Hey guys, Blake here,

Our time in Australia was one of my favorites. I have always wanted to go to Australia. I even thought about doing study abroad there so this was pretty much a taste of that. A cool city indeed, so many architectural structures that are just mind blowing.

Of course the first built monument we went to was the Rialto Towers. Thankfully we received a student discount so it ended up only costing us $20.It was an incredible display, it had hundreds upon hundreds of windows. 35 elevators! It was the tallest building in the southern hemisphere for a number of years, just to give you an idea of how big this thing was. After we spent a good while there observing the landscape of Melbourne, as well as taking the opportunity to take some good pictures, we headed down. From here, we headed to Parliament House of Victoria. This place was over 150 years old. A pretty decent size place itself, nothing compared to the Rialto Towers of course. There was supposed to be a huge dome and elaborate facades built in the original designs, but was put off. After a couple of hours here, we marched on over to the Melbourne Town Hall. We were able to get a little bit of history of Melbourne here. It was a beautiful architectural building to say the least. At times, it is known for the town hall to hold theatrical performances, concerts, and other exhibitions. Once we spent enough time there, we headed on over to the State Library of Victoria. Now this place was really cool. It is among Australia's largest, over 150 years old and one of very important resources. There were numerous historic documents in there, including letters from Captain James Cook and diaries of the founders of the actual city. How cool is that?! This place was BEAUTIFUL and very insightful. As night approached, we thought it would be cool to go back to the Rialto Towers to see what the city looked like when lit up. Absolutely breath-taking. Just the vastness of the city and its overwhelming view made for a great topping to the day. Well worth a second $20. We have plenty of money and after all the other places being free, we could cut the cost.