Woke up at 7.30am feeling refreshed after a decent nights sleep. Although I was awaken on numerous occasions by a few drunken Germans and a sniffing Korean.. but I've accepted the fact that things like this will happen from my experiences over the past few months, especially when you sleep in an 8-bed dorm.

I made my way to Brisbane Central Train Station where I had plenty of time for a McDonalds breakfast and a free wifi session to Skype some of my friends back home.

I jumped on the 9.30am train to the airport and checked in to my flight with no problem. I had a short delay of 45 minutes for my flight to Melbourne but the time passed pretty quickly.

Arrived in Melbourne around 4.30pm local time and I instantly loved the place as soon as I stepped out into the city streets. I checked into my dive of a hostel in the heart of where it's all happening and headed out to investigate the places I had earlier read about in the travel books I had been reading during the journey over.

With food on the mind and a map of the city in my head I walked toward Chinatown where I had read about a backstreet dumpling restaurant which had been given rave reviews. As I turned into the back ally of the restaurant I met a queue of people lined outside so I knew all the hype about the Shanghai Dumpling House must be true! As I was dining on my own I was able to jump the queue and join the end of someone elses table who were very friendly and recommended the Prawn and Pork Dumplings (12). I also chose the Fried Beef Dumplings in Chilli Oil (6). Armed with chopsticks, soy, and chilli sauce dips the dumplings went down an absolute treat! So so good.. definitely worth all the hype I had earlier read about. After speaking to the two friendly girls I was dining with throughout my meal, they invited me to join them for a few drinks. So we headed to the Rooftop Bar which was around the corner from the restaurant, 8 floors up overlooking the city. Very cool bar which had an open air cinema with deckchairs. This particular night of the year was Energy Saving Hour at 8.30pm where the whole of the city are supposed to switch out their lights to raise awareness around the world. Expecting a blackout only half of the city joined in so it wasn't as impressive as I thought it was going to be.

The girls then took me to another bar which was equally as cool and quirky called The Carlton which had stuffed safari animals hanging off the wall.. great music, expensive drinks!

With the Grand Prix in mind tomorrow I may head back to the hostel to get some shut eye but the sports bar (Transport) at Federation Square will distract me if they have the World Cup Cricket QF on between England and Sri Lanka.

Grand Prix tomorrow.. so excited!! Even more so with Lewis Hamilton qualifying on the front row :)

xx