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Published: October 21st 2009
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Melbourne Graffiti
I just loved this place!!! GDAY! So we have finished with Oz, 8 and a half weeks have simply flown by!!! We have had such an awesome time traveling around Australia and could have stayed much longer - but hey all good things must come to an end!!! so here's the update for you all.
We arrived in Melbourne, after our 'wicked' trip along the Great Ocean Road and got picked up at the train station by our second couch surfing host (in total).....for the purpose of this blog we will refer to him as MR X...... MR X was a mature man at 46 and from initial impressions we thought we would get on....that feeling soon died!
We entered his house and within the first 10 minutes he told us that the world was going to end on Dec 21-2012, and that he had in fact been on the earth for 865 years!!!! during which time he had been a slave...a pharaoh...been married to a really hot lady and had 8 children...etc etc!!! With that the shutters on the outside of the house came down and we were told it was going to be an 'in day' as he was very busy with
Beer Brewing
140 bottle's - done!!! his music production job which he did from home. Not entirely happy with the whole 'in day' situation but trying to make the most of our time we decided to do some chores and get on with our washing as previously we had been shown around the house and told to help ourselves to anything we needed......wrong!!! As soon as we switched the machine on he came running through screaming 'GIRLS!!!!" apparently we had used the wrong setting (even though it was already on that one) not only that we had put our powder in the wrong draw (even though they all end up in the same place!) So there we stood, each armed with a teaspoon, scraping out the powder and putting it in the correct draw.....Painful!!!!
Our next mistake....well actually Ami's! was using his mug to make a cup of tea!!! oh that didn't go down too well i can tell you!!!! severe telling off to follow!!! (she didn't know it was his mug by the way, nothing special about it). Not long after we managed to escape out to the nearby shops...wondering what to do we decided to call home to ask advise...not the best move we
Chucks!!!
Their egg's tasted so good!!! now realise....."mum...I'm staying in a house with a mad man...what should i do???"......it was tricky as he was kind enough to put us up for free, feed us, pick us up from the train station - all things that we were thankful for and made it hard to just leave as we didn't wont to appear ungrateful yet in the same breath we just didn't have anything in common and felt very uncomfortable in his house....oh what to do!!! we basically stuck it out for two days spending as little time as possible with him or at the house so we could leave without any confrontation, at times it was very testing!!!!! but we managed it and quickly moved on to our next hosts in Melbourne, a completely different story!!! A lovely couple and their housemate who really made us feel at home and spent lots of time getting to know us and showing us the best parts of Melbourne. They had chickens in the garden so free range eggs for us!!! They also brewed their own beer so we helped out with that too! We took turns in cooking and got taught a new recipe 'Anzac Biscuits' which is
an Oz special - all really good fun, such lovely people, and a pleasure to stay with - so much so that we stayed with them for just over a week (long time for couch surfing!)
Melbourne itself is a really cool city, which we both liked alot - it is full of funky cafes and street art (graffiti), whilst here we also got to see furry penguins and visit a nearby wildlife sanctuary, so got to see more of the native animals which is always good.
Whilst in Melbourne we also met up with a girl we had originally met in Thailand - it was really good to see her and we had a picnic in the Botanical gardens with her and her boyfriend.
Next stop - Brisbane, which we flew to as once again it was the cheapest option, after another night in the airport we headed out to stay with Ami's friend 'Emma', who is from Gt Yarmouth but currently living and working in Brisbane. It was great to see a familiar face and even better as it was her birthday weekend so we went out to celebrate. We made abit of an effort which is
All dressed up!!!
Night on the town unheard of these days - hair straightened, make up on, Ami even painted her nails - only problem was we still only had the clothes in our backpacks to work with!!!! Meaning Ami wore an over sized t-shirt as a dress, borrowed a pair of leggings from Emma and still with her 7 dollar canvas shoes! You will be pleased to know that i too have caved in and finally bought a pair of plimsolls (only because i couldn't go out with our hosts in Melbourne in my sandals).....anyway the reason for this story is because Emma wanted to take us to this pretty posh looking place at the end of the night...she strolled right in however we didn't even make it past the bouncers!!!! dress code!!!! very funny and didn't dampen our night at all - just added to it!!!!
We the spent over a week in a suburb 40 minutes outside Brisbane called Petrie, with Bryony, Aaron and their little girl Katie (I know them from the UK, and they have recently migrated to Oz)...oh boy did we get looked after!!!! Towels to die for!!!!! (bit different to our shammy travel towel!!!!), lovely food and wine -
Brisbane City
With Katie from the mountain look out could definitely get used to that!!! Katie was a real character and had us reading bedtime stories to her every night!!! Whilst here we visited the nearby beach where we had a B-B-Q, went up a mountain to look out over the city and went to a local Market. We took a day trip over to an island called Stradbroke, which was a hidden gem as we had never even heard of it!!!! The area was beautiful with lots of deserted beaches and we got to do a spot of whale watching which was amazing!
Whilst around Brisbane we managed to visit a couple of old faces who lived pretty close by - first off one of my brothers old friends from school that i haven't seen for 15 years, we spent the evening with him and his family then we met up with one of Ami's old friends and stayed with him too. We went on a beautiful coastal walk in Noosa national park and manged to see, Whales (breaching), Dolphins, a snake, manta ray, monator lizard, koala and an eagle - all within a hours walk! pretty amazing stuff!
After another night back at Bryonys we
Noosa national park
just one of the many pictures we took along this walk headed onto Sydney- this time taking the bus/train as we managed to get a good deal using our student cards (Bangkok special), it took us 17 hours in total to get there overnight - not the best as the seats didn't recline so not much sleep - thank god for our penthouse in Sydney!!!!!
That's right Penthouse apartment 2 minutes walk from the central train station!!!!!! all courtesy of our friend 'Grant the Pilot' from the Great ocean road!!! Its not what you know its who you know, right!!!! Just so happens that he popped up online whilst i was trying to sort our Sydney accommodation out and he offered the flat to us, providing we left it in show room condition as its his mums place!!! With this we collect the keys from the local shop and took full advantage of our little luxury pad!!!! with balcony overlooking the city and full gym, swimming pool, sauna and steam room!!!! needless to say we spent most of our time in.....however of course a trip to Sydney wouldn't be complete without a sightseeing tour of the opera house and harbour bridge...all in all a perfect ending to our time in Oz
leaving us feeling fresh and rejuvenated for our next adventure!!!!
New Zealand look out - here we come!!!!
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Nikki
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Every time I read a blog I want to do it myself! Crazy man you stayed with but I guess that's just another story to tell the grandkids hey!? Keep safe dude and keep having fun! xxx