Hello Australia - Melbourne!

Firstly, sorry that this is about 3 weeks behind schedule!

For the last three weeks we've been working our way up the East Coast of Aus and we are now in Brisbane spending a couple of days in Brisbane with the relatives, until we head further up with Rich!

We started in Melbourne where we touched down on March 6th.

St Kilda - We stayed at X-Base hostel, situated in the centre of St Kilda next to the beach so we were in prime position for everything! Everything was great, the weather was really sunny, the ice cream was top drawer (Trampolines), the beach was really nice (apart from the piles of dead jellyfish everywhere) and our room mates were mint (Danish lads and Chris and James). However we were not happy with the cost of everything e.g. the cheapest pint we could find was $7 and a small coke was $3.50. 'Are we actually even going to make it up to Brisbane??!' we thought! In St Kilda we explored the beach, went for a few runs in the morning down the sea front, played ball on the park, watched an Aussie rules team train on the park and went out for drinks in the eve. One day we met up with the guys from the Cambodia trip and had a parma pot, (which are amazing) and was a nice treat to see them again. Throughout the time at Base hostel we were not allowed to go to bed before 11 o clock or else Han would get upset (people might think we are losers). I made the error one night of bedding at 10 and was duely shouted at!

Melbourne centre - We explored the MCG stadium which was really cool because we got to go to the press boxes, players changing rooms and the commentators boxes. The stadium is huge (seats about 105,000) and is the main cricket/Aussie rules ground in Melbourne! Under the stadium is a sports museum which we paid to visit. It was ok, the interactive section was the highlight, where you could practice kicking the Afl ball, punching it and try various other sporting actions which were lots of fun! Me and Han played a reaction game and she leapt around like a frog on speed and beat me everytime! Away from the MCG we got the free tram around the city and stopped at the river side where there was a random statue of Dame Ednar, and we had a go in the casino where Han was on fire. One evening we went to the Etihad stadium and watch an Aussie Rules Football game between Collingwood and Essendon. Since our friends were Essendon supporters, we became one too and I even put money on them to win.....but they lost! After the game we decided that we liked AfL so we bought a ball! It was here in the centre that I became very unhealthy, since the only way we could get free internet was at McDonalds and I felt bad unless we bought something.....had at least 1 a day!!

The night out - We went on one big night out in Croydon which is home to Caitlin and Courtney! We were met at the train station by Caitlin who took us to a nice schnitzel shop in the mall where she works. She taught us what 'k mart' and 'big W' is and then took us to Woolworths (Australia's version of Tescos) to get some Goon! Goon is boxed wine which contains fish eggs - but its strong and cheap so we baught lots! After we went to Coutneys house and met her sisters, who were both cool and they all got on like best pals, and we listened to music and got drunk on GOON! Coutneys sister gave us a lift into town to Dakota (poshest club ive ever seen :P NOT) which reminded me of Liquid in Mansfield because everyone was smashed and you stick to the floor from all the s*** on there! We had some shots, which were Hannahs idea, and shortly after she was overly drunk! After some good dancing we went home and had some of Courtneys chocolate hot crossed buns :) unbelievably good!!

All in all some good times from Melbourne with decent weather and good sport!!