MELBOURNE

Despite not having a detailed map and yet again not having any accommodation booked (didn't we learn from Adelaide?) we eventually make it to a fairly decent but over priced YHA near the University. This is a lovely part of the City, with huge parks filled with the obligatory joggers. This is just for one night though as we have booked ourselves into an apartment in the City from tomorrow and man, we cannot wait to get there!

Welcome to our swanky city pad, oooohh the comforts of an apartment for a few days is a real treat. You never thought you'd miss things like your own dishwasher or oven. Even a table and chairs - this is a real treat, dinner in a civilised fashion. Having your own private bathroom, heaven. A wardrobe, at last we can hang up some of our clothes if only for a few days. And ohhh a carpeted floor - amazing, and what's this an internet connection? 'Stick a fork in me I'm done'. With such a luxurious place to stay we are in danger of not seeing anything of the City!

Melbourne is Australia's creative hub and they are not shy about this. The city buzzes with cutting edge Art and exciting modern Architecture which all collide to form the backdrop for Melbourne's 'let it all hang out' creative scene. Obviously Mark is in his element. It seems like everywhere you look there is an amazing building, or piece of sculpture or gallery - not only that, but it has a most impressive array of shops and a more than usual smattering of great bars and eateries - it's all too much.

We visit the 'Architectural splendour' that is Federation Square. Where a Square is actually a collection of fractile triangles...?? and where a Labyrinth is not a maze but a clever form of passive cooling systems used to effect and provide for environmental climate control... Woooooow. Sarah has to stop Mark from getting too geeky, right about now. But even Sarah is taken aback - Federation Sq is stunning - and it's prime location next to the river and opposite the main railway station mean that it's teeming with life. As well as housing restaurants and bars, acting as a focal point of the City, standing as a work of art in its own right and serving as a meeting place, 'The National Gallery of Australia' is also here, which is brilliant and oh joy of joys it's FREE so we spend a few hours in this fantastic gallery. Actually we come to realise that Melbourne (unlike Sydney) is pretty damn hard to beat when it comes to FREE stuff to do, as such it's a pretty cool place to be a backpacker! We spend our days wandering the city and enjoying it's many public spaces - notably the Botanical Gardens, again - as well as various exhibitions - one of our favourites being 'the history of classic sneakers' or as we like to correctly say 'trainers' - not really high-brow stuff but pretty interesting anyway. Whilst our evening are spent chilling in the swanky pad, enjoying the lost art of watching TV and eating home made dinners!

No account of our time in Melbourne would be complete without mentioning our trip to the student hairdressers - don't do it EVER... This is where Mark went in for a trim and you will have noticed how he has been enjoying his long traveller hair (while he still can, he thinks he's Paul Weller) and came out with a brand new office boy, short back and sides haircut. It was being cut so short that he actually had to tell the girl to stop cutting it and step away from the hair! Hilarious for Sarah obviously. Mark has moaned about his hair every day since.

On our last night we hit a few bars and have another pizza dinner (pizza and a drink for $10 can't go wrong, plus they are really really good!!) before heading for the final Greyhound bus journey. As we climb onboard the over-crowded bus we are acutely aware that this is our final roadtrip in Oz, it feels like the end of an era.