that the reality is much more better! You can’t see the blue of the ocean, you can’t really feel the presence of the nature... i could stay there for hours, admiring and enjoying those beautiful landscapes.
My God, how many wonderful places we have in our world and sometimes we forget or even we spoil them!

The road is also full of signs, telling you to be careful about the presence of the kangaroos! unluckily we didn’t see any and i could also took a picture with the road sign!! but, on the way back to Melbourne, crossing an eucalyptus forest, we saw some koalas! So i can confirm you, that’s true that in Australia the koala live freely! They just stay on the trees and sleep... they aren’t active animals at all! But they’re so sweet! And I realized another dream! Yeah, you don’t know that, but my first “teddy bear” when i was a child was a koala!!

the Eastern trip - part I

My Easter holidays passed so quickly! Anyway i was able to see another beautiful part of this country!

I spent the first 2 days in Melbourne. It’s known as the most European city in Australia and actually when you walk in the streets of the centre you understand that you could easily be in a Middle-European city.
There are a lot of nice restaurants and bars, many of them Italian. Actually in Melbourne you can “breath” the Italian presence, the Italians are the 2nd largest community there, so it can even happen to speak in a market with an italian seller about Inter – Juve and the Italian football championship!
(P.S. to my Italian friends: certo che il calcio è proprio strano!! Succede addirittura che la squadra + forte d’Italia, così piena di campioni, perde in casa con una squadra neopromossa dalla serie B! )

Sorry for the digression, the football passion is still in me, even here in Australia.... i was saying, I stayed in Melbourne only 2 days, but I got the impression it’s a place with a very good quality of living. Even if it’s a big city, it’s very quiet and relaxing... (even if i could have got a wrong impression as i was there during the easter holidays...)

Apart that, i’m happy to stay in Sydney! There’s a strong rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne to be the best in Australia...well, don’t think i’m “parochial”, but no doubt Sydney is more beautiful! Melbourne doesn’t have such impressive architectures like the Opera House, doesn’t have a wonderful bay or large white beaches like Sydney, has less green areas, has a more changeable weather...

The tale goes on ...

Happy Easter!

Tomorrow my Easter holidays will start. They are 4 days long and I’ll spend them going to visit the 2nd largest Australian city: Melbourne!
Before leaving, my best wishes to you and your dear ones for a happy Easter!

One day... “in Ireland”!

As I already told you, Australia is the multiethnic country par excellence and Sydney is really a melting-pot of people, races, religions, etc...

Well, one of the biggest community here is the Irish one and yesterday they celebrated their holiday: St. Patrick’s day!
First, there was a parade in the streets of the city, then the party moved to a park, that was transformed in a “piece of Ireland”: thousands of people dressed with green clothes, liters and liters of Guinness and a lot of celtic and good traditional irish music! To close the party, even the U2 came to perform: you can see Bono and friends in the pic! Ok, ok, not really...it was only a cover band... but people, the U2 music live, even by a cover band, is always sensational!

W the Ireland, W the nice Irish people!

The most famous Australian beach

Even if I’ve seen a so little part of this huge country so far, I’m quite sure this isn’t the most beautiful Australian beach... but it’s probably the most famous!

Ladies and gentlemen, this is Bondi Beach! It’s the largest beach in Sydney and it’s so popular: most of the tourist that come to Sydney don’t miss to see it! It’s a popular spot among the surfers too (even if actually I see the Australians surfing in each beach... that’s one of the biggest passions among the Aussies).

Anyway, many “posh” people are used to attend Bondi and believe me, both for the women and men eyes, there are many very good-looking people to admire here! (noo, i’m not showing you some examples, sorry...)

Amazing!

"Amazing" is the word that best describe my feeling at enjoying that view…
there are some place that are “magic”, that give you some particular “emotions”!
Well, the Sydney Bay is one of them! To see the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge by the Botanic Garden (photo 1) or by the ferry boat to Manly beach(photo 2) is one of the best views I’ve got in all my travelling so far!

Mardi Gras

First of all an important introduction: i didn’t change my sexual orientation, I’m still heterosexual!

Told that, I’m telling you about the “Mardi Gras”, one of the most important event in the year in Sydney!

Mardi Gras is nothing else than the gay-lesbian parade! But it’s not like a “gay pride” day we see in Italy or in any westerner country, it’s something much more funny! It’s like a carnival parade (for that is called “Mardi Gras”) with gay/lesbian people dancing and parading with any kind of dressing-up, and someone almost totally naked as well... Gays/lesbians from all over Australia and some ones from other countries (i.e. the USA) as well just come to parade in this occasion!
And a lot of people come and see the “party”! The news talked about an audience of more or less half million people!

I’d never have thought to go and see a gay parade “life” one day! I admit I’m quite a conservative person and i’ve been not always fully tolerant about that topic...
but i have to recognize that this parade is a funny and “intelligent” way to make the gay/lesbian matter more familiar and “acceptable” to the other heterosexual people!

Maybe i’ll never see something like that in Italy! We’re not such a tolerant country at all! And i don’t mean only owing to the Church and the Pope, that never would accept such an event!
Even not to let the Pope to talk in a university is a sign of a retrogade and intolerant country!

The parade was 2 hours and half long, so you can guess how many people took part in it!
The “strangest” thing of the evening was the weather: quite cold to be in a summer day!

What you see in the pic is not any of the parks in Sydney...it’s the campus of the Macquarie University, where it’s supposed i’ll spend most of my time here... just remembering i’m in Australia for study reasons, not only for fun!!

The campus is a very big area, with a lot of green spaces, the buildings of all the faculties where to attend the classes, some shops, a foodcourt, a theater, and a lot of sport facilities. And some student residences as well. So it’s almost everything a student needs!

The population of the campus is very heterogeneous! Well, first because the Australian society is very multiethnic, so you meet people of european origin but also people from asian descent, you can see women with the traditional islamic veil or Sikh indian men...
moreover there’s a very high number of international students. Two groups are the largest: the Japanese/Korean and the Americans.
We Europeans are a minority and I did meet few Italians so far!

The Australian university system is a bit different from the italian one. They have distinction between lectures (about the same than an italian lecture) and tutorials (that are little groups class, where you have discussions, group works, debating... they are compulsory). They require you to do some work during all the course, every week, sometimes readings, sometimes essay.

I had my first week of classes... I have to admit that some have been really hard! I mean that in some classes i understood not more than the 50% of what the teacher was telling. It’s just happening what i was afraid of... i don’t have the chance to practice english in Italy (i mean, speaking and listening it), so here my difficulties with the language come! My listening skills are not so great yet to understand an academic lecture... and, guess what? The lesson i understood best is the Arabic one!! I mean, for the ones who don’t know it yet, i decided to take an elementary Arabic course as well here. It’s another way to test myself, more the Arabic is a quite “popular” language in the international relations field by now, so it could be useful one day. As the arabic teacher is not english native speaker, i understand her well. So after the first week, i can say the Arabic was the easiest subject for me! and i learnt the first 5 letters of the arabic alphabet! I can write them, but... sorry, i can’t show you that!!

Moreover, my being still a bit uncomfortable with the language causes me some difficulties in the social relations as well!! When the australians (or the americans) speak quickly or with a particular accent, it becomes not easy at all and “tiring” for me to keep the conversation!

anyway, one of the biggest aims for my coming to Australia is to improve my english, so i hope and i think with the passing of the time the things will go better...