An afternoon stroll in Australia's first inland city

On learning that Goulburn is just bursting with historical sites I begged my parents to let me have a look around, so we took The Self-Guided Walking Tour of Goulburn. These are just some of the photographs I took on the tour.

The Old Town Hall. This gorgeous building was designed by E.C. Manfred and was built in 1887 for 3, 425 pounds. It stopped being used as the Town Hall in 1990 and is now called the McDermott Centre after a former mayor of Goulburn.

The Technical College was built in 1901 by Walls and Sons and costed 6, 789 pounds. At the time it was built it was though of as the most advanced and stylish building in all of Goulburn. It is now used as the Goulburn Regional Conservatorium.

The Fire Station was built in 1890 and is of a Victorian style.

St Saviors Cathedral is the cathedral for the Goulburn & Canberra diocese and was built soon after people settled in Goulburn.

The Courthouse, this courthouse is the fourth courthouse to be built in Goulburn. It was built in 1870 and is still in use today.

The Big Merino

It's not often that one comes across a giant ram but yesterday as I was driving back from Canberra I was confronted by none other than The Big Merino. This New South Wales icon is located in Goulburn, the first inland city in Australia, and is a whopping 15.2 meters tall.

Brunch at Batemans Bay

So my mum, dad and I decided to drive down from Sydney to visit my cousins in Canberra*. My dad led my mum and I to believe that the trip would only take three hours, however he decided to take the scenic route and it took us over five hours to get there! :/ Leaving early in the morning we didn't have time for breakfast and the like so after around four hours of driving we decided to stop in Batemans Bay for a bite to eat. The bay is famous for it's fresh seafood so without further ado we decided to savour the "local cuisine". I ordered a Seafood Basket from a beach front Fish & Chip shop, this involved two fish cocktails, a crabs claw, two calamari, one prawn and chips. To this day** I still have nightmares about biting into that crabs claw, the batter covered up th disgusting inside which consisted of something that looked like small white worms *vomit*. However after that daunting experience I was fortunate to enjoy the beauty of the bay.

*Yes. I know. Canberra is such a hole. But family comes first. ;)
**This was four days ago. :/

Meeting the cast of Dance Academy

Today I was fortunate enough to meet the cast of the Aussie TV show Dance Academy*. The show follows six teens who go to The National Academy of Dance to learn Ballet. I met four of the main characters: Xenia Goodwin (Tara), Dena Kaplan (Abigail), Tim Pocock (Ethan) and Jordan Rodrigues (Christian). The actor who seemed least similar to their television persona was Dena Kaplan who plays the mean, narcissistic and head strong Abigail Armstrong. When I asked to take a picture with Dena she was like, "Of course! Thanks so much for coming!". Whereas other cast members seemed quite bored with the whole taking pictures with fans thing. Even though I had to queue for about an hour it was definitely worth it, I met some great people while waiting in line and I got some awesome photographs with the cast and all of their autographs. :)

*You can watch Dance Academy on ABC1 at 5.20pm and on ABC3 at 3.40pm.

One short day in the Emerald City! :)

So my mum & I decided to delay leaving Sydney so that we could see WICKED, this was my second time viewing Wicked and it was definitely worth it! The musical score is brilliant, the actors are extremely talented and the script is romantic, witty and modern comedy. The story follows the friendship of The Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda The Good Witch and is based on the book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire and rumor has it that a movie is on the way... So I urge you to go see this fantabulous* musical!

*Fantabulous is my word for all things AMAZING - fantastic + fabulous.