Melbourne

After our unplanned late arrival in Melbourne we got a cab to our hostel. Thankfully we had called the owner and they stayed open late to let us in. It was a really nice hostel with lots of little extras like free pasta and rice in the evening and free cereal in the morning. It was slightly out of the city in South Yarra but its really easy to get into town by the trams which run throughout Melbourne. Melbourne is often described as the most European city in Australia…..what that really means is that it rains all the time! Although, if we ever complained about it people would give us funny looks as they are all grateful for it as they have had droughts across Australia for a long time.Overall, I loved Melbourne as it has a really low key and easy going vibe about the city.

One of the major sights in Melbourne was the Shrine of remembrance, a large war memorial in Queen Victoria Park. It was originally built as a memorial to those who died in WW1. It has since been extended to include further wars, with a large cenotaph and eternal flame placed there for WW2. This has started a running joke between me and emma where I have insisted on taking her to a war memorial in all the places we have been visiting. There are LOADS of Anzac memorials across Australia as it is a large part of a fairly limited national history. You should expect to see plenty pics over the next few weeks. We spent the first day just wandering around town to get a feel for the city and transport options around town which was nice, if slightly damp way to spend the day. In the centre of the city is a recent development called Federation Square, which is a bit like the south bank, only more attractive. There are a lot of bars and restaurants and it is designed to be a focal point for the city. It was very nice in bad weather, so it must be pretty impressive during the summer.

On our 2nd day we went to Melbourne Jail which is one of the oldest jails in Australia and was designed to be similar to Pentonville in the UK. At the time, Pentonvile was pioneering a technique which kept prisoners apart and in solitary for as long as possible.The jail was closed in 1929 and some parts of it were demolished and a law courts and police station was built alongside it. These are still standing but are no longer used. The tour itself was very good, it starts with an interactive walk-through of the old police station. You are shown through by an actress who played the role of desk sergeant and everyone then goes through the process of being charged with a crime and you are eventually led into the cells. The last bit of the tour is when you are locked in a cell briefly and the lights are turned off. Thankfully its not something I've ever had to do in real life….those benches are really hard! J Afterwards, you go into the main jail building and can wander around at your own pace. A lot of the cells have exhibits about famous inmates and they have replicas of death masks from a number of executions. It wasn't really to Emma's taste as it was bloody cold in there as it was made of bluestone, and it dragged on a bit for her.

The most famous occupant of Melbourne Jail was Ned Kelly. I had a lot of interest in Ned Kelly before I got here so this was great for me.Ned Kelly was eventually hanged in this jail in 1880 and there are replicas of the gallows that he ,as well as another 130 people, were hung from. They also had a replica of his famous suit of armour which the sign said was for kids, but I couldn't help myself and had to try it on, I wasn't the only one though so i didnt feel that silly. We also went to the Melbourne Museum the next day, although if I'm honest there wasn't anything worth recommending as there was little there that was particularly Melbourne or Australia-centric. It was a good way to avoid the continual rain for an afternoon and there was an interesting exhibit on Phar Lap who was a legendary Australian racehorse…..well I found it interesting J

The highlight of any tourist trip to Melbourne though is the height of kitsch and is the regular Neighbours night. This is run every week in a pub in the backpackers suburb of St Kilda. It's a great night, but very cheesy. The format of the night starts with a selection of "stars" from Neighbours come out for a bit of a question and answer session before wandering around the crowd as a quiz is going on to have their photo's taken with people and a bit of a chat. On our night we had Dr Karl, Libby, Marco and Rachel…the last 2 I have no idea who they are. But it was amusing that Rachel spent half the night avoiding some pissed up Dublin bloke who was acting a bit stalkerish. During the night, there are a lot of embarrassing competitions for people to win some free trips, a bit like 18-30 style stuff.At the end of the night, Dr Karl and his band perform for the rest of the night. He's actually quite good. All in all it's a great laugh but very cheesy. It was a good way to spend my 30th though and I had plenty of beers to help let myself down gently. L

As there are a lot of little trips you can do just outside of Melbourne, we decided to save a few quid and drive around them rather than paying the tour companies our hard earned cash. We decided to hire a car for the next few days and incorporate a few of them on our journey to Sydney. Next stop on our itinerary is Sydney via Phillip Island, the Great Ocean Road and Canberra.