Melbourne

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Melbourne 1st of May 2010-10th of May 2010
Left Red cliffs on Friday night the 30th of April never so happy to be leaving somewhere as I was to leave the hostel. We finished up work today for our boss Carlo, who was really nice and we sorted him out with two other backpackers to fill our places. We packed up our stuff booked accommodation in Melbourne and headed for the 10pm bus. It was a 9 & ½ hour bus journey. 
Jumped on the bus and there was a old drunk man sitting in our seat numbers, we told him that 43&44 were our seat numbers he refused so got the bus driver down and he asked for his ticket. He handed it over and apparently he was seat 41... so annoying he had been sleeping on our chairs and he stunk. Eeek! Our seats were also straight across from the toilet so every time some1 went toilet the door hit off my chair...grrrr...

Arrived in Mebourne @ 7am and dragged our bags up the road to our hostel. “King street backpackers.” The guy behind the counter was really nice and let us leave our bags in and gave us a map to go and explore. It was so strange being in a huge city after so long in the outback. We wandered up to the Victoria markets held every weekend in Melbourne. It was really big and had lots of stuff. We went into city centre and had a wander around Flinders street. Tonight we got back to the hostel and waited for Claire, josie, paul, steven and the rest to arrive from red cliffs. They came in on the 6pm bus. We had some drinks in the hostel and then headed on the train to St Kilda where the party was. We walked all the way to flinders station which is 20 minute walk from our hostel. Waited for about 30 minutes because of delays. Then this Aussie couple in there 70’s came over to us and asked us did we ned any help and told us how the train had track works and that we would have to get off the train at the next stop and get a bus. UGH! Not impressed, why didn’t the guy selling us the ticket tell us this??? The couple told us to get off with them at brighton station and they would drive us to Winsor cause it would be less hassle for us. Bless them! In the end the driver told us we would have an organised express bus waiting at the next station to take us on to winsor. Thank god! Only an hour and a half later  We should have got a taxi or tram! Eventually we arrived in St Kilda and got a taxi to the party where everyone was at. We went to the elephant & wheelbarrow, and the prince of wales pubs. Both absolute shite so I convinced the girls to go somewhere else. It was getting late so we went to a nightclub called “tongue & groove” pretty cool.

Sunday 2nd May 2010-
Today I was as sick as a small hospital. We didn’t get out of bed until 3pm.... wrecked and v v sick. Got up and walked into the city centre stopped at flinders street and got some pasta at a really nice restaurant. Headed to Mc donalds to get wifi and look for a car rental place. The internet was shocking and we couldn’t get online at all. We tried 3 more mc donalds. No hope! We had a stroll through china town and back to the hostel.

Thursday 5th May 2010
We got back to Melbourne yesterday and decided we would stay in St Kilda because it was closer to the girls and the beach was really nice here and had a really cool vibe to it. We decided we would go out tonight and meet up with everyone so we headed to this cute little bar on Fitzroy street down the road from our hostel. It was called apartment 29. They had offers on drinks it was $5 for any spirits and $4 bottled beers, so cheap. You wouldn’t hear of this in Ireland! We stayed here till about 2am and then we tried to get into a club down the road. Apparently it was too packed so we settled for food instead 

Friday 7th May-
Today we had a wander around the little suburb of St Kilda, kind of reminds me of Bondi in Sydney except St Kilda is nicer. Well the beach isn’t but sure u cant have everything can you? Cool little hippie shops and surfer shops. This would be a really nice place to work, not too big or too small just right. Although I wouldn’t work in Melbourne in winter its sunny but freezing! Tonight we decided to take it easy and not go out since tomorrow is creamfields. We wnet down to St Kilda peer about 6:30pm to see the penguins. It was getting dark! We walked along the prom following the lights, I thought we’d never see penguins cause it was so dark and obviously they’d get scared of us. We walked for about 20mins, and along the rocks we could see them. They were super cute  We caught a few on camera!

Saturday 8th May-
Creamfields!!!
Got up early to get ready left the hostel at 11am and headed into the city to catch the train to North Melbourne. Waited for the gang at the station, we got drink and arrived at Ciara’s house. We stayed there till 3pm. Then walked to the Melbourne showgrounds. I got refused entry by a 60 year old woman, why ever she was at the counters anyways its a rave!!!! She told me I was too drunk and to go and have a coffee and come back in 30minutes. Went outside walked back in and went to a young guy at a different, not a problem didn’t even get my bag checked, and I had a ½ bottle of vodka in it. Bonus!!!
Had a really good night got to meet Marco V and get picture taken with him...wooohooo!

Sunday 9th May-
Got up around 10am and went into the city to get a few last pictures before we leave tomorrow. We walked up to Melbourne central shopping centre, its really cool inside. Its like a huge dome outside and then inside looks like a massive spiderweb. Some really nice catherdrals here and really old architecture. Melbourne reminds me alot of England. I guess it was probably built by the English thats why! They have the biggest casino in the southern hemisphere. Its HUGE! Eureka sky deck is huge too. We didn’t bother going up it because once you’ve been up one you kinda know what to expect. Its a city and they all are generally the same when your on a sky deck. I went to the one in New York so I doubt any other one will come close to the scenery I saw there!

I really want to come back and live in Melbourne at some stage in my second year visa. Its really chilled compared to Sydney and full of little cafes & coffee shops. All my friends are living here now and working. But I wanted to travel the coast, that’s why I came to Australia to see it not to just work all the time! Anyways Melbourne is far too cold for me right now its coming into winter so its just gonna get colder and colder and it’ll just be like being in Ireland... I’ll be there for long enough when I get home! I will definitely give it a go though maybe in October this year when its coming into summer.

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