After a ten hour non-eventful bus trip I arrived into Melbourne late on Sunday night. I go a taxi to my hostel which was in St Kilda. I checked in and pretty much crashed out in bed straight away. I had the luxury of a room to myself that night! I got up on Monday morning and met two lovely girls from Liverpool called Jess and Lauren. I headed out to the beach as it was a beautiful day and we arranged to meet up later. I met a Kiwi guy on the beach who had arrived in Melbourne for the Grand Prix. I left the beach to meet up with the girls and wasn't feeling well at all. It was so hot and I hadn't had anything to drink so went off in search of a cool drink. Bumped into the girls on the way and got my drink. This was after nearly fainting in the cafe!! Could have been quite embarrassing! I downed 2 Powerades and felt like a new person! So now of course, I'm drinking it all the time! We went out for a late lunch and started celebrating as it was Jess's birthday! To top the day off we had all booked onto the Neighbours night held in the British pub below our backpackers hostel. We headed out at 6.30pm to enjoy our Ramsay Street themed night and celebrate with Jess. We all had a great time and Jess had to get up in front of a massive crowd to have 'Happy Birthday' sung to her by Alan Fletcher who plays Karl Kennedy! It was so good! She loved it! We got to meet and have our photos taken with some of the cast members; Karl Kennedy, Declan, Stuart Parker and his brother Steve Parker. I'll put the photos up as soon as I get chance! I know you'll all want to see them! I got up fairly early on Tuesday and went for a walk. Since arriving at the hostel I had known I only had 4 nights accommodation as the whole of the city was booked up during the 4 days the Grand Prix was on. I twould have been so great to stay for it, but it was looking more and more likely that I would have to leave the city and come back after the race was all over as I just couldn't find any where to stay. I spent the morning walking around St Kilda and went to the Botanical Gardens. It was cooler today, so nice to walk around. I stopped off at the beach for a bit in the afternoon and bumped into the Kiwi guy I chatted to the day before. He was a massive Ferrari supporter and was so into F1. I went back to the hostel and the girls invited me to the cinema in the evening with some people they had met on their travels previously. We watched 'There will be Blood'. The next morning we got up for the free pancakes that the hostel served and then tried to sort out what we were going to do about finding somewhere to stay. There were lots of people in the same situation. We decided we wanted to rent a car and drive along the Great Ocean Road for a couple of days. This took all day to organise and book. There were no cars available and no accommodation along our route. After lots of searching and phonecalls, we booked a car and beds and were sorted. It was a great trip. We left on Thursday afternoon and arrived back this afternoon (Sat 15th). The views from the road were amazing and we stopped off at some lovely places. Torquay, Anglesea and Bells Beach on the way and even at Split Point lighthouse in Aireys Inlet which was where 'Round the Twist' a kid's tv show was filmed. We watched the sunset here. It was beautiful. We stopped at Lorne on Thurs night and at Erskine Falls to see the waterfall there the morning after. The hostel in Lorne was nice even if it was run by a strange man! From the falls, we headed to Apollo Bay where we stopped for lunch and a lie on the beach there. The sights along that bit of the road were the best. From Apollo Bay we hit the jungle trail and drove through very windy roads through the forest. We headed for Port Campbell which was our destination for the night. On the way are the famous rock formations, The 12 Apostles. We stopped and took photos of these and then drove to our hostel. A group of backpackers on a tour were sharing our hostel and they were heading out to watch the sunset over the Apostles. We decided this was a great idea and went with them, but we missed the best part of the sunset and blamed it on the tour guide's poor time keeping! Port Campbell was nice, but very small. We got up early this morning to drive back to Melbourne to get the car back in time. I have been lucky enough to find a bed for a couple of nights in a central location, but they have sky-rocketed the rates up due to the crazy demand. It's double what it normally is! Nevermind! It had better be a good bed! I am really liking Melbourne so far, especially as it has been enjoying some great weather lately! I do miss Sydney though!