03/12/08

Woke up to a really camp guy telling me that I needed to put my seat belt on and turn off my iPod because we were about to land. Got off the plane and went to the baggage collection, I realised we were waiting at the wrong carousel so we went the right one. The bags took forever to arrive, some of the other bags had done about 50 laps by the time ours got there. Remembered that I needed a piss when I was at the departure lounge in Singapore and hadn't been yet so thought I'd better go. Good toilets with warm water to wash your hands, brilliant. They still felt the need to put a no squatting on toilets sign up though. Got to the arrivals lounge and all used the ATM. Coops and I went outside to check the buses to the city centre, it was so cold when we stepped outside, both instantly got goosebumps, but the good thing was that the air was fresh. Waited for the bus at the coffee place in the airport and had a hot chocolate to warm up.

Arrived at Punt on Pint and instantly loved the way that we can now ask questions without having to emphasise each word and speak slowly, and get a response that makes sense and is actually accurate. Made use of the free breakfast which they have out in the pub downstairs and then went up to the room. Walked in and there were 3 guys passed out on the beds with clothes turfed out of their bags all over the place, it looked just like a room at uni. Chilled out for a bit in the rooms and then went out to explore. Asked a friendly local for directions and I'm pretty sure we caused him to miss his bus, but he didn't seem too upset. Found a coffee house to sit and were told that they had wi-fi, ordered some drinks and asked how to connect to the wi-fi, and found out that they don't have wi-fi. Went into a library and were told that they had wi-fi in a magazine shop down the road. Spent ages surfing the net trying to book neighbours tours and find prices of camper vans for the great ocean road. We were having no luck so Helen and I went to a payphone, Helen couldn't resist getting an iced donut on the way which she claims is normal food. Phoned the neighbours number and managed to book, looks like Taz is off the cards as it would cost $360 each just for the return ticket. Walked back and all used the washing machine.

Went downstairs to the pub and each ordered the $6 meal of the day with a pint of Punt beer. It was 2 giant sausages with chips veg and gravy, so good to eat non asian food. Sat in the bar and played P&A, everyone was really tired and the girls ended up going upstairs to bed at about 10. We stayed downstairs and had a load of jugs of Punt. The jugs were always varying prices, the first jug was $4, I got the next and it was $8, the next one I got was $10, and came with a free jug because Pat was wearing his Liverpool T shirt. When Burns' round came up again he asked how much it was and handed over $8 but the barman haggled the price down to $4 again. It was karaoke night and we were all struggling to remember the name of a B*Witched some, trust burns to come up with it, c'est la vie. Burns and I had an argument at how we were pouring the jugs because they were just under a pint each each time, I said 'I had a jug...sucked the head off then went for the second' Burns said 'oh...I thought we were only going up to the rim'. Went upstairs because I was tired, Pat and Burns stayed for another jug. Got to the room and realised that Pat had the key, couldn't be arsed to go back down. Woke up when people were trying to do some laundry, I'd passed out on the tumble dryer in a load of towels. Got a good night sleep.

04/12/08

Woke up in my clothes feeling quite rough, so went back to the pub for the free breakfast. Went back to bed for another few hours. wandered down St. Kilda road looking for car rental places to do the Great Ocean Road, couldn't find anything decent. Got back to the hostel about an hour later and Burns was still asleep, the lazy b******. Saw a coffee house with free wi-fi on the way back so we all went there to sort out the next 2 weeks of Aus. On the way Helen stepped out to cross the road right in front of a bus, me and Coops both shouted HELEN! and she carried on while looking back, the bus had to beep its horn and luckily she realised what was going on and managed to avoid it. We spent hours in the coffee place and got a lot sorted out.

Went for a wander to suss out the city, we decided to walk down St. Kilda road which I had already walked down earlier. The girls insisted that the sign for St. Kilda road was pointing the other way so I said fair enough and we followed the girls down the road for about 10 minutes. The girls finally asked a local where St. Kilda road was, was quite funny watching their expressions when they were told it was back the way we had come. Decided to take a tram to the city centre to get a map of the city, the ticket machine on the tram only took coins so we spent nearly the entire journey sorting struggling to sort out the right change for everyones ticket, every time the tram stopped someone nearly fell over, its only a matter of time before it happens to someone, its so abrupt. Got off at federation square to discover a giant banner advertising the Homeless World Cup, they were holding it right there so we had to go watch a game. We managed to see the Hungary - Hong Kong game, it was actually really enjoyable to watch, I think the final score was 8-6 to Hungary. Still not quite sure how they go about scouting for homeless footballers. Went for a walk along the river and a homeless guy told Helen she was pretty, she didn't give him any change. Took the tram back, a girl was trying to be helpful and tell us which stop to get off to get back to Pint on Punt, she was so wrong, luckily we realised and got off at the right stop.

Went to eat the $6 meal in the pub again, it was a giant chicken burger, brilliant! Attempted teaching the girls how to play poker and got into a debate with pat about whether or not its pointless to play with no money. Had enough of cards so me and Coops went and watched the next episode of heroes and then packed our stuff before going to bed.

05/12/08

Had to check out by 10am. The shower was constantly in use so none of us could use it. Found out that Helen had had a bad night sleep because she was having window wars with the grumpy mute in their room. Apparently Helen would shut the window and 5 minutes later the girl would come and open the window as wide as possible. Got the tram to Fliders St., on the way a bloke stepped on and as it pulled away he stacked it right on top of a baby in a pram causing the baby to drop his apple. I knew it wouldn't be long. Found the hostel and were served by the least helpful woman ever, she was constantly groaning and swearing under her breath, none of the online bookings had gone through so we managed to wing a 12 bed doorm room on floor 8. Ditched our stuff and went into town.

Walked along the riverside, there were people having BBQ's all along the river on what we can only assume are public BBQ's provided in the park. We walked to the MCG and Pat and Rich ended up taking a tour while Helen, Coops and I went to chill out in the sun. We managed to find another play park and made a little time trial course, I thought I'd take it easy to give them a chance but still managed to beat them by over 5 seconds. Coops was awful, she took over a minute, Helen finished in 57 seconds I took 51. Took my shirt off in public for the first time in about a month without being told off. Went to get a drink, their Lilt is called Lift over here, Helen initiated a bottle war, and when she couldn't handle it anymore told me 'Don't stop behave seperate' whatever that's supposed to mean. Walked to the market and on the way saw 3 Subways in 2 blocks along with countless 7-11's. As we were crossing the road a white van sped over the crossing and smashed right into the front of a small car completely taking the front of it off and leaving debris all over the road for the tram to crunch through. Got to the market but most of the stalls were packing away for the day so we picked up 5 massive spuds for about a quid and spent the rest of the evening looking for beans to go with them in the shops. Beans are well expensive out here, cheapest we could find were $1.90 and Heinz are $2.50. Went to eat at the Joint Bar below the hostel, got fish and chips for $6. Ended up having a beer with the meal, which escelated into a few more while we sat at a table in the middle of the dance floor chatting. I say chatting, but the only person I could actually understand was Pat due to constant stream of cheesy music being pumped out at a rediculous volume. Already missing the chilled out bars of Thailand where you can just lay down and listen to good music and talk without having to shout every single word. Ended up playing High Card Chug with Burns until the music didn't piss me off any more. Pat Helen and Coops retreated to the room earlier in the night, we went upstairs to go to bed at some point but ended up thinking it was a good idea to go check the locker situation for when we do the Great Ocean Road. Don't know what we were thinking because neither of us can remember what we found out and we ended up back in the Joint Bar again playing HCC, and playing pool against some random Irish people, thinking about it now I'm sure they were gay. Decided to go to bed, think it was about 3, spent about 20 minutes stuck at the door because the keycard didn't work, eventually a girl came out the other side so I managed to get in. Because my card didn't work I had to use the girls toilet by sticking my hand up through the broken bottom of the door and opening it from the inside. Finally got back to the room at about 4, Rich wasn't there, I just went to bed.

06/12/08

Woke up, felt like crap. Got out of bed and went to the market again. Was really dehydrated and hungry so had to keep buying water all the time, Burns and I ended up stopping at a shop to get a burger, the others had chips. Every time we stopped at a stall the floor felt like it was moving around and I thought I was going to fall over. Coops was looking for a hoody because it keeps getting cold round here and pointed out that she was looking for something 'big and thick' I think you can guess what we made of that. Went back to the room to relax and ended up talking to some Irish blokes that had been staying in the same 12 bed doorm for 2 months, they were supposed to leave for Sydney 6 weeks ago but couldn't find any hostels with rooms.

The girls cooked our spuds for us, the microwaves are s*** here, they took 30 minutes to cook and melted the plates in the process. Can't go wrong with a spud and cheesy beans. Wen't out to the Ice Lounge in the evening, when you get there you have to put on a coat, 2 pair of gloves and ugg boots before going through to door. It was -10 degrees in there and we were instructed not to lick the furnature, wonder how many people have made that mistake. All the seats and tables are made out of ice. The cocktails were really good, and stayed quite cold, just a pain in the ass drinking it from a beaker made from ice. After 20 minutes our feet were starting to stick to the floor and we were all jigging along doing the crappest dancing to warm ourselves up. When we left and went upstairs we realised that they had a TV showing the inside of the Ice Lounge in the middle of the bar so everyone can see how rediculous our dancing was. Decided to sit up there for a bit, had a Corona, best beer I've had in a while, Rich had a Stella, and I'm not sure why Pat went for a Heiniken. We got to see some more people dancing like t*** on the screen, there was one guy doing the moon walkthe moon walk quite well, but one guy wanted to know if his arse would stick to the seat. Apparently they have a Safeway!

Got back to the room and Burns and I spent 2 or 3 hours playing head tennis with a small football, we managed to work our way up from 5 to 6 to 7, 8, 10 when we reached 12 we decided to pack it in and go to bed as we both had really sore heads.