We're now in Australia! We arrived in Melbourne on a cold and windy Sunday evening. Not quite what we had in mind. After a short bus ride from the airport (with a bus driver who was more interested in feeding the birds near the bus than taking us anywhere) we arrived in St Kilda, a suburb just south of the CBD. We were staying in a hostel that was situated over the top of the Elephant and Wheelbarrow pub, so it was a bit noisy but everyone in the hostel was friendly so that made up for it.

On the Monday morning we got up early and ate our free pancakes for breakfast and then had a wander around St Kilda. We stopped off at the famous face outside Luna Park, the park was closed as the schools were back and we weren't there at the weekend. We also stopped off at a cake shop called Le Bon, who once employed the famous Beverley Jane. The cakes and tea were very good indeed, though I think that the vanilla slice would've been really tasty.

In the afternoon we headed into town to catch the bus to Ramsay St, or whatever the proper name for it is. The bus had a tv showing classic Neighbours moments! Then we stopped at Erinsbourgh High, where a teacher came out of the school and gave us a few odd looks as loads of Brits were standing outside taking photos. Ramsay St was so much smaller than it looks on TV! Everyone was getting off the bus and saying "Woah, it's really small!" As you can see from the photos the street still looks the same through a camera lens, but it was a bit weird to start off with. After that we drove back to St Kilda to meet Max Hoyland outside Luna Park! We got to have a chat with him; I asked if he was sane yet. He didn't get it at all, thought I was asking if he was "seen" and then he thought I was actually making a reference to him on a personal level and got I got a bit of the famous "Angry Max" look. It eventually took someone to explain that I was making a reference to his character in Neighbours and he understood and laughed. Do you forget it all that easily?!

In the evening was Neighbours night! Woo! Hehe! Best night out so far. A British pub full of British people (apart from one Aussie weirdo with a dubious blonde mullet and facial hair who had been to 62 Neighbours Nights in a row) all shouting at Australian actors who are barely recognised in the street was a bit surreal but it was really good fun. We got to meet and talk to Steve Parker, Max Hoyland, Rebecca Napier, Marco "Italian Stallion" and Karl Kennedy of course. Also included was a random 3 minute boy band performance from Dylan Timmons, which was a bit odd. He jumped around for a bit and mimed and then left really quickly too. Its all good. I tried to win a trip to Sydney by singing "O' Flow'r of Scotland" in a really Scottish accent (tricky for me I know) but to no avail. Some guy got up and said "I'm going to sing MY national anthem" and proceeded to sing "I should be so lucky" and he won instead :-(

After a few beers my banner from the cricket with "I'm a fan" was getting used rather often. Dr Karl acknowledged me from the stage when he got up with his band to perform later the in the evening (My favourite: "Susan, Susan, who the @#*& is Susan"). It was a really good night.

The next morning we were up for some hangover pancakes and we headed into town. We looked round Chinatown, Southbank, Federation Sq and the Crown Complex. In the afternoon we went up the Rialto tower for some pretty good views of the city. The ticket also gets you in the evening so we went back after our all-you-can-eat-buffet (thank you Mr Peters!) and saw the city at night. It was pretty amazing.

On the Wednesday we spent a bit more time in St Kilda before catching the train to Geelong.

-B