Day 1 with friends:
I was really excited to get to Melbourne because I knew I was going to see 2 friends! I landed around 10am after a few flight delays, and planned to meet Kaleigh for lunch. Kaleigh Scott is a good friend from ESPN who was in town working the Australian Open. To brag on Kaleigh, she worked the Rose Bowl, the CFP National Championship, and then flew straight from the CFP Title game to Australia for the tournament. I wont go into her months prior, or what she has ahead, but it’s a lot. It might seem glamorous, but it takes so much hard work and sacrifice too. Sports fans be grateful! She had to be at the arena by 3pm, so we met for lunch at a nice spot along the river called Afloat and caught up. After lunch my friend Jennie Sroba met me along the river too. I hadn’t seen Jennie in around 5 years at least, but it’s awesome how strong a friendship can be through soccer bc it felt like no time had passed. It was nearly 9 years ago that we won states on a last second goal, but we both agreed it still might be the best day of our lives. Jennie was a freshman when I was a senior in HS, so it was cool to see her show me around Melbourne. She took me to many of the places my guided tour did the next day, so was a great guide! More on that below. Shes living in Australia to play soccer for the next few months, so in a way thats brought us together again. I’m really proud of her. How cool are these people? It was great to see them both!
Day 2 Tour:
As mentioned above, I decided to take a guided tour of Melbourne the next morning, followed by a trip to Phillip Island to see the famous ‘Penguin Parade’ ritual. On this tour we visited some arcades, which are essentially indoor halls for shopping & dining. We had coffee near the well-known Degraves street, visited the Conservatory, Federations Square, and St. Paul’s Cathedral before ending up at Queen Victoria Market. Shoutout to Jennie bc she took me to the same coffee street and Queen Victoria Market for dinner the day before, so I was able to experience the market at both day and night which is cool. It’s only open at night on Wednesdays during the week (I think), and there are 100s of food, drink, and merchandise stands to choose from. For dinner I had pizza and for the snack the next day I had donuts. Very healthy!
The second half of day 2 was dedicated to the journey to see the ‘Penguin Parade’ which happens after sunset. Theres a place outside of Melbourne called Phillip Island, which is a modern day Jurassic Park in a way. The entirety of this island is now dedicated to the conservation of “little penguins” and a couple of other wildlife creatures such as koalas and bandicoots. They keep predators off this island in the hopes of protecting certain species. On the way to the Penguin Parade we stopped a couple places. There was a small wildlife center with kangaroos, camels, etc. as well as stops at the Koala Conservatory, Cowes Beach, and ‘The Nobbies’ before making our way to the penguins. We had an awesome Italian dinner in the town of Cowes, and the Nobbies were beautiful too. We saw several of the penguins we would be seeing later that night while at the Nobbies, as they were already out waiting for their moms to bring their food.
Th Penguin Parade itself was pretty surreal. Theres thousands upon thousands of penguin chicks scattered throughout the land in little boxes. They only feed once a day, at night, after their mothers have returned from the water. Before daybreak the mothers travel nearly a mile to the water, then up to a mile or longer once they reach it searching for food. Once nighttime hits, all of the penguins return to bring the food to their chicks at once. This happens every day until the chick is old enough to fend for itself.
No photos or videos were allowed of this process either, but you can watch, support, and learn more about the penguins here:
https://www.penguins.org.au/attractions/penguin-parade/
Melbourne was much slower paced than Sydney, by I enjoyed the city and it’s surrounding parts just the same!
Onto Adelaide!
Ally Round the World 