Melbourne is the second most populous city in Australia with a population of about 3.8 million. Located around Port Phillip Bay in Australia's south-east, Melbourne is the state capital of Victoria. It is referred to as Australia's sporting and cultural capital...

So, after enduring a flight from Brisbane back to Cairns (don't ask), a night in the airport and then another flight from Cairns to Melbourne, I finally arrived!

I am staying in a place called Elwood; a suburb of Melbourne. On my first day I explored this area. Down the road in one diredtion is Brighton Beach - full of brightly painted beach huts and just a half an hour walk along the bay front. In the other direction is St. Kilda; a much busier place. The main things to see here are situated along two streets; Fitzroy Street and Acland Street. Fitzroy is full of pubs and cafes and Acland hosts many cake shops whose windows are packed full of cakes and biscuits - I've never seen so many! St. Kilda is also home to Melbourne's Luna Park with the oldest rollercoaster in Australia. At sunset I went down to the pier in the bay and I waited ages but, eventually saw the resident penguins - they are tiny and so cute.

The next few days I explored Melbourne city itself - it's amazing and totally different to Sydney and Brisbane. It's a mixture of Brighton, Newcastle, Leeds and some parts of London.

The Yarra River runs through the city and crossing it are many bridges all unique in design. Skyscrapers dominate the skyline but amongst these lie older buildings, all decorated ornately, and beside these run tiny alleys and lanes filled with cafes and chocolate shops. To see the city from a height I went to the Eureka Tower; a 91 storey building. The Bullet Lift took me up to the 88th floor in 37 seconds to the 360 degree observation deck. It really was amazing - I could see over the whole city and all the way beyond the city to the surrounding mountain range known as the Dandenongs. I visited the National Gallery of Victoria, the Parliament building and the various attractions at Federation Square (a popular outdoor meeting place that holds various events every weekend and has a huge television screen too).

The weather at this time of year is a lot like England. It's Autumn now and the leaves have turned from green to orange and they cover the pavements and crunch under your feet. It's cold compared to the Northern regions of Australia. I have even experienced rain and cloud for three days straight! But, when the sun shows it's face and the sky is a clear blue, you can't beat that crisp Autumn feel.

The cooler and wet weather hasn't put me off though and I have still managed to see and do plenty. I have been lucky enough to catch an Aussie Rules game - the game is crazy. It's played for two hours by two teams of fifteen. The pitch is a huge oval shape and due to it's expanse requires a total of seven referees! The game begins with a 'bounce off' where one of the referees fires the ball down from head height to bounce it on the ground so it then rebounds and any team are able to retrieve it. When the ball goes out-of-bounds a similarly strange manner, the referee turns his back on the pitch and lobs the ball overhead, legs flying too, back into game play. The scoring, believe it or not, is also a little bit mental. There are four posts either end of the oval and by kicking the ball through the middle two, six points are scored and kicking through either of the outer posts results in one point. There are so many other rules too that are as equally as crazy as each other. It was a brilliant match though and, despite the length of play, was every minute enjoyable.

An overnight trip to the Dandenongs was next on the agenda which involved a few stops along the way at various different places including William Rickett's Sanctuary; William was an Australian potter and sculptor and settled in Mount Dandenong. He became known as a result of his work which expressed his vision of a modern Australia which embraces the Aboriginal spirituality and respect for the natural world. Needless to say, the man may have been a little bit crazy but his work was good and very detailed. The overnight stop was at a little place called Beechworth, famous for it's major growth during the Gold Rush days of the mid-1850s. It doesn't seem to have changed much; the buildings are very well preserved and it was like stepping back in time. The best bit about the town had to be the bakery, so many cakes, biscuits, sandwiches and breads - it's the best in Australia apparantly; the couple of things that I sampled were very good!

The next exciting thing on the list of things to do was the Neighbours Tour and Neighbours Night; I don't think someone from the UK can visit Melbourne and skip this! On Monday night, traditionally Neighbours Night, I headed to the host bar. The compere called Timmy was great; we did a quiz, played some games and then of course, the 'stars' blessed us with their presence. Not only did I meet Toadfish but I also met Boyd Hoyland and Lynn Scully - not a bad show considering it was the unofficial night and was free of charge! Drinks were cheap too which may be partly why I had so much fun!?

The next day I had booked myself onto the Official Neighbours Tour. I jumped aboard the Neighbours bus (heavily decorated and obvious) and the tour guide took us on our way. The 30 minute journey to 'Ramsay Street' allowed us to watch some of Neighbours' best bits with a dvd of classic episodes. After a lot of laughing at Susan's long hair and the character's clothes we had arrived at the school namely, Erinsborough High (an anagram of the word neighbours plus an extra 'O' and 'R'). It is actually used in real-life as an English Speaking School by weekdays and a dog obedience school by weekends. Time for a few photos there and then it was off to Ramsay Street (Pin Oak Court in reality)... It's tiny and only made up of about ten houses; funny, as in the programme the houses are numbered as high as 30! The houses do look exactly as they do on tv and apparantly, any changes that the homeowners want to make to them have to be passed by the Fremantle Production Company so then they can decide whether they want to script the changes or not e.g. Susan's new front door was scripted into the show because the house in real life really did get one (a bit sad really that the show is that desperate for storylines)! It was good to see the Street in real life; infact, it's such a popular tourist attraction that it has it's own security guard there 24/7. The next port of call was the studios - I thought that for the $40 I'd paid that I'd at least get a look around inside but you can only do that if you pay an extra $15, so just a trip to the car-park then? Yes, but only to have Susan Kennedy pull up next to the bus! I couldn't believe it when someone on the bus shouted out loud "Oh my God, there's Susan Kennedy". Me, and the sixteen other adoring Neighbours fans (all UK residents) aboard, gasped and turned our heads and saw that it really was her! The tour really was worth the $40 after all - it was so exciting and sadly, I must admit that I may have even got a little star-struck.