Hello Australia — i am nicole

I've made it! (Yes family, I've made it and I'm safe). It was an exhausting day and a half of travel, but I'm finally here! Because jet lag is the worst and my brain is still foggy, this post might be a mess. But nonetheless, I must provide to my followers! All 3 of you!

Instead of my usual ramblings, I think the last 48hours + an international date line day will work best with a list. Here we go:

Nothing can prepare you for an overnight flight. Nothing. It hurts. It sucks. I never want to do it again.
Everything in this city is named Flinders. He was an explorer and you will be too after mistaking Flinders Lane for Flinders Street and searching for your hostel with a heavy backpack for 20 min.
My first hostel experience and I snagged a good one. Everyone is friendly, the top bunk is comfy, and the bathrooms are cleaner than my college dorm. Only downside is no AC in rooms...so it smells like feet 100% of the time.
We all know people drive on the opposite side of the road from America. They also pass on the opposite side of the sidewalk. Beware walking.
Wear sunscreen. I repeat, WEAR SUNSCREEN! Day 1 and I already look like a lobster.
My bunkmate said I looked really old. Because 26 is ancient to him. We're going to be the best of friends.
Take a walking tour. They are awesome. You will learn about culture and history and fun bars/cafes and make friends. Walks 101 did a great job.
After walking around the city all day, I met up with a friend from SMU I haven't seen in years who just moved to Melbourne. We went on a mini-microbrewery-tour-de-Melbin and stopped in 2 cool breweries to catch up. Again, I was reminded just how small this world is when we found ourselves sharing a table with a guy from Dallas. We all ended up hanging with the bartender, looking in their beer making tanks, and learning every detail in brewing, hops, barleys, yeasts, etc. I definitely know everything now. Don't quiz me.

Now for what y'all really care about: the pictures.

I love the mix of old and new buildings in this city.

AC/DC Lane...with a Prince tribute wall art

The Royal Arcade. These two handsome devils depict old giants that guard the city and bang their bells every hour.

The Old Melbourne Gaol where we learned about the crazy life and death of Ned Kelly.