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Melbourne...
.... brruughh, t'was a lot colder down in Melbourne than Sydney; scalves and hats!It’s finally happened and we have to leave Sydney and hit the road once again, after packing our bags and saying goodbye to our little flat on the beach in Manly we make the first attempt to pick our very, very full rucksacks… second attempt and I manage to just about steady myself, Helen seems ok with hers, I think she may have sneaked some of her stuff into my bag! Leaving our home of 6 months we get our final ferry from Manly to Sydney Harbour, it’s a mix of excitement and a little nervousness to be back on the road, but mainly excitement. We have to get us and our bags to Central station where we get our overnight greyhound to Melbourne, we make it and decide we are due a beer or two for our efforts… 4 beers later we head back to the station and hop onto our coach.
(On a side note, whilst we were doing our final wash we saw a tornado just off Manly Beach and within about 10 minutes saw a pod of whales cruise by as well, nice farewell from Manly!)
Same same but different comes to mind when I
Twister in Manly!
Last day in our flat and we get to see a pod of whales and a twister from the roof top! try to squeeze my 6’3 self into the cramped seats akin to the ones in Laos, what I wouldn’t have given to be Mr Average at this point, only for a few hours of course! We are treated by having 2 of our Asian friends sit in front of us, obviously with there 5 foot nothing frames they need the seats pushed back as far as possible. Fair to say I used a trick Jay had learned in Thailand to lock your legs in so they can’t push the chair back, not to say they didn’t try! After about 5 minutes Helen accuses me of making a smell, how rude I hear you think, same as I thought…However, the smell was not mine, it was the two formidable smelling ladies in front of us, I’d say it was similar to the smell you’d get if you mixed lethal curry night with the scent you get from a three day bender of kebabs, beer and anything else that can go in but must come out. Nice! So on that note we spent the rest of the journey with t-shirts over our mouths preying for the smell to go away, it didn’t!
View from our flat...
Manly beach for Manly people! We have a 10 minute stop of in Canberra, pretty much as expected it to be, a political ghost town with nice architecture.
On getting back on the bus after our stretching and lunging to loosen up our limps ready to be stuffed back into the small seats we are greeted by the familiar stench, yummy! Fortunately we are quite tired now and drift in and out of consciousness until morning.
Arriving in Melbourne, the city is more English than Sydney and looked pretty cool with nice bars, restaurants and a river going through the centre. We dropped our bags off at Melbourne airport, time to explore…
We decide as it’s a bit chilly down south in Melbourne and that New Zealand was only going to be colder to get a scarf to try and stave off any potential colds! Melbourne is looking like a nice city and everyone seems to be a bit more down to earth here than they were in Sydney. We head to the river for a coffee and a bit of people watching, people seem pretty typically ozzy and relaxed but a little less pretentious than up north in Sydney, which is
Leaf blowing...
...Melbourne exploring down by the river. quiet refreshing.
Time for the legendary Neighbours tour, not before a beer next door in a strange punk rock bar, some random hairdos in there to say the least!
On hopping on the Neighbours tour we meet a lady that knows way too much about Neighbours! First stop, Erinsburgh high, not much going on her apart from some familiar sights, were not allowed in as it is an actual school! Second stop, Grundig studios and Lou’s Garage, Grease Monkey’s and the car that Susan knocked over Bridget in (apparently Declan’s car?!). Some fine photo opportunities before we head out to the historic Ramsey Street. Ramsey Street is guarded by a small Indian man who told me off for getting too close to one of the houses, I think he thought I was going to steal something…which I may have been thinking about! More cool photos and the token Neighbours’ street sign photos! Fourth stop is the Neighbours’ celebrity meet and greet, who will it be, Toadie, Karl, Sky…. Nope, it’s the long dead Connor, but he’s got fat, really fat, like I got fat in my second year at uni fat, FAT! Ha, pretty funny guy and were done
Yarra River...
...running through Melbourne (coffee time!) with Neighbours’ and get dropped back in the centre.
More touring Melbourne until we come across the restaurant and bar area and find, well, are enticed into a nice Italian restaurant by the offer of free wine and warm fires, the place delivered on both. Awesome food and good wine set the night to a decent start and we are thoroughly stuffed by the end of calzone’s, nice!
We decide we have a whole night to kill so head to the cinema, fully booked so we head upstairs where we watched karate kid for free, awesome! After the epic movie it’s getting late and we need to get the last bus to the airport where we will spend the rest of the night waiting for our flight the next day. Different airport but same madness and insanity starts to take hold when we haven’t slept for 40 or so hours! Boring boring pineapple pineapple! (That’s a song Helen made up at about 4 in the morning in Dempassar Airport, it started about 3 in the morning in Melbourne Airport!)
The next day finally arrives and we have our free New Zealand Lonely Planet and DK guide left
behind by a flashpacker with more of mommy and daddies money than sense who dumped a load of clothes, jewellery, books and guides because she didn’t want them anymore! Crazy! Anywho, New Zealand here we come! >>>>
GOOD BYE AUSTRALIA AND GOOD BYE WORK FOR A FEW MORE MONTHS!
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