Hi all!!!! It's been quite a while since we last updated the blog site, so here we are, attempting to catch up on what we have been up to whilst in Melbourne. We have actually done quite a bit - mostly in the first 2 weeks of our stay, but we have decided to stick around find jobs - to varying degrees of success!!!

We took the overnight Greyhound bus from Sydney to Melbourne which was a cool way to avoid paying another nights accomodation!heehee the first hostel we went to deserves a mention for being the worst hostel we have ever stayed in. this hostel makes the one in Rotorua that we disliked appear to be a palace in comparison. We were put in a 10-16 bed dorm, the first one we entered only had one bed available, so within 10 minutes we were onto our second room. A fourteen bed dorm and they had to evict 3 girls and their luggage as they had not paid and were suppossed to have left several days earlier!

That was only the start of our adventure with the Hotel Bakpak. On the Friday night after watching a (appalling) 'comedy' show we were rudely awoken at 5am by a group of Irish guys and their friends that they decided to bring back to the dorm to continue the party. After several minutes of trying to get into bunk beds that were not theirs, listening to a badly attempted seduction in the bunk next to us combined with the guy in the top bunk opposite falling out of his bunk with a resounding crash security turned up and threw a few people out. The remaining Irish continued make noise and be generally rude and deserved a mighty smack in the teeth, but after Emma got up and told security that she was not having those people in the room for another minute they took them away. (they returned later and neither of us slept -Andrew terrified they were going to attack Emma but we were too tired to carry on the fight!) the next day Andrew complained and we got moved to a double room, which was better, but our enjoyment of the hostel would never return! Not that there was much! but we thought that deserved a mention.

Anyway Melbourne!!! Melbourne is our kind of city. The place is dedicated to the arts and has its own version of the west end, with loads of theatres performing all sorts of work. the surrounding area is pretty awesome too, with some very original building designs around the Docklands area mixed with victorian buildings and huge office blocks. the CBD (central business district) is much smaller than Sydney, which is much nicer than having to walk around for 30 minutes to get from one area to the other. the chinatown has a lovely Chinese that serves lunch for under $10 (4 pound 50!) and the beaches, although not up to Bondi's standard are pretty nice too!

For the first two weeks we took in all the sights with our friend Tamara, who had preceded us to Melbourne on the plane! we persuaded her to go on the Neighbours tour in exchange for renting a car and doing the Great Ocean Road with her.

The Great Ocean Road is just that - a huge stretch of road running along the southern coast of Australia. It runs for at least 400km, and along the way are such sights as the Twelve Apostles (rock stacks in the ocean) bells beach (a famous surf beach) and a national park. Poor Tamara had never driven an automatic car - none of us had, but we had the advantage of haven driven on the left hand side of the road before!! it was an awesome journey. Driving along the coast with the ocean on one side of you and forest on the other is a surreal experience, and stopping off every 10 minutes to take in a new sight is rewarding but tiring - and time consuming, since we only had 24 hours to go to the end and back! (that means in theory we did the Great Ocean Road twice!) However the drive was as we said amazing and we are glad that we were persuaded to do it. a trip would have cost about $100 each, we did it for about $46 each, including fuel and car rental, and we had such fun. Just remember when the guides tell you the roads are for the adventurous and the experienced driver and you need to keep your eyes glued to the road they are not kidding! Its the only road we have seen where you can be driving at 100km an hour and then see a sign to slow to 25km!

After this we went on the legendary Neighbours tour. we got picked up in the Neighbours van and driven to Pin Oak Drive - aka Ramsay Street! we realised we are not really die hard fans of the show when we could not name many people now in the show, or where they lived! but it was fun - except when a guy threw up on the van on the way (fortunately a plastic bag was available!) From there we went to the studios where we waited outside and met Susan kennedy! Tamara didnt know who she was, but Belgium is 2 years behind and she does not watch the show! We asked for a job, but she didnt think they had any available so never mind! After we went to the school where the film erinsborough High - its actually a language school for those who do not know!lol we have not yet made it to the neighbours night, but we hope to soon!

After Tamara left we decided to settle for a bit and find jobs and a place to stay. we have managed to find an apartment in St Kilda, a suburb by the beach. its cheap in comparison to hostels and we have our own space for the first time in 4 months!yay! the job front is not so easy. We had an interview to be charity fundraisers on the streets of Melbourne, getting people to sponser so much a month for various charities. andrew managed to talk us out of that job by telling them we could not wait 2 weeks to start, we needed immediate work. So despite the fact that Andrew is funny and emma is inspirational we didnt get that job. Next we auditioned to be extras on a Speilberg and Hanks production. They needed US Marines so emma was out but Andrew has been doing a few days on set a week and is really enjoying it, except for the 4am get up times!The show is called The Pacific and it is a mini series in the same vein as Band of Brothers. in between we both applied to be door to door slaes poeple for a marketing company selling electricity. We did 2 days of training and on day 3 observed people on site. The next day we walked into the office and quit. Emma observed a self confessed racist sign people up and Andrew watched a guy target the elderly and people who did not speak english well. We were unimpressed! Now Emma has signed up to a job agency while Andrew keeps working as an extra.

Well I think thats enough for one blog, we will try and keep in better touch!! keep writing on the site, there seems to have been a dip in messages in the board! Speak soon Love to all x