We gave the van a good clean inside and out and left the caravan park in search of a nicer hostel than the previous we'd stayed in in Melbourne. It wasn't hard, after a little search we found one called Habitat in St Kilda. Melbournes' seaside suburb that was apparantly once home to drug dealers, prostitutes and punk rockers, and as you can imagine now, is a pretty cool place to be, with lots of music and alternative people. We both loved it!

Our main aim whilst back here in Melbourne was to sell the van, and as quick as possible to make the most of our last 6 weeks in Australia. We wasted no time either, the next day we were getting information on th best ways of going about selling it and also at the same time, finding a mechanic who could give it a little look over. By the end of our third day in the city we had our van sorted, posters up in nearly every hostel around (theres a lot!) and advertised on the net. All we had to do was wait. And party!! But only a little bit, although our money was fairly low, we were quite confident about selling the van. Whether it be to a fellow backpacker, or for slightly less to Travellers Autobarn, the commpany whom we brought it. They offered a buyback guarantee of 40% the price we brought it for, but we were fairly confident we could get rid of it for a bit more.

The hostel was pretty good for parties and activites, and we met some good people there too. Some nights would be open-mic night (always good fun, but i regret to say neither of us graced the stage with our beautiful singing), tacos night (free food!), wine tasting night and even one night of didgeridoo lessons, which i took part in. One night Kirsty and I went out into St Kilda to the famous 'Espy' music venue. We hadn't seen live music in a long time and were pretty much up for seeing anything. As it happened we saw heavy goth metal band, Hybrid Nightmares. Certainly not my usual thing (more Kirstys) but we geniunely enjoyed it and had a good night.

In the time waiting to sell the van we did do a lot of sitting around reading and chilling out at the hostel, basically trying not spend money. But we did treat ourselves on one particualr day, Friday 13th in fact. We went to the Tim Burton exhibition that was taking place in the city. We spent nearly 4 hours looking around at all the costumes and art used in all his his films, from Edward to Scissorhands to Batman up to Alice in Wonderland. It was amazing and really interesting to see all the smaller films and sketches he's done but not released.

After a rather heavy night of drinkning with both of us suffering somewhat, we typically got a call froma prospective buyer wanting to look at the van. We couldn't say no, so in our blurry state, took a little trip out the suburb Heidelberg to meet the interested couple. It seemed to be going really well, neither of us ever been in this situation before, we seemed to be selling the van pretty well, and the couple seemed like they wanted it. Until...They got a mechanic 'friend' to come check it too. A good idea really, but not really good for us. It turned out there were quite a few things wring with the van. Like the tyre tread was too low and apparantly there was a small engine leak and lots of small things that no-one really cares about. We weren't too sure he realised it was a 25 year old backpacker van that had probably driven around Oz at least 3 times. So we left, heads down and feeling a bit put out. The next day i called the couple to see if they were still interested, and if they were we would sort out all the problems with the van before we sold it. Amazingly they were still interested and weren't put off by the picky mechanic. A deal was made, and after having the van fixed of its minor problems we had it sold by the following weekend. To make the day even better we got our tax back too! We had nearly as much money as we'd arrived with in Australia. It was a good feeling. Naturally we went out and celebrated at a ridiculously swanky restaurant, followed by the theatre and then a nightclub.

No we didn't really!! We had a few beers and got a Mexican and more importantly, booked a flight all the way to sunny Broome in Western Australia.

We have spent more time in Melbourne than any other city in Australia, and although the times there have been either looking for work, trying to buy a van or trying to sell a van, we've had some really good times. And, we are both agreed it's a very cool city that we WILL visit again one day.