Saturday 23rd Arrived in Melbourne after the short flight from NZ, knowing that this place would be our home for the next 2-and-a-half months. Got ourselves checked into the Coffee Palace which was hardly worthy of name on first inspection but the guy on the desk, Kev, seemed nice enough so we were satisfied, the cheap price of a bed did help as well. Went and got ourselves a kebab and settled down to watch Fulham get beaten again, and retired to bed fairly early. Sunday 24th Woke up particularly late, this was to become something of a habit for us whilst in Melbourne, but we enjoyed the rest after what had been such a hectic week in NZ. Went that afternoon with Kev and a few others from the Coffee Palace to watch an Aussie Rules game, which is a sort of a strange form of rugby which involves a lot of men in vests grapling with each other for 2hrs. Fans of opposing teams sit amongst each other and cheap tickets can be bought at the gate, which is almost unheard of back home. The game we saw was St Kilda Saints Vs Richmond Tigers, which wasn't really much of a contest, the Saints absolutly thrashed the Tigers, but seens as we were supporting the Saints we were happy. Monday 25th Took our first trip around St Kilda, looked in a lot of cool shops and looked at a lot of nice cakes. We managed to resist especially as we knew this was to be a big night. For those of you who don't know what Neighbours (heaven forbid) it is an Austrailian soap which is screened twice daily on weekdays. It takes the finest of Austrialia's actors/actresses and allows them to showcase their talents with cleverly written scripts and realistic storylines. Or something like that anyway. Neighbours night is held every Monday in St Kilda and 3 of the shows stars come along to be photographed with crazy, generally British, backpackers, many of which see this as the highlight of any trip to Oz. And to be honest you can't blame them. We went along with Nat and Vicki from our hostel and met such stars as Dr Karl, Toadie, Steph Scully and ex-neighbour Tad. As if this wasn't enough Ian Fletcher's (Dr K) band played, singing all the greats, from Wonderwall to Sweet Child of Mine, every sing-a-long was covered. As the band began to strummed the opening chords of Three Lions we knew it was going to be special and certainly for Matt was just that. One of the guitarists spotted him belting out the opening verse at the front of the crowd and he was invited onto the stage. So, he and Dr K sang and danced along together infront of the screaming adoring Neighbours crowd. Check out the photo's if you don't believe us. What a night!! Tuesday 26th Slept all day and basically talked about the night gone by all day, had a quiet drink later but nothing heavy. One lesson we did learn though was that Dutch don't really care who Dr Karl is, or that you met him. Wednesday 27th Finally got ourselves into the city centre of Melbourne to have a look about, went to the museum, which was good but a disappointingly low number of games to play. Did however see kangaroos, wallabies, bondicoots and snakes, even if they were stuffed it all counts and its a bit safer that way. In the afternoon went to Frostbites Bar for backpacker night where we met Llewella, Tiff and friends. Also managed to attract the attention of a crazy man on the dancefloor, who certainly had some moves, after a few quick photos with him we swiftly moved him on in fear that his moves may be contagious. Met Kev at the bar and negotiated a deal that saw us buy him a drink for $5 and he gave us a nights accomadation each free (worth $40), we slept well that night! Thursday 28th Slept for along time, did something so dull we can't even remember what it was, probably some washing or watched TV. Met up with the girls from the night before for a quiet drink in the evening. Friday 29th Went into the city again, this time visiting the Museum of Moving Images, which had a satisfying number of buttons to push and things to watch. Saturday 30th Went to the marina in St Kilda with the girls and had lunch in one of the numerous restaurants along the beach, wandered around some of the shops again and picked out all the clothes we would buy if we had the money, then gave in to the cake shops that lined the streets. I, in particular, spent most of the day in a daze, spoke very little and when I did it was generally incoherent babble. Came to conclusion we'd probably slept too much and were forgetting how to act whist awake. Took a nap. Went out that night to the Felix bar to dance the night away to a selection of cheesy songs. Sunday 1st Again did very little, booked ourselves on a trip the Great Ocean Road for the next day and got ourselves on the next Oz bus from Melbourne to Sydney on the 3rd. Went down St Kilda pier, which was hardly a patch on Brighton pier. Had a look in the Espy bar that night to see what live muic was playing, watched a band for a while and then headed for the Elephant and Wheelbarrow because they were showing the footy. Monday 2nd Got up early for the first time in a long time to catch the bus at 8am for our Great Ocean Road day tour. Our bus driver was a nice guy who would fit well on Magic FM. His cheesy style certainly made the journey more enjoyable, ever song he played had some meaning to what he was talking about, so along the way we heard 'The Long and Winding Road' by The Beatles and 'Go West' by The Village People because the tour company was called Go West. The first stop was at an Aboriginal centre where we were shown how to play a didgeridoo, and given a performance. We then stopped off at Bells Beach to see the surf, which our driver claimed was the best he'd seen for a long time, waves over 3m high. After lunch we headed to Maits Rest Rainforest, so named because a man with the surname Mait took a rest there once, and did a half hour walk through the wildlife. The best was saved til the end however, arriving at The 12 Apostles (of which there are only 8) whilst the sun was begining to set. From there we visited Loch Ard Gorge, a famous site for it's abilty to wreck any ship that somes close to it. The final stop of the day was at London Bridge, a rock formation that looks like a bridge, basically. It was once attacted to the coast but a big part of it broke away a number of years ago, leaving a couple stranded on top of London Bridge. The story goes that press helicoptors got to the scene before the rescue team did and were looking for an interview with the couple, due to the fact that the press helicoptor could not help them off the rock they declined. Once rescued the press tried again to get an exclusive interview but again the couple said no. It was later found out the gentleman in question was supposed to be at work and he was infact having an affair and had taken his new lady for a romatic trip along the Great Ocean Road. And thats the end of that chapter, Andy (and Matt)