Katie:

Arrived in Melbourne after a 3 hour delay at Bangkok airport and then a further delay on the runway as the refridgeration unit was broken...the wonders of Jet Star. We finally arrived at 11am local time. We found a hostel by looking at the information centre in the airport and made our way to the city centre via the sky bus shuttle. One of my favourite things about Melbourne is how nice everybody was, everyone was so helpful right from the moment we stepped off the plane. The hostel we was staying in, Kings St Backpackers was a really nice place, clean and in a really good location on the edge of the CBD.

Whilst in Melbourne we made use of its shopping facilities...apparently it is the most fashionable city in Australia and I would have to agree with that, the Australian owned clothes stores were really good & relatively cheap as well.

We toured the city by using the free city circle tram which goes around the edge of the CBD and hopped on and off to look at the sights the city had to offer. Firstly we got off at St Patrick's Cathedral and then went to Federation Square which is the new square built to be the central point during Australians bicentenary. We walked from the square to the Shrine of Remembrance, a wonderful monument dedicated to the people of Victoria during the World Wars. We watched a simulation of a remembrance service which was really moving.

We took the tourist shuttle bus (again another free mode of transport Melbourne has to offer) to the Melbourne Zoo. The zoo was so much fun, me and Arber felt like such kids getting excited by all of the animals but it was lots of fun. The zoo was really open plan and you could go up close to a kangaroo...we managed to get in the pen and have our picture taken with him...our first kangaroo experience! We also got to see a koala although he was quite hidden sleeping up the tree, wombats, girraffes, zebras, lions, elephants and orangutans. It was really amazing, Arber fell in love with the orangutans and I had to practically drag him away from the pen.

That evening we took the tram to St Kilda which is an area of Melbourne which is on the beach, it was such a cool place with some really lovely shops and the best cake shops ever! We stopped and had a coffee (or tea in my case) and a cake...yum.

The following day we took the train to Brighton beach where we met up with a couple who had been in our group during our China trip. They had such a lovely house by the beach and took us out for a drive to see the local area of Port Phillip. It was so pretty around there, the kind of place I could see myself living one day. Despite the fact it was raining we had such a lovely time. We went back to their house and had a home cooked roast which was amazing...i think it was made even more amazing considering I hadn't had home cooked vegetables & roast meat for over a month..

On our last day in Melbourne we went to Federation Square again where we went to the National Gallery- fun for a while but after a while I lose interest in galleries, although I was really fascinated by the art of the Indigenious people. After lunch we again took the tram to St Kilda to see the beach during the day, we had a walk along the lovely beach before heading back into the CBD to do our last bit of shopping & have our last meal in Melbourne. We took the tram to Lygon Street and had a really nice Italian meal in the Italian district of Melbourne, whilst walking back we stumbled on what looked like a street party down one of the smaller side streets. We decided our fleeces, backpacks and shopping bags were not very fashionable and went back to the hostel to change. We returned to the street at 9.30pm to find it was all over...A little disappointed we headed back for an early night..!

Arber:

I am in love (again) Melbourne is my kinda city it took a few deep breathes of the crisp Autumn air to adjust to the fact that we were no longer in Summer but after that i just fell head over heels! This city is cool - seriously cool - it has amazing little kitch book shops in it which we spent a hour just staring at the over priced books loads of little coffee shops and some amazing cake shops that we just had to stop into!! and for me it also has a rich supply of poker nights and comic stores complete with authentic geeks behind the counter!! - Kings street was really nice really cosy little hostel and we had an entire 8 bed dorm to our selves!!!

The city's laid back friendly pace was so welcoming and i can honestly say i would love to live here !!!

I had sooo much fun at the zoo it was a really great zoo and managed to stand inches from a kangaroo!!! But the orangutans made it for me i could have watched them playing together all day and i would of if katie hadn't reminded me that places like zoos kick you out and that there was plenty more to see!!!

Another great highlight was the night at Peter and Catherine's, they were amazing hosts and nothing was too much trouble Peter took us around Brighton and knew so much about the area i felt like i was on a professional guided tour he really loved this place and its soo easy to see why when we got back from seeing the many beaches bays and harbours of Brighton we got ready for a glorious roast !!! the veg had to be far and away the best i have eaten in my life in fact the whole meal was perfect with great company to boot !! i was introduced to a genius idea that really appeals to me - meat with jam!!! another way to make food sweet!!!!