Well we have spent the last 5 days exploring Melbourne and have loved it! Its a lovely city, quite small and easy to get around on foot. Melbourne is known for its sporting events and much to Chris's enjoyment there was at least 10 runners on every corner, which of course meant Chris had to return from his self imposed break and hit the streets (it did not have the same effect on me!). Our budget here actually allowed us to spend 5 nights in a hotel for cheaper than the local hostels and it was actually quite nice (Bargain at only GBP13.50pppn)!

Whilst in Melbourne we spent a lot of time eating at the Southgate centre on the water front which was nice. We spent a day looking around the city and exploring the Rod Laver Arena (Tennis), Melbourne running track, Melboune Cricket Ground (MCG), etc etc... so we have about 200 pictures of sports stadiums in our collection now!!! hmm this made someone very happy! After this we visited St Kilda which is a lovely suburb with a gorgeous beach! I also got my own back with a day spent wandering around Chapel Street, a nice shopping area nearby. Weather was hot in Melourne, but in a different way to Asia as its much less humid.

We spent Thursday evening at the Crown casino, which is a vegas style casino right by the water. We managed to stick to our tight budget of AUD$5 each, and got some practice in ready for when we hit vegas later on in our trip (although we did both lose it, but we feel we have learnt from our errors and the training will hold us in good stead for vegas!). Don't worry mums and dads, we have not gambled away all our savings yet so no need for reinbursements yet ;o)

Friday night we were heading into town for some drinks and saw lots of people in football shirts, heading towards the Etihad Stadium (Where the rugby world cup was held)...this could only mean one thing...yes it was the final of the NAB cup and despite my attempts to divert Chris eyes in away from the hoards of black and white collingwood supporters, we ended trekking in the same direction to 'look' at the stadium. Sure enough two hotsogs and a doughnut later we were sat in the Etihad stadium. It actually turned out to be really good fun, the stadium was amazing, absoutely huge and AFL (Australian Football League) or 'Aussie rules' as they call it here is really good. For those who don't know, its more like rugby than football and aussie rules seems to mean absolutely no rules apply so the teams take each other out all over the place, the 9 referees let most fouls go and in 90 minutes of pushing shoving and stamping, the muscley men mirraculously score goals!!! Very interesting!!!

On our last day in Melbourne we visited Melbourne Gaol which was good, and we also had a tour of the watchhouse, the area where they hold prisoners before they are due in court, we got searched shouted at and locked in a cell in the dark which was all pat of the tour!! Very interestung yet scary experience which reduced one little girl to tears and her mother to say, 'well you better be good hadn't you or you'llend up here!! eek!

We took the bus to Sydney on Saturday night at 5pm, it was a 17hour bus journey which was tiring to say the least, as although we took the night bus, we didn't really manage to sleep much. After managing to avoid the wierdy beardies on the bus, we arrived in Sydney at 12:30 on sunday. We located our current hostel in Kings Cross (which happens to be the red light district of Sydney as we found out last night walking past porkys strip bar (eww) - although after seeing Bangkok nothing will ever compare!). Where we are seems to be backpacker central as our road is full of hostels so its quite a good location. We are planning on staying in Sydney for the next week and are off to explore...next installment to follow soon x