Chillin' In Melbourne....

---

Helloo!!! Hope everyone is OK.

In Melbourne and we have officially climatized to the hot Aussie weather because when it gets below 15degrees we have the massive winter coats, gloves and scarf on! i actually looked at the weather here compared to home and it was still colder at home...so we are happy. (sorry!)

Anyway apart from the weather the city itself is really nice, we are staying in a canny hostel in the middle of town...the best thing about it is its only 2mins walk from ALDI!! woohoo cheap food! and its really easy to walk around everywhere from here so on our first day we had a good walk around to get our barings... then it was Ant's idea to visit the free National Gallery of Victoria! we spent the whole afternoon wandering round the class gallery. we loved the Egyptian section and had to drag Ant out of it...luckily enough though we were allowed to take pics!

We also had a good look around the Oldest jail in Melbourne called "Melbourne Gaol" where the famous Aussie outlaw Ned Kelly finished his days. It was a really interesting day, we looked in all of the original cells that have stood there over 200years, some of them even had the original doors still intact. there was a really spooky feeling throughout the 3 floors, the 3rd floor where the women prisioners werew kept there is supposed to be a ghost. nearly every cell had a story about a certain prisioner, from Ned Kelly, to a prisioner who has only recently been proven innocent (bit too late though..considering he was hung over 100years ago!), to WW1 American prisioners who were servicemen turned bad, and stories of the women in there for crimes like killing their husband's, babies or running baby farms illegally! was really interesting.
The most amazing bit was standing underneath the original beam used to hang 136people...it was best not to think about it too much! but once a week 2 actors put on a show to tell the story of Ned Kelly, they played lots of different parts and it was well worth the visit!

The nightlife in Melbourne so far seems canny aswell...think we prefer Sydney (probably cos we know where the $2 beers are there!) but when everyone arrived from Adelaide who was on our Ayers Rock tour we had a big reunion night out! very nice!

My favourite thing about Melbourne so far has to be the Queen Victoria Markets, literally 2mins walk from our front door is a never ending world of bargins!! just wish i could buy them all...but me and ant did well when we visited and got Ant a big winter coat, some Mp3 speakers, i got some supa dupa walking boots and a pair of jeans...all for just $20 each (8quid!). fabulous!

We also had a great night out at an AFL match (which is Aussie Rules Football) its played on a HUGE round pitch...much bigger than a normal football pitch... there are 15 players on each team and they can use their feet and hands to kick the rugby shaped ball inbetween 2 of the 4 posts. the atmosphere in the impressive Telstra Dome was electric, the game was really fast moving and with the attendence at 47,552 people the crowd went wild when Essendon won in the last 10 seconds...Essendon 125, Melbourne 123.

The rest of our time in Melbourne was mainly spent in the internet cafe trying to complete Ant's Police Application. We also went to see Transformers at the cinema which was just CLASS!! and had a walk with our friend Linzi to where she used to live in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda... walked through the lovely Albert Park where we saw fab views of the city skyline!

Now all we have to do is plan our Road trip to Sydney...

---

Comments

[SCUNNY DAD]

I WISH
hi you two this really is an excellent blog you are keeping what an opportunity you are both having i love the pics you take especially the EGYPTIAN ones...WOW..(the relics are nearly as good as the stuff i have got son ..haha)...emma i really think that when you get home you should turn this blog into a book for other young travellers to read about what it is like to travel the way you two are it would be really good ...WHAT MORE CAN I SAY.. keep enjoying yourselves and KEEP SAFE.. love you lots ...DAD..MUM and ..MADISON