{"id":390,"date":"2016-10-11T14:50:41","date_gmt":"2016-10-11T14:50:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aberexchanges.wordpress.com\/?p=390"},"modified":"2020-03-04T10:04:54","modified_gmt":"2020-03-04T10:04:54","slug":"second-last-week-in-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/aberexchanges\/2016\/10\/11\/second-last-week-in-australia\/","title":{"rendered":"Second Last Week in Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"  wp-image-392 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/aberexchanges\/files\/2016\/10\/mel.jpg\" alt=\"mel\" width=\"346\" height=\"354\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Hello wonderful readers,<\/p>\n<p>Time flew by so fast. I\u2019ve been to Australia for 4 months but I don\u2019t feel that it has been that long. I\u2019ll be going home this week but it\u2019s not the end for me! I have one more semester to do in Australia and I will be coming back late February to resume my studies here. So, I\u2019m just taking a short break before coming back for more.<\/p>\n<p>With uni work out of the way and no exams to study for, I decided to explore Victoria some more. Even though the weather was pretty bad the first few days of the previous week, it got better mid-week and I had the chance to go back to Melbourne. Melbourne was awesome \u2013 as has always been, at least every time I visit. The beautiful weather allowed me to walk around and visit the Fitzroy Gardens, where Captain Cook\u2019s Cottage is located, the Carlton Gardens, where I saw the Royal Exhibition Building and the Melbourne Museum, and last but not least I got the opportunity to walk down the Chinatown precinct on my way to the State library of Victoria.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"  wp-image-396 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/aberexchanges\/files\/2016\/10\/sofia-me.jpg\" alt=\"sofia-me\" width=\"544\" height=\"537\" \/><\/p>\n<p>After purchasing a souvenir or (actually) four, I took the tram to the waterfront docklands where I saw the Melbourne Star (aka the Observation Wheel) and later enjoyed the beautiful view. I ended up going home later than I had planned but it was definitely worth it!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-399\" src=\"http:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/aberexchanges\/files\/2016\/10\/pics.jpg\" alt=\"pics\" width=\"1023\" height=\"512\" \/><\/p>\n<p>On the weekend, I went on a short trip to Phillip Island with three other international students, one of which is exchanging from Manchester University. I can\u2019t believe that I\u2019ve travelled half-way across the world and my neighbour is an exchange student from Bangor University, while the people I\u2019m very close to are not studying too far from Aber either. Phillip Island was AMAZING!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-401\" src=\"http:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/aberexchanges\/files\/2016\/10\/see.jpg\" alt=\"see\" width=\"1060\" height=\"1060\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Even though we ended up getting sunburned, the trip was fantastic as we got to see (tiny) PENGUINS walking out of the sea and heading towards their nests. The penguins in Phillip Island are protected and we were told that pictures or videos are prohibited when watching them \u201cparade\u201d around. The ban is actually in place in order not to scare the penguins so that they keep coming back on the island. I did not really mind the ban because I actually got to see wild penguins. I had already seen penguins at both the Melbourne and Sydney aquariums, and even though they had seemed happy, I think watching them in their natural environment was waaaaaaaaaay better than seeing them confined.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-406\" src=\"http:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/aberexchanges\/files\/2016\/10\/r.jpg\" alt=\"r\" width=\"756\" height=\"912\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Coming back to Waurn Ponds from Phillip Island was bittersweet! I knew I had to start packing \u2013 my flight was just 4 days later \u2013 but at the same time I was excited knowing that I\u2019d be going home soon!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-410\" src=\"http:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/aberexchanges\/files\/2016\/10\/dan.jpg\" alt=\"dan.jpg\" width=\"727\" height=\"960\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m actually writing this blog post a day before my flight. What with packing and taking care of last minute details, I haven\u2019t had much free time to sit down and relax but I did get to say goodbye to the amazing people I met over here (at least for now), in a very special way. I\u2019ll make sure to update you about my last week in Australia and my flight home, as soon as I make it there.<\/p>\n<p>Until next time,<\/p>\n<p>Sofia<\/p>\n<p>P.S All pictures are taken by me!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Hello wonderful readers, Time flew by so fast. I\u2019ve been to Australia for 4 months but I don\u2019t feel that it has been that long. I\u2019ll be going home this week but it\u2019s not the end for me! I have one more semester to do in Australia and I will be coming back late&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/aberexchanges\/2016\/10\/11\/second-last-week-in-australia\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Second Last Week in Australia<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13066,"featured_media":401,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17,24,27,32,35,36,42,43,49,52,60,63,87,90,108,109,110,112],"class_list":["post-390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-office-aberystwyth-university","tag-australia","tag-blog","tag-city","tag-dreams","tag-exchange","tag-excitement","tag-friends","tag-fun","tag-happy","tag-international","tag-lifestyle","tag-moments","tag-share","tag-society","tag-tourist","tag-travel","tag-travelblog","tag-travels"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/aberexchanges\/files\/2016\/10\/see.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/aberexchanges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/aberexchanges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/aberexchanges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/aberexchanges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13066"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/aberexchanges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/aberexchanges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1237,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/aberexchanges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390\/revisions\/1237"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/aberexchanges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/aberexchanges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/aberexchanges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/aberexchanges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}