Melbourne #1: Everybody Needs Good Neighbours

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Growing up in the UK in the eighties and nineties Neighbours was an integral part of my childhood. I used to love watching it after school, or even better if I was off poorly, getting to watch it at lunchtime. When I worked out that I would be visiting Melbourne on this trip to Australia (I didn't on my previous trip), I knew that I had to visit Ramsay Street, so I booked a tour online a week or two in advance. We headed into the city early that morning, taking the train from where we were staying in the suburbs. The train didn't take too long and wasn't too expensive, only a few dollars. We got off at the Flinders Street Station which I presume is main train station in Melbourne, I got a shock when we walked outside, there were a tonne of homeless people sleeping rough, that is something I hadn't seen for a long time and that shocked me. We had a little a bit of time before our tour, so we had a quick look around the vicinity of the station. We headed over to Federation Square, that was cool, very new and modern looking. The train station is quite pretty, and not brand-new looking like all the stations I have been to in China, so I took some pictures of that.

We then headed to the hipster area of Degraves Street. This is a pedestrianised street, which is a popular brunch spot for locals and tourists. I needed a coffee and also, more importantly needed to visit Doughnut Time, which is located on Degraves Street. Melbourne is also known for its good coffee. The one I had was good, but nothing too memorable, although I am no coffee connoisseur. I am not really a fan of doughnuts, well that isn't true, if I eat one, nine times out of ten I would enjoy it, but if anyone were to suggest doughnuts I automatically say to myself in my head, 'urgh I don't like them'. I really need to programme my brain to think like that about more food, it would probably make me thinner. The shop is just a tiny place, a kiosk really not a shop. They had some boring looking doughnuts, but that also had some epic looking ones. Ideally I would have liked to try them all, but unfortunately that wasn't an option, so we picked two. I love that all the doughnuts have funny, catchy names. We chose the 'Liam Hemsworthy' (named after Liam Hemsworth, a very fit Australian actor that I know very little about, he did star in Neighbours though), which is a red velvet doughnut with cookies and cream icing, topped with crushed chocolate ripple biscuits and a chocolate glaze drizzle. Since Australia Day was coming up we also chose 'The Straya', which was inspired by the iconic lamington. It is a lamington style doughnut filled with strawberry jam and topped with shredded coconut. It took all my effort not to open the box and immediately devour them.

We took a walk along Flinders Street to reach the tour office from which our Neighbours tour would be departing. We got there a bit early and got checked-in. Then we waited outside in the sun. There were quite a few people waiting. I think when I booked it, the first tour of the day had already sold out and we were on the second one. This tour had two small buses and there was a mix of people taking the tour. Our guide was a lovely Irishman called Gerry, who knew all there was to know about Neighbours. He just exuded knowledge and enthusiasm about the show, it was so endearing. I wonder if in real life he hates it and never watches an episode, that would be funny. As we drove along he filled us in on details about the show. It was funny, the older ones of us in the group knew about the old and original characters, whereas the young ones were more up to date on the contemporary cast. We drove for about 40 minutes, passing a motel that is used as a filming location now to reach Ramsay Street.

Ramsay Street is actually Pin Oak Court and it was chosen as the outdoor location for the show because it is a cul-de-sac and there is a big carpark behind the street, perfect for the filming crew and all their stuff. I think they only film the outdoor scenes there, a couple of times a week. I'm not sure how often the Neighbours tours come through the cul-de-sac, but I definitely wouldn't want to live there, having tonnes of people coming to take photos of your house. There were a couple of security guards in the street to make sure that we didn't get up to any mischief. It was epic to be standing in the street which I had seen so often on TV as a child. The tour guides know that everyone wants to take a million selfies there so they try and arrange people in an orderly fashion, so that you are not ruining each others' shots. Also, since the street isn't really Ramsay Street, there is not sign, so they bring their own for you to pose with! We went methodically around the street, so that we could get shots of all the houses. It is a few years since I have watched the show, so I was trying to remember who lived where back when I watched it. I must have took a million photos of the houses, it was weird seeing the people who actually lived there's cars in the drives. We could also see the real house numbers and the fake house numbers used in the show. I think that we had about thirty minutes on Ramsay Street.

Back on the bus, we were heading to the studio, where Neighbours is filmed. It is very close only about a 5 minute walk away. We drove into the compound and through part of the outdoor set and parked up. We were then given some free time to wander around and take some photos. This part of the set is all too modern for me, so I didn't really know what most of the places were. There was the garage, Grease Monkeys, and an antique shop. Everything is so dusty when you see it close up. Also the attention to detail is great, the bus stop has a timetable on it. We also walked along to the 'Welcome to Erinsborough' sign, another good selfie opportunity.

It was another quick drive to another part of the outdoor set, the Lassiter's complex. The first part I didn't recognise as it was a newer part. I really liked it though there was a wall with the history of Erinsborough on it, a cute touch. We also saw the community centre and some other places, I cant remember what they were. then we headed round to the proper part of Lassiter's Hotel. This is what I recognised. This part of the set had all the places I remembered watching in my childhood. We took a million selfies at Lassiter's Hotel. It was a dream come true. We headed over to the police station, Harold's Cafe, the doctor's surgery, and Toadie's law firm. We could see the Waterhole so headed over there. They even had menus outside. When we had finished at the Lassiter's complex, we headed down to the lake. In the show it seems miles away, but in reality, it is so close. The lake is really small, more of a pond in real life. We weren't allowed to walk on the path through it. We also saw the pavilion. There were some pretty flowers in the pond and the area surrounding it.

I can't remember if for the next part we took the bus or just walked over, but I am leaning to walking over. This is where the backpackers is, who knew Erinsborough had a backpackers, things have changed since I watched it. We then walked over to the an area, which has a line of trees. This is where they do the romantic shots and the young'uns go to make out. The trees do look very pretty, it reminded me of Oak Alley near New Orleans. Our last stop on the tour was the building that is used to as Erinsborough High School, I think that they just use an outside part of the studio. The way they use the space is ingenious, everything is packed closely together, but with camera angles it is made to look so much bigger. I'm not sure if you can visit the sets inside, but since we were there on the weekend everything was locked up. Back on the bus we drove back to the city and watched the Neighbours anniversary DVD to keep us entertained.

When we got back the city we were hungry so went off in search of some lunch. We wandered around the main shopping area and went into one of the many small malls. We ended up a t a Chinese place called 'China Red', you would think that after having lived in China for a few months and eating mainly Chinese food, I would want a break from it, but no. We were actually excited to try 'China Red', as they had a touch screen menu, on human interaction needed, this is living the dream for me! I was gutted however, when we got to the restaurant that we had to speak to someone to get seated, they really need to make that touchscreen, too. I felt like I was back in Japan in a conveyor belt sushi place as we scrolled through the menu, whittling down our choices. I really wanted to try the dodgy looking shrimp dumplings, they had been fashioned to look like dolphins, but my friend vetoed it,as they looked too creepy. Instead we opted for some regular dumplings, and a couple of mains. We had some kind of noodle soup, which was okay and another dish, which was really good, but unfortunately I have forgotten what it was and didn't get any photographic evidence of it to try and look it up.

After lunch we took a walk around. We headed back towards the station and across the bridge and headed down to the Yarra River. We took a walk along the south bank (I think) of the river. This area was really nice. There were lots of bars and since it was the weekend lots of people were out enjoying a drink and the sun. That is something I am not used to seeing anymore, beer gardens. In need of a toilet, we headed into a fancy looking building, knowing that it would have legit, clean toilets, which it did. I think it was the Crown Complex that we were in. It is obviously where all the rich people stay and hang out. There is a casino and a big food court as well as a hotel. We saw some people, who were flanked by minders, must be rich and powerful people. We came across a nice display for the lunar new year, it had all the animals of the Chinese zodiac lit up along the sides of the staircase and at the top there was a giant rooster, as it is the year of the rooster. We continued our walk and chilled on some benches, too. There are a few street performers kicking about and we started to watch one, but he was terrible, so we headed back to the station.

We took the train back to the suburbs and went for dinner. It was my choice and I had picked the food I missed most since my move to China, western style Chinese food. Real Chinese food is good, but nothing like what we have in the West, so I would be getting my fill while in Australia. Two Chinese meals in one day, my life is complete. We got a take away from a local place; prawn toast, sweet and sour pork, Mongolian beef, crispy salt and chilli chicken, special fried rice and most importantly prawn crackers! I had died and gone to heaven. We had a chill evening eating our take away and drinking wine. I sent some photos of the western Chinese food to my friends in China, they were less than impressed.

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