Hi Guys – this is mostly written by Claire!
So, last time we wrote we had just arrived in Melbourne, today we write to you with only a day left in this great city! We’ve absolutely loved it and don’t want to go! But as people keep telling us, it’ll only keep getting better up north! So we only have excitedness in us constantly!
After our first night here in the city, we woke and had a bit of a lazy morning around the hostel, free pancakes if you’re up before 9! The hostel we stayed in there in st.kilda was so lovely. beautiful bathrooms, big leather sofas and flat screen tvs, huge kitchen and cafe type area thing. and all brand new, v.nice! better than uni halls honestly! and for only 10 pounds a night! great! so we gradually made our way in to the city again via tram, first visit to Melbourne Aquarium – Australia’s biggest, it’s situated right on the River Yarra which runs through the city. So many creatures there, most of which we’d never even heard of! Listened to a talk about how leathal stingrays are – and the whole Steve Irwin incident. Then up to the other sight-seeing tower in the city, the Eureka Tower. 89 floors up and is the highest tower in the southern hemisphere, they also have this additional attraction on the 89th floor called the ‘edge’, its a sky deck and moves out overlooking the city away from the building then all of a sudden the cream glass clears and you are standing on a clear glass floor so high up. is so so so scary but amazing view and quite a spectacular feeling. We were told to really feel how high up you are and see how scary it is, lie down and crawl along the glasss – ahhh! you keep thinking it could drop at any minute! After wandering along the city streets and lanes again we went back to the hostel to get ready as we had pre-booked an evening ahead of us – A Colonial Tramcar Restaurant. Basically the most common transport around Melbourne is the trams, they’re famous for them, and hundreds of years ago someone came up with doing a dinner thing on a special one, kind of like the orient express. Oh wow, was very posh!! We scrubbed up for the occasion and left our backpacks behind! A 5 course unbelievably top class meal, constant flowing champagne, tea, cheeses, liqueurs, the lot! All while we were being driven around the city centre seeing all the sights! Was one of the best things we’ve done! All such a good experience. After eventually standing up when the 4 hour dinner was over, we stumbled across the road to a huge casino (no bets), and managed to get a couple of free cocktails thanks to a chat with a very wealthy man! Back very late and not looking forward to the next morning!!!
Woke up not too early, and had a tour bus pick us up, took us firstly to a winery, beautiful location, right overlooking the mornington peninsula and coastline (the wine wasn’t going down too well now!), then on to a koala park. Got up really close to a koala and had pics taken, then stroked a big fat wombat!! so cute, and then bought a dollar tub of animal food and went in to the kangaroo garden to hand feed them all! Was amazing, such a cool thing to do. I loved it, George freaked out a bit. Had plenty of hungry kangas hopping over to me, some even with a tiny baby joey in their pouch! Even found an albino one (jon yes we’ve got pictures!!)
next stop the bus drove us all to Phillip Island, had a few stops at some coastal beach views and rock formations, then finally the whole reason we came on the trip, to Penguin Parade!! We sat on a beach with hundreds of other people, keeping very quiet and looking closely, waiting for these penguins to emerge from the sea. They did, in their groups and waddled up to the sand dunes to their burrows. Apparently they have been doing it at the same time every single day for the last thousand years! So its pretty predictable!! The penguins were absolutely tiny, so so cute, was the sweetest things we’ve seen. No photography allowed what so ever there which is a same, but the experience was what it was all worth. We then walked back up the boardwalk and the tiny penguins were walking along side us on the greenery hills!! Buzza i thought of you all the time and only wish i could have taken thousands of pics for you! After a stop at a pizza place, we were dropped home and being sooo tired, crashed out in bed!
We woke up at 8 and made a run for it out the hostel into the city to drop our back packs off in the more central hostel. Yes, they nearly broke our backs and we were a right show up on the morning commuter tram with them. We then ran to the Flinders St train station got a 60min train to Belgrave where Puffing Billy is! Bill is a steam train which takes you through the Dandenong mountains and rainforest. It was another totally drizzley wet freezing and unfunny hour sitting on Puffing Billy where we had to hang around in the wet forest for an hour to do the whole thing back. But, we’ve been on Puffing Billy and saw the wet rainforest and thats all that matters!Anyway on the train back, 3 large casual men got on the train, we carried on muttering to ourselves about the crap weather. Next minute they jump up and down and shout tickets tickets. Undercover cops! We’ve had zone 1 student concession weekly tram/train/bus tickets since being in Melbourne which cost $14… we were in zone 2. Played absolute dumb while this big guy questioned us, Claire smiled sweetly and I let my blonde mop out my green hat and prayed for the best. He then told us we weren’t Australian students so should have the $47 tickets. As we crapped ourselves he must really have been sucked in by our sob story because he then wrote us a permit for the $47 ticket and said that should sort us out for the week! Result! After that we kept our feet off the train seats too…
Later we went to Chapel Street where the ‘beautiful people drink lattes’. Was full of designer shops and cafes etc, quite cool. Then we went back for a nap and met our 2 new roommates from Serbia, 2 men who were alright, bit boring and droney. We took our own bottle of wine to a chinese restaurant then went to a couple of bars for a quiet drink. Nectar Bar was literally the door next to our hostel entrance and it turned out to be a wicked place. The quiet drink turned into silly amounts of alcohol and we ended up chatting to a group of aussie blokes who were from Melbourne. They showed us on to a club 2 mins away in Fedaration Square which had windows outlooking onto the city lights – really good! Was so good to finally be in the city and staying there rather than trekking around on hanging out in our campervan all night!
Today went to Queen Vic Market – million times better than Adelaide market and loads of stuff there, everything imaginable, you have to go if you’re ever in Melbourne. Then we went to the MCG! Its a huge cricket stadium and we were quite amazed. We initially thought we had booked to see a cricket match but it turned out to be Aussie football league as its the wrong time of year! Melbourne Vs West Coast we saw. We had no idea what the hell was going on but we think we taught ourselves how the scoring worked, big men in little shorts running around hugging each other for a ball!!! Again we froze and drank beer but it really was a brilliant atmosphere (despite being the lowest of low teams and a small crowd!) We got going with the roudy lot and ended up loving it!! Also found graffiti alleys today, brilliant! Amazed all over again.
On Sunday we went to Luna Park in St Kilda 5 minutes from Melbourne CBD. The rides were as good as Portsmouth & Southsea and George was the biggest wimp ever. Was wicked seeing the sunset in St Kilda and the beach was lovely with the Melbourne skyline in the distance. Such a good moment. We went out in St Kilda and drank too much Rose again. The hostel is amazing with its own bar/club, really is just like a hotel. And we’ve realised we should have brought suitcases because we simply cannot lift our backpacks anymore! We had to leave our city centre hostel and get trams and also walk to our next hostel by the beach. the bags nearly killed us and are surely doing some internal damage, but don’t worry parents, we are being careful and only have them on for a couple of minuted before needing a rest!!!
Today we went on the Neighbours tour!!!! Got on the special tour bus and they played old episodes and documentaries with the theme tune, got us totally in the mood! We arrived at Ramsey St which is actually called Pinoak and people really live there.. and guess what when we arrived they were filming! Could this day get any better! Yes, Lou Carpenter, Harold and Toadie were all roaming around and we caught glimpses, we were squealing! Only snag about it being filimng day is that we couldn’t go right up the street and get pics of the houses, never mind! As we got back onto the bus a car beeped and we thought what an idiot ruining the filming because everyone had to be silent, but it was Doctor Karl!! He was smiling and waving at us!!! We drove on to the set and there was a car with Susan Kennedy in it!! She was there especially to meet us!! Absolutely star struck! had lots of pics etc, looked around carpenters mechanics and the other sets and we driven home! We right this to you as we are half getting ready for our big Neighbours night too, we head to this place, plenty of drinks and neighbours stars, trivia quizs and the final is dr.k’s band playing again! Wow!! we cant wait, but could be messy and we have to be on a coach for Sydney at 6am tomorrow!!! will we do it?!!
Melbourne we love, it is apparently known for being one of the most liveable cities in the world and we can so see why! It is your definitive ‘city’, beautiful sky line and everything, especially in the evening with the many sky lights! We will be sad to leave it, but have hundreds of stories and pics for you all to see soon!!!
Now we head up to Sydney with a couple of nights stop overs at other places on the way, so we will be sure to write again in Sydney! Hope everyone is keeping well and we’re not missing too much back home!
