the final week - going out on a high :)

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please accept my apologies in advance, this blog entry is entirely from memory as i got very lazy with the journal writing in the last week of my travels!!!!
i realise that i have now been home in oh so wonderful blighty for *ahem* months so i thought that it was high time that i wrote my final entry :) so here it goes.

sunday: after finally arriving in back in melbourne, waiting for my case to come off the plane (it was literally the very last one, score!), and then having to run to catch the bus taxi thing because someone told me the exit was on the second floor when in fact it wasn't i finally made it to my hostel in st kilda.
st kilda is an absolutely brilliant little suburb of melbourne, i fell in love with it the moment i arrived. it's not overly huge and the streets are lined with oodles and oodles of kitsch little coffee shops, restaurants, bars and bakeries. the beach is lovely (even though back in melbourne it really really wasn't beach weather yet!!). there is also the somewhat famous "luna park" along the beach front - a glorified fun fair to be honest. they have one in sydney too that you can see from the top of the harbour bridge.
after wandering around taking the area in for the afternoon i met up with sarah who was staying in the same hostel as me and we went out for food and farewells as she was off to new zealand the next morning.

monday: ok, so everyone should now be uber jealous as monday was my much anticipated NEIGHBOURS DAY!! hehe! quite possibly the highlight of my time in oz, even beating such other favourite moments as learning to dive, swimming with sharks and visiting the whitsundays ;) (seriously, anyone who knows me will know what an important part of my life (especially in the durham years) neighbours is :D) was up bright and early for the neighbours tour. met a dead nice girl called lucy who was from england (as was everyone on the tour actually... funny that...) and we ended up spending the rest of the day together. once we were on the tour bus, sweets were handed out and a neighbours dvd was put on to entertain all us neighbours saddos ;) after about half an hour we got to the studios. but you can't actually go in which is a bit pants :( then we went to erinsborough high. which is actually Blackburn School for English. or something along those lines. Basically its where foreign kids in melbourne go to learn english. the erinsborough high sign was fetched, hung over the gate and photos were taken. absolutely brilliant :)

Next, and onwards to Ramsay Street! (aka pin oak court). teeny tiny road, literally, the houses that you see on the show, that's it. so so strange actually being there! had photos taken outside all the house, nearly got run over by someone reversing out of harold's drive way, hehe, claim to fame, totally.

that evening, went to the neighbours night in st kilda!!! had an amazing time, free champers, can't be bad! our team did horrifically badly in the quiz! ah well :) met toadie, stingray and harold, then watched karl kennedy and his band play and met them too!!!!!!! think i sent way too many text messages home to people telling them i'd just met neighbours people :) :) :) twas an absolutely ace day though, something to remember for sure!

Tuesday: I went to Phillip island today to watch the penguin parade! it was bloody freezing! phillip island is a little island near melbourne where, every night, hundreds of little penguins return home to their families (awww!) after being out at sea catching food and stuff! you all get to sit on the beach with blankets and watch them come in. they are so so cute!!! it's just amazing watching them all swim in in little groups of maybe 10 or so and then waddle up the beach to their burrows! and they make the funniest noises. proper pingu like and stuff!!!! i could have watched them all night.

Wednesday: Wednesday was spent mostly shopping in melbourne :) i dyed my hair black (big mistake, nice shiney white bathroom in the hostel :s) and went to the taste of chaos concert at the rod laver arena. got rather lost on the trams (really shouldn't sound surprised by this anymore!!) but finally made it and had a brilliant time. won't bore you with the details, but the used were headlining (yay, top band!) and twas ace!

Thursday: was proper lazy today, went shopping in melbourne, had yet more starbucks and generally didn't do all that much! oooh, went for a walk along the beach in st kilda which was dead nice.

Friday: had to get up really early as was going on a great ocean road trip. had an amazing day, the scenery was breathtaking to say the very least. it was a very long day. but so worth it. we saw some amazing little coastal towns, some beautiful surf beaches, the lighthouse from "round the twist" (how cool!!!), a real live baby koala!!! the 12 apostles were stunning. they look every bit like the do in all the postcards. i went on a helicopter ride!!!! brilliant stuff!!
we also went along to lochard gorge and london bridge and on the way back to melbourne we stopped in colac for maccy d's (for those of you who love neighbours, you'll be as impressed by this as i was - yes, colac does actually exist!!! :D). so so tired when i got back but still, awesome day.

The weekend: was spent getting to Werribee to see Nick and Rach before heading home. had an absolutely fantastic weekend, and it was so so lovely to see them all again after nearly 3 months of travelling!!!!!

On the monday i packed and said my goodbyes to oz :( all tres sad.

but i'd had an amazing time, the time of my life and done so many things that i never would have dreamed i'd have the guts to do. heck, goin all the way to the other side of the world on my own, not something you do every day. but i'd survived. and i'd grown from the experience. any one who is thinking of going, not jus to oz, but anywhere. do it. you'll never look back.

xx

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