Victoria Night Markets

…..best thing to ever exist?

Live music, amaaaazing food, exotic smells, silent discos, light strobes, trinket stalls and so much more! Perfect way to spend your Wednesday night!

Match Day – Aussie Rules

St Kilda Saints had a MASSIVE win over Freemantle at the match this weekend, final score was 118-60. We were lucky enough to be sat behind a couple who were also originally from England but been living here for many years now who explained all the complex rules of AFL

House party vs Kitchen party

Okay so we’re not millionaires, we’re students which means we don’t have the biggest house and our party was constrained to the kitchen and patio area…. Until the neighbours started appearing at the door with candles to complain…candles?!

I finally had dinner at Hogwarts!!

So welcome week comes to an end with a fantastic finale dinner in a hall which looked like something right out of Harry Potter! Literally down to Dumbledore’s chair!!

The after party was Australian themed and personally I think Line and Mia did it best!

Now off to our lovely home for our first night sleeping there…. After the house warming party of course!!

Skydecker

Eureka Skydeck is a must do in Melbourne – it gives the city a New York feel to it and is a brilliant way to put into perspective the whole city. It was really useful going up with a Melburnian who was able to point us in the direction of all the best bits!

Three days into the welcome week and we were all exhausted! Movie night for us!

Melbourne Welcome Week

Although pricy melbourne welcome week has to be one of the best investments so far! There are approximately 180 other international students here and literally every single person I’ve met so far has been lovely!

We’re split into groups for most activities and ours is clearly the best!

Yesterday consisted of a scavenger hunt…. We checked many things off our list:
– worst Australia souvenir: kangaroo balls on a keyring (yes you can actually buy this and yes I was horrified!!!)
– asking a stranger to marry one of us
– obligatory selfies at many locations
– pretending to be a waitress to seat a stranger in a cafe
And many many more! All in all it was a great day and we ended by learning a few salsa moves an laughing a lot at our own inadequacy!

Today we spent the day at Healesville Wildlife park and met many amazing Australian animals (for anyone that knows me it’s definitely my favourite thing ever!!) and tonight is a pub crawl around Melbourne’s laneways….

Better late than never!

I have officially been a resident of Melbourne for one week now!
Bank account is set up, Australian SIM card has been purchased and we have finally found a beautiful house which will be filled with International Students. So we are finally out of the tiny hostel. Could not be happier!

So far everyone we’ve met (new housemates and fellow exchange students) are absolutely lovely and it’s all getting off to a great start…. Watch this space

 

 

First exploring shots

Marrakech Souks during Ramadan

Where to begin with the Souks of Marrakech….
The snakes, the monkeys, the lamps, the smells, the spices, the leather, the jewellery, the ‘little shop owners’, the grumpy hungry men… It just never stops!

There are hundreds and hundreds of stalls selling virtually the same thing wanting you to barter with them to purchase their goods. In a way it’s perfect because you can also always get them down to the price you want however not all of the shopkeepers appreciate the way of bartering when they’ve had little to eat all day and they get angry. Luckily we left satisfied with every purchase and the experience but it didn’t stop there….

When we got to the end of the road we virtually had 30+ taxis fighting to take our money and now offering lower and lower prices (a nice opposite to the Souks). After 10 minutes of laughing so much at the whole situation we eventually got back to the hotel safely.

Palmeraie