Bond students arrived in a wet and chilly Melbourne for 4 days of fun and adventures in the city centre. There were a few flight delays and a temporary stop in Sydney on the way through but eventually we all settled in at the Mantra before heading off to meet Eric, the Regional Director of Arcadia in Australia, and learn more about the history and culture of Australia. Coffee and a quick walk uptown helped to keep the jet lagged students awake before a delicious dinner at Melbourne's famous Toto's Pizza house, the first in Australia!
The other highlight was a trip up to the Eureka Skytower to see the cityscapes at night and we even got our own tour of the edge! What an experience! Students managed to get in wedding photos in Hosier lane and tried the delights of gelato from Brunetti's, another famous Italian restaurant in Melbourne. The students really enjoyed the organized tour of the Aboriginal art in the National Gallery of Victoria - our guide was really informative and helped the students to appreciate that although the stories and messages are up to 50,000 years old, the idea of permanent images and art is new within the last 100 years. It's incredible that the artworks are so new but the messages have survived for so many generations.