Down Under

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Our flight from Singapore to Melbourne was alright, I started to feel really feverish and cold during which wasnt much fun, clearly coming down with something! We arrived at around 1am on the night of the 10th/11th and everything was really easy to negotiate. I thanked the customs officer and got a very Aussie 'no worries mate'. Yep, we'd definitely landed! In the arrivals hall my debit card didn't work for the first time as I tried to use an ATM. Apparently my bank had blocked it and checked with my mum if I was 'really travelling'. Riiight so after 2 and a half months of my card being rinsed in Asia it was only when I got to Australia that they got a little suspicious. Hilarious. Anyway it was supposed to be activated in the next 24 hours and I had a few pounds I could change in the meantime. We'd booked a hostel online in the morning in Singapore in the beach suburb of St. Kilda which we'd heard was a good base. The taxi drive there set us back a huge 60 dollars (around 30 quid). Australia was going to kill our bank balances! Self Catering was obviously the way forward! The hostel however was very nice and after using the luxury bathroom we put our sheets on the bed and passed out. I had a terrible night sleep as I was still feeling grim. For the first time in the history of time, Rob was up before me and Katie and so headed off to get some breakfast in the bar downstairs. Me and Katie however headed straight for the local supermarket 'Coles' and stocked up on a few basics for self catering before enjoying cocoa pops for breakfast in the hostel kitchen. There was no sign of Rob around so we figured he must have gone off on his own. Me and Katie spent the afternoon exploring St Kilda. We saw the hilarious ancient 'Luna Park' theme park, the beach and pier plus a quirky street with all sorts of interesting shops called Acland street. I still wasn't feeling great but I didn't fancy a day in the hostel! An advert at the bar had said tonight was 'no flip flops'. Having not had shoes since leaving them in the Hong Kong hostel I'd been living in flip flops, Katie and Rob didnt have shoes either. We figured now would probably be a good time to find some and we both picked up a cheap pair on a cool street called Acland Street before going back to the hostel. First impressions of Australia were that there were reminders of England everywhere from old houses to war memorials, road signs etc etc. However things seemed much cleaner than at home and newer with wider roads and more modern buildings. The people seemed pretty outgoing and confident in Australia! Collapsed on bean bags in the TV room and watched some rubbish TV for ages before Rob appeared and they got ready to go downstairs to the bar. I wasn't sure if I could hack it but after a little nap I decided there was no way you'd keep me in on my first night out in Oz! We headed down to the bar downstairs and were a little disappointed to see it was full of local older people, the hostel was pretty empty atm! We headed to Fitzroy Street, the best place to head out in Melbourne apparently and went in search of a backpackerish bar. We ended up in a place called the epsy which had a rubbish live band on and an assortment of interesting people to watch. At the bar I asked for the 'cheapest pint' to which the girl said sorry we don't serve beer in pints, only pots... a pot is a half pint glass and it still costed me 4 dollars/2 quid! Aussies have a phobia of pints... At the next pub we went too we challenged some hilarious guys with why they were drinking pots and not pints. They claimed that us whinging poms wouldnt understand how a pint goes warm as we don't have warm days. Me and Rob killed them by pointing out it was cold outside, we were in a cool pub and if your pint goes cold you're clearly not drinking fast enough! Anyway there was some crazy cover band on and I got bored of them pretty quickly plus I was starting to feel pretty rough and we all headed back, stopping for a kebab which turned out to be practically gourmet compared to at home! Melbourne drinking scene, or St Kilda anyway had disappointed us! Rip off and not many backpackers around. Plus the kebabs are too good, you cant have a kebab without the grime factor! (Whinging pom...)

Anyway the day after I suffered, not because I'd been out drinking, well probably partly, but because my bowels decided to give me hassle allll day. It was not fun. We got the tram into central Melbourne and couldnt figure out how to pay so decided if it came to it we'd use the British charm to get out of it. We arrived at Southern Cross Railway station and looked into train to Sydney which we decided to get on Monday. I'd been hoping to stay a little longer but it was 2 against 1. That left us today, tommorow and monday day time so I wanted to get as much in as possible. We got a taxi down to Federation Square which is a complex of crazy modern buildings, interesting contrast against flinders street station next door, old and colonial! We were planning on checking out the raved about Australian Center for the Moving Image (ACMI) although it was already getting a bit late and the people recommended spending a bit more time in the exhibition that was on at the moment - 'Game On'. So we decided to come back on Monday. It was the end of the Melbourne Comedy Festival this weekend and Ross Noble was on at the Town Hall. We tried to get tickets but unfortunately it had already sold out. An Aussie Guy outside the door managed to sell his show to us though and we bought tickets to see him - Stephan Popovic - at 6. Wasted some time on the internet before heading to the show. He proved to be really quite good and a laugh was something I needed feeling a bit crappy! We headed back on the tram and crashed out, I picked up a load of medical stuff from the pharmacy and dosed up, it was expensive though!

The next day was AFL Day, after a failed attempt at Bacon and Eggs in the hostel kitchen (bacon here is rubbish) me and Rob headed off to the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) to see an Aussie Rules Football game. It was Collingwood v Carlton, all we knew was Carlton were rubbish and on the verge of their worst losing run since 1901 and the two teams were huge local rivals in Melbourne. Some fans on the tram told us that if we were to go to one game this should be the one. Perfect. From Federation Square we walked the short way along the river to the MCG with this nice Aussie bloke and his daughter. Both were decked out in Black and White stripes and were wearing 'Magpies' scarves. As I'd gone in my Newcastle shirt I knew there was only one team I could clearly support today and I was instantly a Collingwood fan. To make it interesting Rob adopted navy blue Carlton. We paid just a tenner for tickets, the stadium was absolutely massive, one of the worlds great sports arenas! It holds 100,000 and wasn;t far off full today at 80,000. The game was great apart from the fact Carlton, the huge underdogs managed to pull a shock and beat Collingwood 111-88 which was crushing for me. Rob was delighted. The atmosphere was pretty good although theres no actual singing like at home. We really enjoyed it and before we headed back to St Kilda, Rob spent a while searching Melbourne for a Carlton shirt having fallen in love with them. It had certainly felt like supporting Newcastle, losing to a team you should clearly beat! In the evening we had a few in the bar downstairs and met this hilarious Aussie dude called Nathan. I wasn't planning on drinking particularly as I was still not quite right! However he kept buying us shots and pints so there wasn't a whole load I could do about it! Beat Rob a few more times at pool. At the time of writing it has been turned around and I'm now winning 26-25 after having been losing 22-12 at one point. Hes not so cocky anymore and I enjoy the crushing look on his face as he hates losing to me so much.

Monday we checked out and left our bags in a locker at Southern Cross Station. We paid for our tickets to Sydney as if you pay on the day you get concession fair which is half price at 60 dollars for economy seat. Only I would have got it otherwise with my student card. It was to be an 11 hour journey from 8pm to 7am in a chair only. Nice. Katie went for a wander while me and Rob went back to the ACMI to go to the game on exhibit. Basically it was a history of computer games, ultimately geeky but really good fun. You could play all the old classics from Pong and Pacman to Lemmings and Street Fighter. Took us back a bit and we didn't even bother going on any of the new ones. I couldn't help but think again that Alex would be in heaven. We stayed for a few hours before meeting up with Katie again. Rob managed to find his Carlton shirt and coughed up 100 dollars for it, I was pining for the Collingwood one but didnt really have the money! We got some food before heading back to the station. It was a shame to leave Melbourne, I really got a good vibe off the place. Its a really nice city. Bits of it remind me of San Francisco and bits of London. A good combination in my opinion! It was a shame there wasnt many backpackers about though and the weather wasn't particularly warm but it was warmer than home! We got on our train to Sydney with hope of sunshine and a few more people! We'd booked at Wake Up hostel which we'd always intended to stay at as it sounded fantastic fun and huge! Its slogan is wake up with someone new. Hilarious. The train ride was uncomfortable as hell. I hate sleeping in chairs. But we got there and ontime. Unfortunately it was a drizzly Sydney we arrived to. Maybe things weren't picking up just yet! Wake Up was 100m away which was very handy and we checked in. The place looked great, good music on, big TVs and nice helpful staff. We dumped our stuff in our dorm - pretty standard dorms - and me and Katie went and did a bit of food shopping. Sandwich stuff and cereal pretty much! Spent most of the day collapsed in the great TV room on bean bags watching daytime TV. Some examples included a great Snow White film and the intense stares of Days of Our Lives. We watched with this hilarious Geordie guy called Matt, he says theres a reasonable gang of them going to watch the derby on Sunday night so I'm sorted! In the afternoon I had the joy of going to the Dentist which I'd booked ahead of time from Melbourne. My gums had been playing up a bit and I just wanted to get it checked out. All good though and just needed some antibiotics and a quick clean which was organised for thursday. It was very strange seeing the Dentist so far from home! On the tuesday evening we hit the hostel bar and had a reasonably good night. For the first time in a while (I'm no longer ill), Rob and Katie went to bed before me and I stayed up and ran into Celia and Georgie, some girls we'd met and hung out with a few times in Thailand which was pretty cool. Not a bad first night in Sydney really!

Wednesday the hostel runs a free introductory walking tour of Sydney starting at 11 which is pretty cool and you get a free beer when we finish. So basically they pay you beer to go on it. Sounded pretty win win so we got up in time for it. We walked through chinatown, around the nice Darling Harbour area and through the business district to the Harbour Bridge and Opera House. Both very impressive and strange to be standing infront of! The weather was still leaving a little to be desired though! We wandered through the Botanic Gardens which were really nice, there was a massive spider on a tree which scared the shit out of Rob and some parrot type birds which our guide managed to get on her shoulder. We were expecting a mauling to happen pretty soon but it never came. The trees were full of flying squirrels all hanging like bats! Then it started to rain. Wearing shorts and a tshirt me and Rob got wet but we refused to put on the red 'wake up' ponchos like the rest. The guide was really nice, she was only 18 and seemed to be enjoying her job, I can imagine wake up is an awesome place to work when you're young! Wednesday night was supposed to be more lively in the bar which sounded good so after like 3 cheese and salami sandwich we headed down and had another good one meeting some sound people and listening to the great live act playing acoustic and violin but going nuts. Met a really nice bloke or at least I thought he was until he said he supported Sunderland. Never mind eh. Had to be up at 7.30 for the dentist this morning which was pretty killer and not the best way to start the day but its all done and dusted now and a weight off my mind! The weather is pretty rubbish again so we're not sure how we're gonna spend the day! That took forever to write but you're all updated now. I wana hear from more people so gime a shout.
Luke

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Photos

Hungry Jacks
Not everything is as it seems here.... this is Burger King

Comments

[Dad]

Great Aussie Pics!
Excellent pics of Australia!! You're now in a continent I've not been to :-). The pictures make me want to go soon though. Sorry to hear about the tummy bug and not feeling well. Glad to read that you're recovered now. I wonder if the dental antiobiotics had anything to do with it??? P.S Sign me up for a game of Lemmings. Love -Dad