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Published: January 24th 2009
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So the 16th December, the day after I left Coogee I went to Melbourne. Had a great flight there on Jetstar owing to the fact that I had two seats to myself. Unfortunately my first impressions of Melbourne were not good, I was used to Sydney, but the main was due to fact that my lugguge didn't arrive! So understandably I was a little disgruntled and not in the best of moods. I dumped my stuff at my hostel and went into the city to try to find some clothes seeing as all I had was what I wore. Bear in mind I had never been to Melbourne before and only had a general idea of where all the shops were, plus it was 7pm at night and most shops were closed! I did manage to locate some thankfully. My hostel was really nice, within walking distance of the city and yet again close to McDonalds, this time across the road!
I was there until the Sunday. I went to the botanical gardens, saw a free concert with an orchestra in which I just happened to be passing the place it was being held just before it started, went to
St Kilda, saw the giant calander in Federation Square, went to the Queen Victoria markets (prefer this one to Paddy's Markets here in Sydney!) went on the Neighbours tour and went on a tour to Philip Island.
The Neighbours tour was something that just had to be done! We went to the outdoor studios and saw all the various character's car's, Grease Monkeys, the mechanics and the warehouse that collapsed with the dance rave inside. We saw Dan go past in his car. Then we went to Ramsey Street! It is actually called Pin Oak Court and is really small. Got pictures with all the houses, I was especially excited to see Karl and Susan's house! Then we went to St Kilda and met Janelle! During the journey we got to watch an old Neighbour's episode on the dvd screen. The driver/tour guide told all loads of spoilers such as Bridget getting pregnant (!!!) and old Libby coming back up from the water after the rafting accident (this is the cliffhanger in Oz at the moment as Neighbours is on it's summer break). EDIT: Neighbours returned this week and I got very exciting to see Susan walk past and
unfortunately nearly collapse (poor Suze!) outside Grease Monkeys, I got a photo in the exact spot! It's weird seeing it on TV and knowing that it is not a real street or even a real shop, there isn't even anything in it!
The Phillip Island tour was to the Penguin Parade. First of all we went to a wine testing at a winery, then to a wildlife sanctuary where we got to feed wallabies and kangaroo's which was great! Then onto Phillip Island, approx 2 hours from Melbourne. We went for a stroll along the beach, went for a wander to see the penguin nests, had tea then went onto the main attraction, the penguin parade. These are called fairy penguins, they are the smallest type of penguins and each night they come out of the sea up the beach and to their little nests. We sat with all the other tourists along the beach and waited for them to come out, it was around 9pm when they did. They kept going back into the water before they eventually came all the way up the beach and up the grass. On the way back to the mini-bus one the
guys that was with us decided to touch one that was crossing our path. It yelped at him and bit him, serves him right!
Sunday I got the overnight coach back to Sydney at 7pm arriving at 7am. I only just the made coach oops! I won't mind doing long coach journeys if they are all like that as it was a really good journey as it was a nice coach and I just slept most of the way. I even got to walk-through a drive-through! I remember talking about how funny it would be to do this at home and I was most amused when I had to walk through the drive-through at McDonalds as it was the middle of the night when we made one of our stops so they only had the drive-through window open!
Melbourne was cool. When I first got there I didn't like it, because of my circumstances and because I was so used to Sydney but I grew to like it. It is more chilled out than Sydney and has a different feel to it. It is more cultured and more sports etc. It also has different weather, you can get
four seasons in one day there! As soon as I got back to Sydney and back in the swing of things I was back to loving Sydney. People say that you prefer one over the other but I like them both, however seeing as I have been living in Sydney now for nearly a couple of months Sydney is probably slightly ahead for me.
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