Blogs from Victoria, Australia, Oceania - page 583

It's now less than a week before we leave and we now have our tickets - and more iimportantly, our passports! Until last week our passports were "lost" in the post for 2 weeks after we sent them registered mail to the Cuban Consulate in NSW for Cuba Visas. Sean was all set to cancel our passports and apply for emergency new ones, when finally they turned up - back in NSW! We were so relieved - 'cos even if we did pay for new ones we would still have to send them back in the mail to get Cuba visas all over again! Our itinerary is finalised and looks something like this: * Melb -- LA -- Dallas -- Orlando: 2 days spent at theme parks in Orlando * Orlando -- Miami -- Bridgetown Barbados! ... read more

Hi all, First of all let us tell you about a rather unfortunate experience this morning.... after days of pondering whether to dye my hair (Amanda that is, not chris oh bearded one) made the decision to do it this morning. To my horror ... and Chris' it has actualy turned out a rather tomato soup ginger colour - total devestation. So, drama over, will jsut have to deal with it and wear a hat continuosly, but just thought that we woudl warn you before any shocking photos appear. So, today we explored Melbourne a bit. 15 minutes walk and we were in the city centre, must say its just a massive city with modern buildings etc. We did manage to find amusemnt down on the southbank with one of those water jet features which shooot ... read more

hey all, firstly apologies for the moaning on the last couple of blogs, we have gotten over the fact that we are slightly bored, but now we are in melbourne (home of neighbours!!!) we are looking forward to our last week in australia. The last week has been a bit dull and boring, but we have been int eh sunshine and not at work, think we were just expecting a bit more exciting, but we both have definitely learned to relax!!!! So, we arrived in Melboure yesterday from Albury, after a bit of a do with the bus driver, over him man handling our baggage and nearly shattering the didgeredoos, we sorted it out, and came to the conclusion that the driver was either a mentalist, or on the verge of losing his job. he pleaded ... read more

MELBOURNE!!! A great great city! We've has a brilliant time here and really it has been a fabulous introduction into Australia. Not that we would of thought that at the beginning - our first hostel could only be called a hole, for anyone coming here don't book Elizabeth hostel......the room was smelly, the sheets dirty and some pervert kept on coming into the girls bathrooms when they were taking showers, lets just say we wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible! We managed to find a house in St. Kilda - well not really sure that you could class it as a house more a two roomed hovel but it suited us and was V. cheap and cheerful. St. Kilda is a very cool, funky little town, filled with cafe's and cake shops ... read more

Hi all! Now in the land of kangaroos and koalas! Our first stop was Melbourne. Some family friends of mine were lovely enough to pick us up from the airport at 1am after a 3 hour delay and let us stay with them for a couple of days. It was a bit unnerving as I wasn't sure if I would recognise them having only seen a video of the family from 9 years ago. But, in fact Despo (our host) was the first to spot me using 2 photos of myself and my sister when I was 14, and not knowing which one of us was visiting! We had a lovely time, and it was great staying in a house and having home cooked dinners AND hot, powerful showers after 3 months away! I caught up ... read more