So on Saturday 10th, in the evening Ains dropped Daz and I at the bus station and we took the 10hr overnight greyhound to Adelaide! Great fun eh…..got a little sleep and arrived into a dead Melbourne at 6am on Sunday morning!Our hostel wasn't too far too walk but because it was so early they couldn't check us in till 2pm……I was so tired at this point I couldn't function and poor hubby had to put up with a very grumpy sleep deprived wife! (well we all have our faults!)But would you adam and eve it, Victoria markets was open from 7am on a Sunday and we went to grab some breakfast.

We then went back to hostel to shower and freshen up before heading out into central Melbourne on the free tram. We stopped at Federation Square where it all happens in the centre of town, but today there wasn't too much going on!!! We walked over the to Rod Laver Arena, could see some players practising as the qualifying for the Aussie Open was to start in a few days!I didn't last much longer in town and then we finally got back to our hostel 'Industry' which was pretty good and I think I fell asleep about 8pm. Two guys in our room are from Morriston and we all knew of friends of friends if you get me! They were pretty tidy lads and we went to the Neighbours night with them the following evening!

I'm not impressed with the weather in Melbourne! We have had two mornings where it has been really dull, gloomy and cold till about 1pm and then all of a sudden the sun appears and its warm….doesn't make any sense! But people have told us this city is mimicked for having such strange weather and they say sometimes it can have four seasons in one day!!! Well at the moment I wasn't too impressed!!!!!!We walked along the river front on day 2, The River Yarra and then took a stroll through the Botanic Gardens (the best in the country apparently) we enjoyed the walk….very green and lots of plant/wildlife. We took a walk through the rainforest and had an ultra quick snooze on the lawns by the lake! (gee this travelling does get hard sometimes, I don't recommend it, haha!) Afterwards we walked over to Fitzroy Gardens where Captain James Cooks Cottage is. It was built in 1755 in Yorkshire and then shipped over here in the 1930's stone by stone! It was so British and although it was tiny, we felt right at home! It was actually the cottage of his parents and there was also some history about his exploration on The Endeavour. Mum and Dad made me watch a programme on him last summer so I was up to scratch on how Australia was founded etc and now I was quite upto date on my historical knowledge (if that's how you'd say it!)

The highlight of the day was the evenings antics!!!!! Neighbours Trivia Night at The Elephant and Wheelbarrow in St Kilda! We paid $40 each to go and meet some of the stars and do the quiz! We were one of the first there as the bus picked us up and a small world it is! Chris Warner, one of the guys on the UWIC tennis team walks on the bus with his girlfriend Liz! I've not seen Chris since he graduated the year before me, but he's a top guy and I knew he was out in Oz and maybe in M'bourne for the Open but I didn't expect to see him today!!!!! So along with the Swansea lads and an old couple we became 'Karls Love Children' for the quiz!So if you're up to date with your neighbours characters you'll know Elle Robinson, Steve Parker, Dylan Timmons (left a year ago) and Amy Greenwood (Lance's girlfriend from 10 yrs ago!) Connor the Irish dude sang too as Karl was on holdiday, gutted!! But still it was good fun!It took a while for the quiz to get started but once it did we were well into it! It was genera knowledge with a few neightbours questions thrown in each round! We answered most bar a few….did a quick txt or two back to UK to confirm some answers of course and then we had to hand it in! The stars came around and we got pics with them all, Dylan (Damian) is gorgeous!! Daz would say Elle was quite hot but she had no personality….hardly spoke a word, so to let you know her contract ends this year and then she's out of the show! (hope that didn't spoil too much!)

Drinks flowed all night (Darrens fault) and it was great catching up with Chris and his gf Liz was lovely…..the scores finally came in and they did a 5-1 count down….we were convinced we'd come somewhere in top 5 but when our name hadn't been called at 2, we thought we'd done bad! But we won!1 whoop whoop……I went to collect our prize and the guy shoved $300 into my hand! That was $75 per couple so paid for the night! Happy days! As you can imagine the nigth didn't stop there and we both suffered little hang overs the following morning….but oooo so worth it!Tuesday…..we moved hostels to St Kilda, not the best I've ever stayed in but it's a room! Im the only girl in room so that's not great but we're hardly there so that's ok. Temperatures reached 40 degrees today, so hot! The breeze was like a hair dryer….so warm! We spent the afternoon by the beach, there beaches not half as nice as Adelaide, Sydney or Perth. The city lies in a bay which is inclosed….it was so hot the beach was also packed down at St Kilda, so we only stayed to dip in the sea and cool off….it was so hot!!!!! St Kilda is a pretty hot place to hang out….lots of little botiques, cake shops on Ackland Street and plenty of nightlife on the Esplande. We grabbed a fresh juice before heading back to the hostel for tea!On Wed we took a walk to Albert Park in St Kilda in the morning and enjoyed the scenery around the big lake. The ducks and swans were ultra friendly!

In the afternoon we met up with Chris and Liz and went to watch the Aussie Open quals, only the men were playing today (bit gutted as some of the British girls were playing on Thursday but we were heading to Great Ocean Road) so we watched Bogo (mum this is for you) and Josh Goodall play. Bogo won his first round and Josh lost in a tight 3 setter. I bumped into Katie O'Brien, had a good catch up with her (she qualified which was fab!) and also chatted to James Keothavong (Anne, British No.1 atr present, her brother who is an umpire) So it kind of felt like 5 years ago for 10 mins!!! Was good to see the Rod Laver arena and stuff, nothing like Wimbledon….everything so modern and its quite compact so close to the CBD. We also watched Hrbaty and Mallisse who have been injured and had to qualify! So for a free days worth of tennis it was good. Time flew and so we ended up back in town and got a nice meal out. Was lovely seeing Chris, him and Liz were heading to NZ at end of month so it was great that we caught up!

Thursday……we left St Kilda nice and early and headed to Europe Car to pick up our little car which was to take us to the Great Ocean Road….which I'll do a separate blog for!!!We spent 2 days there so we came back to Melbourne and had one last day here in this city!!!!

It's a city that has taken its time to grow on us! Firstly the weather is far to unpredictable and when we've been here its been cold when the sun isn't shinning!!!!! There are lots of things to do but there are no big famous landmarks like Sydney….so it doesn't feel so special….however we did get to see a famous part of Melbourne on Saturday17th Jan! We did the official Neighbours Tour!!!!!!! We got to see the outside sets of Lassiters, Charlies, The General Stores etc and then we went over to Ramsey Street itself!!!!! It was brilliant! We met Janelle Timmons, had photos and autograph and she showed us around a few of the sets. It kind of felt like a low budget programme. We saw stingrays memorial and the lake by Lassiters! Its amazing what a camera can do! The area was tiny!!!!!!The street was so cool, very small but all the houses look the same and the street has a 24hr security guard just incase anything happens! We took lots of photos and our guide was very up to date with his neighbours, so if any of you want to know what happens in next few months I can tell you!!! Even Daz enjoyed the day out! The sun decided to shine too so it was brilliant!We had a good time in the city…..wasn't my favourite place and I think Daz would agree with me on that.

The Great Ocean road was fantastic but ill write about that very soon. We checked out the harbour in the evening and enjoyed a nice stroll…..its out in the docks so not really a central part of the city, unlike Sydney.There is such competition between to the 2 cities, its like Cardiff and Swansea and people say which one did you like best, for us, Sydney wins hands down! We did enjoy M'bourne but there was so much more to do and see in Sydney, we left Melbourne feeling we'd seen everything there was to see (except for paying for a few museums etc)We had an early night as our outbound flight to Alice Springs….the outback was another early one!!!!!!!!!Goodbye big cities…bring on the flies, heat, humidity and Central Australia!