It's my last day in Melbourne so I thought it was about time I updated, before I begin my 3-day trip to Adelaide and struggle to remember what happened in Melbourne!

I've really enjoyed Melbourne, it's a cool city. The Yarra river runs through the city centre, so you can look around and see boats going down the river whilst trams, cars, buses, taxis and even horses with carts travel over the bridges. Pretty nice.

Luckily my 2nd hostel here has been a lot better than the first! And there are no bizarre Greek girls. That was bloody weird. She would burp all the time and then whisper "sorry" in a really timid voice - I swear if I heard it one more time I would have cracked up! Anyway, the other hostel is just 2 minutes along the road on Flinders Lane (very central). All the wee streets here are so quirky, all lined with funky shops and cafes.

On my first proper day in Melbourne I jumped on the free tourist shuttle bus, just so I could get a feel for the city. Then that evening I met up with Nadine (the Dutch girl who I'd travelled down from Sydney with) and we found a bar to have a couple of beers. Had a pretty early night back in the hell-hole hostel! Then next day I was up and ready to go to the Melbourne Museum as I'd heard they were running a Titanic Exhibition and I really wanted to see it. What I didn't realise until I got the free tourist tram up there was that it's Aussie school holidays and the place was heaving - it was 11.30am and the next time I could book into the Titanic Exhibition was quarter to 4! So I just paid $8 and walked around the normal museum, which was still good, but a bit of a pain seeing as I'd gone especially for the Titanic thing. Hey well. I saw some creepy Aussie spiders which freaked me out a bit, especially because I'll be heading into the outback soon! Yikes. That night I met up with Vicki (a school friend) which was really weird - she's been in Aus for 1 year so we had a lot to chat about, and it was nice to be able to talk to someone who knows mutual people, etc. And someone who's a native Scot! It gets tiring speaking to foreigners sometimes and having to tone down my normal Scots vocab. Vicki and I had a couple of bottles of wine between us and had a good laugh. We were at Southbank which is just by the river, and looks really pretty at night time. We bumped into 3 men in suits who we asked to take our photo! They started off by turning my camera around and taking one of themselves, cheeky.

Anyway we both went our separate ways and the next day I took the tram to St Kilda, where Vicki was staying. We had some lunch and a wander around. We took a walk to the end of the jetty where we saw a couple of starfish. Then I came back to my new hostel and went along to the other end of Flinders Street to meet Nadine. We went to a bar under her hostel with some guys she had befriended. Some Kiwi dudes started talking to us, my god, they were big chaps! This really random Aussie dude called Andrew started chatting to us and bought a round of drinks for everyone, which was nice but a little bit uncomfortable... but then, the rest of the night was a little bit uncomfortable as he kept doing it! Pretty weird that he was out on his own, buying drinks for complete strangers... but it was a good night in its own special way. It was open mic night so there were some alright singers. We then moved on to a place that I don't think was really somewhere a lady should be... but Aussie Andrew paid for me and Nadine to get in, so whatever! (WEIRD!) Myself and a guy called Ben who was from North Carolina eventually bailed, as the night was just too strange.

The next day I got on the tourist tram with Janina, a German girl who was staying in my dorm. We were intending to get off at the Queen Victoria Markets, but there was a huge parade going on that day (for a big Aussie Rules match that was happening on Saturday) so the tram only went so far and then went back to where we had started! We jumped off and just walked up to the market. We had a wander around there and then came back. That evening, Janina and I went out and met up with Nadine, Ben, Pete (the English guy who was also on my trip from Sydney) and some of his mates from home who are staying in Melbourne. We didn't really know where we were going so we started off in a bar/club called Eurotrash... it was quite a laugh though, cheesy music and dancing! We decided to move on, for some reason to a place called Ding Dong (I don't know who's idea that was)... but we couldn't find it. We walk around Melbourne for AGES, trying to get into various places along the way but with no luck, and eventually found out that Ding Dong was in fact back near the place we had begun our treck. We finally found it and went in... only to stay for 15 minutes before the lights came on and they were closing!! A leisurely walk took us back to Eurotrash where we stayed for a bit, but bailed soon after that. The saving grace of the night - I found a $20 note on the street as we were leaving! :D

The following day I did a river cruise with two Korean girls, one from my room who's name is Lark, she's hilarious, and her friend who couldn't speak English. Random! It was actually really boring and there were only 5 people on the boat... when we got back to dry land, we had a look at Federation Square, which was buzzing with the game. That evening, Lark, myself, and two German girls that we had met the day before went out. I was hoping to meet up with Pete and the guys but they were in another place where they'd paid $20 entry and the girls weren't keen, so we just went to a bar on Flinders Lane. It was called the Randy Dragon, but I don't know why! As far as I could see there were no randy dragons there, only normal ones, and it was actually a really cool little place. There was a live band playing who did a lot of covers, they were really good. Lark kept trying to force me to touch the singer's bum..!? And when I wouldn't, she did! Crazy Korean. I started to get a sore throat so I left around 1am.

Yesterday was a really nice sunny day. I had planned to go to the Australian Centre for the Moving Image but when I got there the queue was mahoosive! So I just walked around at Federation Square and then along at the Arts Precinct. I went into the National Gallery of Victoria, which was quite cool, but had a lot of the kind of art that I don't like. I went for a wander at Southbank because I wanted to find the Eureka Skydeck (it's not like you can't see it, apparently it's the highest lookout point in the Southern Hemisphere - but I wanted to find the entrance as I'm gonna go up it tonight). Sat in the sun at the river for a while, before heading to Degraves Street to visit the Little Cupcake shop :) As it was my sister's birthday I thought it would be a good idea to buy myself 3 mini cupcakes (using her birthday as an excuse) Yum! When I got back to my hostel I sat around waiting for it to be 6pm (9am at home) so that I could phone Kirsty. It was nice to speak to her :) I was starting to get a really sore throat by this point so didn't have any major plans for the evening. I went to the Crown Casino with Janina and a different girl called Nadine. It was a nice walk along the river, and on the way we stopped to listen to some street musicians. They are everywhere here, as is street art. It was 3 lads playing lots of covers, and they were really good. We sat and watched them for a while, then went to the Casino. It was pretty grand inside, as casinos are. We didn't gamble, just watched a light show (pretty) and then sat outside with a diet Coke watching the hourly flames coming out of the pillars outside. The flames were HUGE, you could really feel the heat coming off them (which was great because Melbourne is damn cold!) On our way back, the boys were still playing, and at one point it was only us watching them from across the walkway - AWKWARD! They asked if we had any requests though, so they played us some Kings of Leon and Jason Mraz which was really good :) Awww.

Had a pretty terrible sleep last night as I now seem to be choked with what is ALMOST man flu! (In terms of how sorry I'm feeling for myself). So today has been a bit of a non-event, but that's ok. I've been in Melbourne for 1 week and don't feel any need to do much more. I went out for a McDonalds lunch with Janina (I know, such a great healthy choice when I'm not well) then we just came back to the hostel and did nothing. Tonight I'm going up the Eureka Skydeck with German Nadine and maybe Pete and the guys, so that should be a nice way to end my time in Melbourne. You can pay extra to do the Edge which I think is a bit where you're in a glass box hanging off the side - scary but I'm gonna do it :) I think I just made that sound more dramatic than what it probably is - Mum, don't freak out!

Janina is flying into Cairns the day after I do and she is staying at the same hostel as me, which is cool :) Also, Dutch Nadine from my Syd-Melb trip is departing Adelaide on the same day as me, so we will both be on the same trip from Adelaide to Alice Springs. Girls, you were right - travelling Australia is pretty easy :)

I've been trying to book up some more of my East Coast trip for after I leave Cairns. So far I know that I'm spending 5 nights on Mission Beach. I don't know much about it, but it has "beach" in the name, so I figured 5 nights would suit me fine. So I should be on Magnetic Island for my birthday. Again, don't know much about it, but it sounds nice!

I'm gonna sign off now and try to stop sniffling before I head out to do the Eureka Skydeck. Looking forward to the next few days when I will be back on the Oz bus and travelling to Adelaide. I can't wait to see the Great Ocean Road :) Sure I'll update again soon. I think at some parts of the outback I won't get a signal on my phones, so if you text me and don't get a reply, don't worry. If you don't get a reply after 7th October (when I arrive into Alice) - worry.

xxx