Not so much camping as "camping out" at the hostel in St Kilda so Laura could have her apartment to herself for the weekend! It was fun though...

Friday was my first day at my temporary bar job in the Mitre Tavern (www.mitretavern.com.au). It is the oldest bar in Melbourne, its pretty cool, like an old English cottage! I am pretty impressed with how they run their business, its a well oiled team. And the food is pretty good too. All the people are really nice, few people from back home and UK which is cool. I couldnt walk by the end of the nite my feet were sooooo sore. Year of being in an office job had destroyed my ability to stay on my feet for long periods! I made it back to the hostel after midnight. By the time I got into my room it was 1am and I was on a top bunk n had to make my bed up, I gave up after I got the bottom sheet and pillow case on, I just used the duvet cover as a sheet, luckily it was pretty warm!

I was rudely awakened at about 4am by someone bashing into my bed and when I opened my eyes the guy was right infront of my eyes, made me jump as I wondered where I was!! But he was obviously on some early morning flight and was gone pretty soon. Next day we headed to the beach for some sunbathing where we met Wes from Santa Cruz, California. He was super cool, hoping to call in with him when I head to LA in March. The clouds soon put an end to our sunbathing efforts and we headed back to the town, got some snacks and drinks in a cool bar called the Roche, chilled for a bit and then wandered back to the hostel.

That night we decided to just go get some beers and get a dominos pizza and hang at the hostel. Having made the trek to get our pizza (and buying GAYMERS cider on the way for novelty factor...) we saw a tram and decided to leg it up the tram INFRONT of the tram to try and get it... Jo was shaking up the piza nicely en route and then we nearly got run over! Normally they wait for you in this country, but our luck, they waited til we got to the doors, THEN drive off. So we trekked home again and the pizza was nicely shook up when we got there! We still ate it none the less, and a possum descended into camp to check us out! He wasnt at all perturbed! Jo and Eds friend from Asia Si came to the hostel for a bit and we hung out with our new bavarian friend Christian.

Day two - more midnight wake ups from people banging ino my bed (seriously how hard is it to stand up?!), then more beach action. This time the group was widened to include Nathan from Seskatoon, Canada. He gave up well before we did (which we all should have done!) as the clouds came over again.. So we went back to the hostel via two supermarkets having decided to BBQ instead. I specifically went to get bacon in the second supermarket and was NOT impressed when I discovered that THE BACON BANDIT had swiped it at the BBQ table FROM UNDER OUR NOSES! We still dont know how they did it, it will forever remain a mystery....

We met some proper crazy Irish people, who just decided to sit at our table... Even I couldnt understand them so the Bavarian, Canadian and Californian had no hope!! We had some beers in the late afternoon sunshine and then made our way back into town at about 8pm. A fantastic weekend in the hostel!