Melbourne

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On Friday 30th we got the overland train to Melbourne. Such a nice train, never had so much leg room!!! There were some lovely views of the countryside between Adelaide and Melbourne. When we got to Melbourne we didn't have a clue where to go, we got a tram up one street after one kind man helping us, we didn't pay for the tram, oops! But we still had ages to walk before finding the hostel! By the time we found the hostel I pretty much wanted to die after the weight of carrying all my bags! Bumped into some of the girls from our outback trip at the hostel - small world! Didn't do much on Saturday, just got ourselves sorted and went to Peterpans travel agent to book more accommodation and tours for the next part of the trip.

On Sunday we took the free tram around the city. We saw Parliament house and gardens and a very strange water feature, Federation square where there was live comedy and the Docklands.

On Monday morning Anwen went and did a neighbours tour to Ramsey Street! As I've never even seen the show I didn't bother and instead ended up getting my ear pierced on impulse. In the afternoon we went to Melbourne jail, where we learnt the story of Ned Kelly - Australia's most famous criminal! I took part in a re-enactment of his trial in court, playing the part of a witness and saying a few lines up in the witness box. The we went into the lockhouse where we were 'arrrested'. They had all the women lined up against one wall and the men on the other. We had to put our hand on our heads, then turn around and put our hands up against the wall like they would actually do with the real convicts. We then got locked up in a cell and they turn the lights out and left us for 10 minutes. After that we had a look around all the different cells, including padded cells for the crazy people and "wet cells" for the drunks (drain in the middle of the floor for all the vomit and such to go and then they would hose them down in the morning). This evening we went up the Eureka tower. A lift takes you up to the 88th floor and my ears popped several times the lift goes so fast. The view of Melbourne at night was pretty spectacular. We went out onto a balcony in the open air and I got pretty freaked out looking that far down!

On Tuesday we did a day trip to Phillip island. We stopped off at a riverside picnic site at the way and saw the largest colony of flying fox bats in Aus, then we went to a wildlife sanctury where you could buy a pot of feed for $1 and go round feeding all the animals. I feed kagaroos, wallabies, emus (who were bloody mental), goats, sheep, donkeys and an alapaca. I also saw koalas, but you can't feed them as they only eat eucalyptus leaves and Tasmanian devils which were also mental, running around in circles! Our tour guide on this trip is nuts. He has a load of toy penguins and he throws them at people who are late back to the bus or who talk when he is talking. It was actually pretty damn funny! On Phillip island we watched the penguin parage. At sunset all the penguins come back from their fishing and walked back up the beach to their homes on the coast. The breed of penguins here are called small penguins and they are teeny tiny!! It was a pretty awesome site seeing hundreds of them arrive on shore and waddle up to their nests. The first group was so hesitant and kept going back into the water several times before plucking up the courage to go for it and pass the seagulls on shore.

Had an unintentional lazy day on Wednesday as our next bus pass got messed up and by the time we sorted that out there was not much point going to St Kilda like we had planned. Instead we went to Treasury Gardens and sunbathed and read our books. We out with a friend of Anwen's who lives here tonight. We went to a roof top bar which was pretty cool and drank too much wine.......

Got picked up at 7am for our day trip on the Great Ocean Road today. I wasn't feeling too good and by the time we'd been on the bus a little while collecting people from other hostels I felt really dodgy. I got off the bus for a breather and ended up being sick at the side of the road!! It was so mortifying. People were heading to work in their business suits and I just kept having to tell myself its ok I won't see them again!!! Anwen also told me afterwards that this happened whilst we were on the most expensive street in Melbourne with all the designer shops and I actually threw up right outside Channel!!! Hahaha! I felt a lot better after this thought and a little nap on the bus and the day heading upwards. The views on the great ocean road are spectacular! We had the same tour guide as tuesday and he was really cool about we being ill. We saw the 12 apostles, a rock called London Bridge, and this amazing beach with a cave and the biggest waves I have ever seen in my life. No-one would go far into the water as they were just that huge!!! Trying to take pictures of the waves was really difficult thought as you'd never know when a massive one was coming and I'd always get the timing wrong, thought I did manage to get one pretty good picture but the wave got even bigger after I had clicked! We went out tonight with some of the people off our trip, went to some different bars this time and had a pretty good night 😊

On our last day in Melbourne we went to the beach in St Kilda. It was quite a hot day but it was very windy so I got sand blown in my face a lot so not the best relaxing sun bathing time!! Ended up moving to a grassy area instead and that was so much better.

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