Tourists in Melbourne

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So back to Sydney and our real look around the city as travellers . We booked into Base hostel in the city and it was very nice, clean and well situated, the only negative was that they did not have plug sockets in our dorm room, that we could find. At this point we did not have any set plans on what we were going to do next. We new we wanted to head to Melbourne and Phillip Island but anything after that was anybodys guess. On our first day we had a stroll down to Darling harbour and into the mall on the opposite bank. When we got back we headed next door to the scary canary bar for food and drinks. We waited so long that they stopped serving food and we had to walk to KFC and share a meal. It was cold and i only had flip flops on but the hunger gave me the strength to get there and back. The bar was a backpacker bar so the had games on and entertainment.That night it was fluro night and they were painting everyone in flourecent colours however myself and Craig managed to keep low key and avoid them.

The next day we learnt of a free shuttle bus that runs in a circle around the city centre so we jumped on headed to Sydney harbour. On our way Craig pointed out the apple store to me where our friend Ram worked. And just as we were passing the windows he said i wonder if Ram is working today, we then both saw him and smiled. We jumped off the bus and wandered back to the shop. This may not sound like an unusual event but we had not seen Ram in nearly a year, since we met him doing our Everest base Camp Trek and it was only by chance that the bus route took us this way. Ram did not recognise us at first but he soon remembered Craig and then me. We chatted for a while and he took us on a tour of his shop. After an hour we let him get back to work and we vowed to stay with him when we returned to Sydney for our flight to Fiji. We made it to the museum and had just enough time to look round the exhibition on the sex and drugs culture of the 1970's Sydney.

The next day we checked out of the hostel and booked an overnight greyhound to Melbourne, we tried to find a relocation camper but there were non going in that direction. We walked through paddys market and i bought a new watch for $15, its a cool Red Elmo one. We came upon the Maritme museum and decided to go inside to see the free exhibition and ended up going on the Submarine and destroyer ship that were in the harbour. They were both pretty cool and were ran by volunteers who explained about them as we went round. I did not realise how small a sub is and how many men would be cramped into such a small space. That night we got the 8pm greyhound to Melbourne.

It wasnt a bad trip dowm to Melbourne and we slept the best we could arrivng at 8am. Jumping straight onto a tram we headed for Base hostel in St Kilda. We did not have a clue where the hostel was so we got off at the first stop in St Kilda, and it turned out to be the wrong one. Everyone we asked hadnt heard of Base so we wandered around in the direction we thought it was. Eventually we got directions from another hostel who still sent us the long way round. Now i do not mind walking but i get very cranky when im carrying my heavy backpack and we do not know where we are going. Craig can back me up on that, he has many a time been subject to my moaning on this matter. We checked in and had some breakfast. We got the lift up to our room and i opened the door. I was shocked at the room we were staying in. There was clothes everywhere and we could not figure out which beds were free. That was not the worst of it. There was a guy who was about 40, snoring his head off and im not talking a little snoring noise im talking a
train passing through the dorm, it was that loud. There was no way in hell i could sleep through that and after talking with the girls in the room we found out he had been in there oroom fr several nights and each night they all went without sleep. Nothing would wake this guy up not even the girls shouting at him at the top of their lungs. Luckily the girl on reception had him moved and we settled into the dorm.

After getting to know the 3 girls and a lad in our room we didnt mind the mess that much. Tommy was in the bed beneath me and 4 girls slept in the opposite bunk beds and under craig. yes i said 4 in 3 beds. 2 girls in the bed under craig and all her crap was in our room as well. All the grils were really friendly but would wake up at 6:30/7am and wap on the light to get ready. It wouldnt have been too bad but they took over 2 hours to get ready for work and then the light would go out at 9am, then at 9:10 the next set of girls would get up and do the same. It wouldnt have been half as bad if we could get an early night but the same girls would go out till the wee hours or have over ten poeple drinking in our room. I was totally sleep deprived so i was very cranky the whole stay. However i did cheer up with all the cool things we did in those few days.

The first day we chilled, the second we went to see toy story 3D which was excellant and the next day we hired a car and drove to Phillip Island. I must admit i am not the best navigator and i therefore got us lost but craig, using his great sense of direction got us there without fail. The first things we did was book our penguine parade tickets at the toursit info and then sped to the phillip island raceway. Here we got to go on a tour around the track. It was a really cool experience and Craig really loved it. We got to stand on the winners podium, see inside a pit box, commentry tower, race control and walk across the bridge over the track. Next we went karting on the mini scale version of the track. I bought one session and craig got 2. I wasnt very good and i did get overtaken by Craig twice. I had fun and craig vowed to go even quicker the second time. The second time he was so close to the quickest time of the week by like 3 hundreths of a second. But the guy who beat him was super light so Craig new he would of beat him if he was lighter. After finishing his session we headed to the penguine parade. This is where little penguins come ashore to their nests at night and we sit very quietly and watch them. They are so cute but unfortunatly you are not allowed to take pics but its still really special to see. The next day we headed off on our neighbours tour. We visited ramsay street which is actually called Pin Oak. We also got to see lassiters, harolds store, charlies and carpenters autoshop. It was a decent tour but would have been better if we got to meet Dr Karl instead of someone we hardly recognised. That same day we changed hostels to a really cool place called vic hall. The kitchen was under construction but the cinema, gym and games room made up for that along with the spacious rooms and giant lockers.

The last day before we were leaving for Adelaide we went on a full day tour of the sports venues in Melbourne. We picked to see Albert Park where the F1 is held, Flemmington race course, Rod Laver arena, Etihad stadium and the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). We had tours around the tennis arena and the MCG. They both were worth the money. The MCG was set up as a footy pitch as FIFA were coming the same day to view it for the world cup bid. We had an old guy volunteer that was a memebr of the MCC and he was always trying to take the mick of us English but did not fully succeed. At the end we decided to throw in the MCG Museum and i got to see Ian Thorpes trainer. It was huge, from my elbow to the tips of my fingers. There was loads of info and we did not get round it all. Myself and Craig split up at the beginning and i found him later in the games area with the other lads from our tour. I must admit that after playing a few games it was addictive. We got to kick a goal in OZZY rules, run out a player in cricket, Cycle n a race, test our reactions and shoot hoops. The museum however was very interesting and the games even better.

Overall we really enjoyed Melbourne!!

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