So far, this semester has been a whirlwind of travel, making new friends, and of course studying. I have spent alot of time exploring Newcastle and visiting the biggest sights: Nobby’s Beach, Newcastle Beach, the Merewether Baths, King Edward Park, the Bogey Hole, Caves Beach, and the ANZAC Memorial Walk.
I also got to know the city in another way: through food! Darby Street is the best place to go if you want a good meal. My favorite places to eat are The Depot (the freakshakes are amazing!!!!), Coco Monde, Blue Door Cafe (not on Darby, but right next to the Newcastle Uni city campus and they also have another location on Merewether Beach), and Doughheads (also not on Darby, but their doughnuts are completely worth the trip!).
I also got to visit the beautiful Blue Mountains. My friends and I went on the trip with the University of Newcastle Exchange Student Network (UNESN for short). It was a long day of travel to get there (a 3-hour train ride to Sydney, then another 2-3 hours to Katoomba, the biggest town in the Blue Mountains area). However, we stayed over at a hostel and got up bright and early the next morning for a hike to Wentworth Falls. It was a long 5-hour hike through the bush, and then through narrow pathways and steep staircases on a canyon. It was such a beautiful view and so worth the hike.
Before the weekend was over, we also saw the Three Sisters, which are three huge pieces of rock looking over a huge canyon. They were so beautiful and a great way to end this trip.
I also went on a trip to Melbourne with TEAN. This trip was one of the bigger struggles that I have had abroad, because my flight to Melbourne was cancelled and then further delayed, leaving me stranded in Sydney for about 30 hours. Luckily I had friends from TEAN who are living in Sydney, so I stayed over with them before going on the trip. I and a few other students missed about half of the trip which was hard, but we got to be there for the trip to the Great Ocean Road, which was the main reason why I went on the trip in the first place.
We got to see Loch Ard Gorge, as well as the Twelve Apostles. it was so beautiful, and definitely worth all of the travel delays and complications. The next day, I got to explore Melbourne a bit, and we also went to the Brighton Beach Boxes, which were so cool! I flew out that afternoon and came back to Newcastle to prepare for my next big adventure: Thailand!!!!