I was shattered when I arrived in Melbourne after a 25 hour journey from Manchester via Dubai and Singapore. I had the sense to book myself into a nice hotel for the first coupleof nights, until I could get my bearings and recover from the flight. I was so glad of the comfortable bed when I arrived and I think I must have started to nod off before I even got into bed because I don't even remember my head hitting the pillow! I woke up feeling refreshed the next morning and out of my window I could see that it was a bright sunny day. I changed into my shorts and a vest, but couldn't find the suncream I had bought with me. I thought I would just toddle off to the shops and buy some instead. Well, it was more than just a bright sunny day, it was 40 degrees and I got burnt to a crisp on just the short journey to the shops. Great start to my holiday! Anyway, without boring you too much about the in's and out's of my time in Melbourne, I will try to condense. I was staying in St Kilda, which is a suburb just south of the City Centre. It has a certain European feel to it, in that there are lots of coffee shops and bakeries with chairs and tables spilling out into the streets and people just idly chatting their life away. There's a nice esplanade, a beach, harbour, trams into the city, a theme park and of course the obligatory Mac Donalds! I spent my days soaking in the culture of Australia, mostly in St Kilda. Walking the streets for miles on end helped me to orientate myself and lazy afternoons on the beach were great for topping up the tan and people watching. One day I went into the City Centre and went to the Aquarium, browsed the shops and stumbled across the Kylie Exhibition at the Arts Centre. This was great as there had been lots of hype on the TV about it and it hadn't even opened properly when I went there. Apparently Kylie had been there herself earlier that day to promote it. It was just all of her clothes from videos and concerts. They even had the infamous gold hot pants!! I had eaten and drunk so much over Christmas, I was on a no alcohol diet for my time in Melbourne, but that all went to pot when I was asked to go for a drink with someone from the dorm. He was as bigger drinker as I am it would seem and I got myself rather tiddly. Had a great time though, so thanks to Tim. See you in Sydney in March. Monday morning and I was off on a bus trip to Sydney. The bus would take 3.5 days to get there, but there would be lots of exciting stuff to do in the mean time. Our first stop was in the middle of the snowy mountains. Beautiful drive into the mountains and wonderful views from the accommodation, but really in the middle of nowhere! There wasn't an awful lot to do here, so it was a good opportunity to get to know some of the other people from the bus. The next day we set off early for Mount Kosiushko (probably spelt wrong), in the resort of Thredbo. Thredbo is a ski resort in the winter and a popular hiking resort in the summer when there is no snow. I quit smoking that day and proceeded to climb the mountain and stood quite proudly on top of the highest point in Australia. I felt incredible about the cigarettes too as they had really been getting me down. It was a great walk and there was a lovely cool breeze blowing to stop us getting too hot. The only problem is the flies. They are everywhere! Several of us had them in our mouths at some points - you just can't help it! I would have to say that at any one time you probably had about 40 flies on you. Disgusting! That evening we drove on to Canberra. I didn't really like this city very much. I know it was purpose built to be the capital, but can't you just tell! It's horrible and it has a horrible feel to it. Feel good that I can say I've visited the capital, but I'll never get that day back I'm afraid! We did have a great time in the Irish Pub there, where we had lots of beers and ordered pizza to be brought into the pub! We were all glad to be moving on the next morning, despite our hangovers, as were were heading out into the Blue Mountains. We drove to lots of picturesque spots in the National Park and saw lots of lovely waterfalls and views. Towarrds the end of the day, we arrived at Katumba to stay the night. Before we booked into our accommodation, we went to visit the Three Sisters. These are three tall stone structures which rise up from one of the valleys in the blue mountains. Quite stunning actually and one of the highlights of the trip for me. The next morning, bright and early, we went back to the Three Sisters to get some dawn photo's of them which were even more stunning than the evening before. After that, we headed on down to Sydney. The driver took us North of the City so that we could come down into Sydney over the Harbour Bridge, which was great fun. Bearing in mind this was my first time in the city, I was nearly wetting myself! The bus dropped me off in Kings Cross, where I said goodbye to the others from the bus and Daniel was waiting for me to show me around the city and go for lunch. I'll write some more from Sydney and tell a few more stories hopefully. With Love, Stephen xxx