More adventures of the "natural blondes"

Monday night saw Lauren and I finally make it to Melbourne's (and reputedly Australia's) finest night out and of course the whole reason I came to Melbourne - Neighbours Night. We arrived at 'The Elephant and Wheelbarrow' pub nice and early and in eager anticipation at meeting Dr Karl 'lothario' Kennedy, Paul 'one leg' Robinson and his on-screen daughter Elle 'b**** face' Robinson. After waiting about a thousand hours for the stars to turn up, we were finally treated to various expected cheesy jokes and inappropriate sexual innuendos from Karl and Paul and some sulky looks from Elle. Lauren and I excelled ourselves by winning first prize in the general knowledge quiz (with minimal cheating, cough, cough), probably because most of those present were Irish and already extremely drunk. Unfortunately the prize was meant to be split six ways. Despite our best attempts at keeping all the money for ourselves (backpackers need to look out for themselves!), which involved Lauren and myself sneaking away from the night early, Lauren was forced to hand over money to two of the girls who woke her up in the middle of the night demanding their share of the money.
The rest of the week was spent moaning about the ever-increasing cold (16 degs without jeans or a hoody is bloody cold!) and trying to spend our time cheaply. I had jacked in the job at the call centre and was swiftly followed by Svenja and Lauren. It was nice to lie-in and do very little. Friday night involved a fundraiser to raise money for a guy in the hostel that had had his passport and over $1000 nicked from his room. We paid $2 to guess how many sweets were in a jar and I actually won! I won $100 bar tab for the following night, a six pack of cider (which is actually worth about 12 pounds in Aussie drink prices!) and of course the jar of sweets (which were actually really revolting and were swiftly donated to reception). So the next evening I set about spending my bar tab eagerly aided by Svenja, Lauren, Julia and our new Dutch friend Marlieke. Much of the night is a blur as you can imagine. But splatterings of memory tell me that I saw two Aussie guys expertly (and extremely randomly) pole dance, Julia had to be put to bed by 11pm whilst I insisted that the party continue in the bar next door. I was refused entry to 'Tongue and Groove' (probably the worst club in Melbourne, think along the lines of Jesters) because I tripped up the step going in and had to be escorted home by the ever-so-nice Aussie receptionist from my hostel. Probably not my finest hour...
After a delicate next day, we started to prepare ourselves for our road trip along the Great Ocean Road. We being myself and Lauren as the British representatives, Caren and Svenja as the Germans, Anna and Julia as the Swedes and Marlieke as the lone Dutch. Unsurprisingly being a group of blonde girls we attracted quite a lot of attention and were asked if we were the Swedish Volleyball team (haha) or if we were representing United Nations. Clearly we were doing our thing for world peace...

I was given the almighty task of picking up the car from the city and driving it back to St Kilda and then driving us out of Melbourne. The car strongly resembled a bus as it was an 8 seater people carrier (or people mover as the aussies say). Having had trouble in the past parking my tiny Fiesta, I was a tiny bit apprehensive at the prospect of handling such a beast and an automatic beast at that. After an embarrassing moment when I couldn't figure out how to get the handbrake off (it was one of those sophisticated ones on the floor), we were off crusiing the streets of Melbourne, dodging trams and trying to figure out why and how to turn right from the left hand lane. A few beeps later, a wrong turn onto a toll road and having to go all the way back around the block again, we began the drive out of Melbourne. I quickly settled into driving the car and began enjoying the airconditioning and the smooth(ish) ride.

After 70km out of the city we got onto the Great Ocean Road makign frequent stops in the rain for Caren to go to the toilet and of course to admire the scenery. I began to piss everyone off with my constant insistance that New Zealand was in fact far more impressive, but honestly it is! Just before light descended, we finally got up close and personal with a koala in the wild, which was very exciting as it was really what we came for! We came to rest for the night in a nice hostel in Apollo Bay run by a very nice American hippy/bible basher. You know the type, in his 60s with piercings, wears a disney tshirt that say 'the world is full of friends', asks us where we're from because "it'll be fun to write it down". Still it was nice to cook in a peaceful kitchen and we were upgraded to a better room, even if we were surrounded by Bibles...

Caren began driving the next day as we continued along the Great Ocean Road finally making it to the postcard picture of the 12 Apostles (although incidentally there are only 8 left). What exactly they are besides stacks in the sea, I'm still not entirely sure, but the Chinese there certainly seemed impressed so we took plenty of photos just to be on the safe side. We drove through a kangaroo park which was another highlight and then hurried on to Warrnambool and the end of the Great Ocean Road. After a quick tea break and another check of driections we continued on in search of the Grampians. Although the nice man at Muffin Break had assured us it was only a two hour drive, it did of course take far longer. Dodging kangeroos on the scenic route (there was a choice of two routes, we of course took the bloody LONG one), we were also heading straight into the eye of a massive storm. Of course. The back seat drivers couldn't decide whether they wanted me to slow down and get stuck on the quickly flooding roads or whether they just wanted me to hurry up so we could finally get there. After exploding in an angry burst, assuring them I was an expert driver and actually did know what I was doing, we continued on in silence. Eventually we made it to our hostel in Hall's Gap all in one piece and had yet another early night!

I decided to pass the grief back over to Caren the next day as we negotiated the windy roads of the Grampians at alarming speeds. Unused to driving gon the left, Caren prefered driving as far left as possible, basically in the gravel and nearing the edge of the cliff, leaving me fearing for both our lives and paint chips on the car. We saw the unimpressive waterfall at Mackenzie Falls (so not worth the horrific climb back up, nearly killed me...) and various look outs before heading back on the freeway to drive the 300km back to Melbourne. It didn't really feel like we had experienced Australia, besides the koalas and kangeroos. In fact at various points we had exclaimed how the scenery we saw made us think of Scotland, South America and even Africa. It was just so surprisingly green and just not what I expected at all.

After successfully pissing Caren off by criticising her driving skills, I was back in the hot seat negotiating the bizarre one-way system of Melbourne. An illegal u-turn later we were headed back into St Kilda and in time for $5 pizza, the highlight of the week! I may not have given the best impression of the road trip, but it was really great to get out of the city and experience rural Victoria.

The weather had picked up, typically because we had just booked our flights to Brisbane in search of sun, and we even got to spend the day on the beach. Also typically, however, the picnic that we had proposed in the Botanical Gardens for our last day was rained off and instead we moped around the hostel. That evening was ours and our friend Tom's (who had been at Coffee Palace a mamouth 10 months) last night. After a bbq on the rooftop, much Passion Pop was consumed before we headed out to disgrace ourselves in a few local bars.

I really wasn't looking forward to leaving Melbourne for Brisbane as I hadn't had a very good report from Svenja and Lauren. I'd really settled into a way of life in Melbourne, getting very comfortable with all the people surrounding me. Myself, Lauren, Svenja, Julia, Anna and Caren had made our own familty and although we squabbled and b****ed about each other, we really felt like sisters. It was my greatest desire to continue to do the East Coast with them, but sadly funds were limited, especially a I STILL haven't been paid by the call centre. However, I feel lucky that unlike most of my friends, my trip is not nearly over and I get to spend the next 3 months doing the East Coast at my own speed. Plus I'm gonna have one hell of a tan...