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Published: January 9th 2008
After saying our goodbyes to Asia we arrived in Melbourne on the 30th just in time to catch the new year celebrations. We had booked some accommodation in St Kilda which apparently is the red light district of Melbourne!!!! On getting into St Kilda we had to kill a few hours as we couldn't check in to our room until 2. We went for a walk in to the main part of St Kilda and both immediately thought we were going to love Australia!!!! St Kilda has a really vibrant feel about it and is filled with loads of really cool cafe's and bars. It has a really good feel about it and made for a real good start to our time in Oz.
The following day was new years eve so after getting in contact with a lad named Mark that I had met in Goa a couple of years earlier we made plans to go to the Belgian beer cafe. We had to pay quite a lot for the tickets, however we did get an unlimited free bar, a bbq, an oyster bar and they had a band on so we couldn't complain!!! One of the things we
weren't really prepared for was the heat. It was absolutely roasting!!!! New year's eve was one of the hottest on record in Melbourne reaching 43 degrees and not cooling down to 25 until 5 in the morning!!!!! It was pretty stifling, the wind felt like someone was blowing a hairdryer on you but we're not going to complain, we could be in the cold and rain!!!!! Mark picked us up from our hostel in the afternoon and we went for some drinks and nibbles at some of his friends before the main event. We both had a brilliant night and boogied our way into 2008!!! The band were great and even did their own version of Warren G regulate, now you can't get cooler than that!!!! We definitely took advantage of the free bar and had some very soar heads the next day!!!!!
The day afterwards we went to stay with some of my mom's friends in East Malvern. My Mom had lived here 30 years previously and is still good friends with April and rob who we have been stopping with, it has been really nice stopping in there home after 2 months of being on the road!!!!
I do think though that we have been spoilt with all the home cooking and probably aren't going to want to leave!!!! The first few days were spent just relaxing and going into the city and getting to know Melbourne. We have also been planning the rest of our trip and have booked a camper van to drive from Melbourne to Cairns. It is going to be a hell of a drive doing about 2000 miles in total!!! I'm sure we will have many stories to tell so watch this space!!!! Any way back to Melbourne!!! The other day Jenny and Greg(April and Rob's daughter and fiancee) took us for a day drip to Sovereign hill. Sovereign hill is basically like an Australian version of the Black Country museum. Everyone that works there is dressed up in full 18th century gear and you can wander round an 18th century Aussie town. It's based where a lot of the gold is mined and found so you can go down into the mines and pan for gold!!!! We had a great laugh and Karen even found some gold!!!!!!
A few day's later we thought we'd learn a bit about some of
Melbourne's more less honest citizens and went for a trip to Melbourne jail where the infamous Ned Kelly amongst many others met his demise. It had closed in 1920 so there wasn't any chance of the inviting us in for the night but it had some great stories about the inmates especially Ned Kelly. We also got to go Police watchhouse next door where we had the pleasure of going through exactly what would happen when you get arrested!!!
We've had a great time over the past week in Melbourne and it we have settled really well here, it kind of feels like our home from home!!!! However in the next few days we will be picking up our camper van which will be our home for the next 33 days!!!!
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Clifto
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Happy 2998.
Hi Griffo (!) and Rich. Just wanted to say i've just spent the best hour ever reading your blog. Looks absolutely amazing. Can't wait for the next instalment. Take care of each other. xxxx