Melbourne Australia

Gday ,How you going ?



I left a rainy Christchurch and and flew into a sunny Sydney expecting to be grilled at immigration just as i was when i flew into Auckland in NZ, but to my suprise they stamped my passport and in i went ,no proof of visa no proof of funds as you had to have at least $5000 , no dramas i was very suprised , so off i went to catch my connecting flight i had booked to Adelaide, Lauren whom i met in Fiji had picked me up at the airport around 9 pm and i was amazed at how hot it was, they had been having a heat wave and it had been 40oC plus for the past 2 weeks ,but i wasnt complaining :) as i was staying with Lauren and she had Air Con so it was comfortable indoors ,a few days later it was my birthday and we went out to the Marina for dinner and just had a quiet night , the next day it was Lauren's birthday and again we went out for dinner this time with her sister her friend and their partners , it was a good night although they struggled to understand me at times and didnt get my humor :) So a few strange looks and uneasy silence lol.Now with Lauren working during the day i spent most of my time wandering around exploring Adelaide , i had been to the beach on sevral occasions i had been to the city on sevral occasions and that was pretty much it , i was told previously that they call it the two day city as after 2 days you have seen it all pretty much , so i made the executive decsion and moved on , i contact my mate Chris who had moved out to Melbourne in December and he told me to get over there .

So off i travelled to Melbourne to meet Chris ,he was living with his brother Joe and his family and said i could stay with them as their was heaps of room ,as Chris was working during the week i was going around with Craig ,Chris's nephew , he plays for Melbourne Victory football team and he trained in the morning and had the rest of the day off so he was my tour guide showing me around Melbourne and round about ,now ive been to quite a few Cities and im usually like its just another City but Melbourne has a different feel to it ,there is soo much going on and that much to do and see , i spent the first 2 weeks just chilling out enjoying the sunshine at St Kilda which reminds me a bit like a spanish beach resort , it has the same kind of look and feel to it with the beach and the promenade cafe and bars surrounding, at the weekends we went out exploring the pubs and clubs , the nightlife is vast there are so many areas of the city to go to your spoilt for choice its vibrant and just quality with the surroundings of the city and the feel of it is buzzing and the talent is fantastic too, just one hint of a Scottish accent and made more than welcome .

The week after we had some of the hottest weather on record for Melbourne its was over 40 everyday and to go out in was torture , on the saturday that week is what they have now called black saturday , that was when the bushfires in Melbourne where started and swept across the outskirts of the city causing millions of dollars worth of damage and leaving thousands homeless, on this day it hit 47oC with strong winds , we all had went to Brighton beach just outside Melbourne and the wind was like a hair dryer blowing in your face ( yes i still remember what that feels like ) on the way home it was dull as the smoke was blocking out the sun and it was very eery and surreal ,

The week later we went to the 'A' league Grand Final game at the Telstra Dome to watch Melbourne vs Adelaide ,it was the final game of the season and who ever won , won the leauge .I dont really remeber a great deal about the game but i do remember the quality wasnt the best , me Chris and Jimmy ( the other scottish guy we met )where more interested in the alcohol that they served at the game hehe anyways Melbourne won the game 4 nil and everyone was partying , we couldnt seem to get excited about it so then left and headed down to the nearby Docklands where the rich moor their boats in Melbourne and spent the night drinking down there .

The next couple of weeks were non eventful except from being out drinking and partying at the weekend ,and no im not going to get fat with all the drinking incase you where wondering infact ive been at the gym more here than back home so there lol ,in this time i visited the famous Ramsay Street from the show Neighbours , which is actually called Pin Oak Court in East Melbourne , i was pretty disapointed in it as it was very small not what i had expected and they were not filming that day so i didnt get to see any actors , the street its self only has around 8 houses in it and its not in the best of areas , hopefully Summer Bay from Home And Away will be better lol. I would have moved on by now but Melbourne was a great place and the Australian Grand Prix was in a few weeks . The Kings Of Leon were in town playing at the Rod Laver Arena which is where the tennis was played in January , we didnt have tickets but myself Chris and Craig decided to head over and try get a ticket outside , we had only just arrived and were offered a ticket without even asking for $100 , the face value was $80 so wasnt too bad ,we had a great night and headed went out afterwards .

Finally came the day of the GP and what a glorious sunny day it was , now this was one of my items on my to do list so i was soo excited to finally have the chance to be at one , the week previously before they track was put together , because its half street half track , we started at the grid and raced around the track , now obviously your not allowed to do this , but if you dont get caught then no harm done :) we went into Albert Park just after lunch time to watch the V8 supercar race and have a look around with various thing going on around track side ,after the V8 supercars they done a test with an ordinary car a BMW 1 series a V8 supercar and a F1 car each starting 30seconds behind the other , now it takes a F1 car around 1min 28 sec to go around the track , so the bmw took off followed by V8 and then the F1, by the time it came back around the F1 was a good bit ahead folled by the V8 i,ts amazing to see in action the speed and noise of these cars , by the time we walked back around the place was packed and all the good positions were gone to see the race so we paid $30 more and went into a bit called Sidetracked, which got you a position on the 3rd and 4th corner ,in there you had your own bars 2 big huge screens and a stage with DJ's playing dance music , its was crazy it was a festival atmosphere with people dancing and drinking while the cars whizzed past , the noise of these cars are awesome it goes right through you and gives you a real buzz when they go past . When the race actually started it was awesome all the cars blasting past at the same time and creating an almighty noise ,when they past everyone turned and watched what was happening on the huge screens . In case you were not aware Jenson Button won the race which i was happy about , anybody but Lewis Hamilton and im happy :) when the race finished everyone ran on the track taking pictures and picking up bits of debris from the cars , the BMW car had crashed right next to us and and left a bit of a spoiler , so some guy managed to get a hold of it and was running around with it like a trophy lol after all the presentations The Who where doing a concert ,im not that into The Who but thought i would go over and take in the atmosphere and have a look , all in all a great experience and a fantastic day .

Then came the V festival , me and Chris were looking forward to this for quite some time as the line it was pretty good, it was also my last event and farewell to Melbourne as have decided to depart for Sydney during the week , we went out for a few drinks around lunch time and met up with the Scottish people we had met the previous week at the GP ,they had also brought some more of their friends and it ended up thier was around 20 of us all Scottish , we all headed along to the festival and it was an awesome day , the Aussies really dont know how to party when it comes to bands playing ,they were all just standing around whilst us Scots are all singing and dancing and making as much noise as possible . We went to see Vanilla Ice , now i know yes Vanilla Ice but when else would you get the chance to see him , so we waited until he sang ice ice baby then left lol after there we saw Razorlight and then it was onto the Jagermeifter dance tent for a bit to bust some moves , then Kaiser Chiefs and Snow Patrol before finishing off with a incredible show from The Killers , its was a good end to a great day , although its not anywhere near as good as T in the park by a country mile but was still good to see the bands close up .

Ive been in Melbourne now for 11 weeks and its time to move on although very reluctantly , i will miss the place as it really has grown on me and the people ive met here have been so welcoming , especially Chris his brother Joe and his family , they have made me feel like part of thier family and i will never forget that . I have made heaps of friends here and i will come back to Melbourne before i go home to see them again . If i was going to live in Australia i would live here , but ive still got a long way to go and will probably change my mind again lol

Next Stop Sydney and back to being a Flashpacker !!!!!!! Although i might be home sooner than planned if the exchange rate keeps dropping the way it has ,i got here it was $2.50 to the pound now its $1.98 im losing a fortune :(

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