Hello to you all from Melbourne,

This by the way will be 1 of 3 entries from Melbourne. There will be this one which is Melbourne part 1, The Great Ocean Road and Melbourne part 2.

Saturday 24th October 2009, Melbourne-St Kilda

After a broken night's sleep (drunken people in our room) we eventually lifted our heads and dressed at around 10am. 11am saw us eating a rather large breakfast courtesy of our hostel. It wasn't free but it was cheap for a full cooked breakfast with everything including pancakes!!! I ate that much that if I'd eaten any more I quite possibly would have been sick!!!

We left the hostel at about 12:15pm and having asked for advice we started the walk towards the city. Because we were staying in St Kilda it was either public transport or walk. We thought we'd try and save a few dollars and walk. We were told that to get the free tourist shuttle around the city we could get to the Art Center and get on it from there. Now we knew the Art Center was on St Kilda Road close to the city but we didn't quite realize how close. We were told the walk would take us 40 minutes, well, 1 hour and 15 minutes later we reached the city center having passed the Art center 5 minutes before!!! Now we don't walk slowly so we just think that the lady had never actually walked it herself before, so really didn't have a clue!!

Once in the city of Melbourne we had a look around Federation Square, there were a few stalls and a stage for a Celebration of Indonesia's tourism and then we headed into Tourist Information for some advice on the tourist bus etc.

From here we walked over the road to St Paul's Cathedral, as this is where the bus stop for the tourist bus is. Before boarding the bus we became a little distracted by a wedding happening at St Paul's cathedral. We went in the cathedral and watched the bride walk down the aisle before hopping aboard the free bus.

Now the original plan had been to catch the bus around to Victoria Market but unfortunately the market close's at 3pm on a Saturday and by the time the bus reached the market it was 2:45pm!! So we decided to stay on the bus and just do the whole route checking out Melbourne city route on the way. It was pretty interesting and it gave us a good insight of things to do in the city.

After getting off the bus we walked down to the river area of South Bank, which appeared to be fairly popular for a Saturday afternoon. We had a walk along the river and watched some of the street acts before purchasing a coffee and sitting in the sun and people watching.

By now it was getting on, so we decided to go to Cole's supermarket to get some food for dinner (Shepherd's Pie) and then because we were feeling extra healthy we walked the 1 hour and 15 minutes back to St Kilda!!!

Tonight was spent chilling out in the courtyard of the hostel, with jumpers, as Melbourne is not particularly warm at the moment.

Sunday 25th October 2009, Melbourne-St Kilda

Today we were taken out for the day. We'd contacted Kirrilee (a lady who we met on out Uluru tour who lives in Melbourne), yesterday suggesting we meet up for a drink some time and she had offered to take us out for the day. Kirrilee at picked us up around 11:30am from our hostel and off we went for lunch.

Now just a quick question: Would you travel 1 and a half to 2 hours just for lunch????

We did! It is quite common for Australian's to drive this sort of distance just for a day trip. Because it so common around Australia for 2 places to be such a big distance apart from each other then the locals don't see an hour and a half drive being that big of a deal!! Personally if I were driving that far I'd want at least one night's stay not just a lunch!!!

So anyway our destination was Port Sea. Port Sea is the last town on the peninsula outside of Melbourne. Although it was a long drive it was very scenic as most of it once out of the city was along the coast. Beautiful!!!

Once in Port Sea we went to The Port Sea Hotel for lunch. It is a very popular place and pretty famous around these parts for its food menu. I had a Chicken Parmigiana (For those of you from up North I believe you may know about these-they are also very popular here in Victoria.), which was very nice, Caroline had an exotic Pie, which she enjoyed, and Kirrilee had a risotto. After lunch we sat out on the grass out the back of the hotel over looking the ocean. It was amazing-very pretty but also with the most gigantic waves.

After a long 2 hour drive back (road works) we were dropped back off at the hostel where we spent the night snacking and phone call making back home whilst chilling in the court yard. For those of you who received an unexpected phone call this night, we had some free credit!!!

Also today Kirrilee offered us free accommodation whilst staying in Melbourne, so tomorrow we are moving in with her for a week or so in the suburb of Yaraville

Monday 26th October 2009, Melboune-Yaraville

Today we were part of a TV audience at Australian's version of WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE. They have the same version as us but they also have Hot Shots. We went along with some of the others from the hostel too watch Hot Shots Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.

We are not allowed to tell you too mush as we had to sign a form promising not to say anything until the program has been aired.

But I'm sure I can tell you a bit. So here goes, the presenter is called Eddie McGuire and he is quite a celebrity here and also owns the TV station as well as a football club. He is also a Radio Presenter on his own program. All this is on Channel 9. But not as good as Chris Tarrant!!!

Hot Shots has 6 contestants and the way it works is that the first person goes up and gets asked the question they can either answer or pass. If they pass they lose their seat for now and it gets passed on to the next contestant. Every one only has 1 pass and if you are the contestant who gets the question after it has been passed on you have to answer. For all wrong answers the contestant goes out and the money is reduced. So it's a little bit of a team effort but untimely only 1 person wins the money if at all.

We watched 5 recordings of the program, in between each one was a bit of question time to Eddie and a bit of free handouts of sweets and sausage rolls (lunch).

It was good fun to watch and we spent a lot of time on the front row, every one was moved during each recording to make it look like a different day but we kept being put on the first 2 rows, so we could be on TV!!

So although it was good fun and completely free it was a little bit long!! We left the hostel at 11am, arrived at the TV studio just before 12pm. Recording started at about 1pm and we made it back to the hostel about 6:30pm!! So a bit long.

Once back at the hostel, Kirrilee was there to pick us up so we loaded up the car and headed over too Yaraville.

Tonight Kirrilee cooked for us, a tomato, chili and bacon pasta sauce with pasta. Homemade and very nice!! Previous Italian boyfriend came in very useful for some good Italian recipes. And then we spent the night sitting on a SOFA watching some Australian TV. It was bliss!! One of the things we do miss is just having a night or 2 watching TV whilst sitting spread out on a sofa!! Sad but True!!

Tuesday 27th October 2009, Melbourne-Yaraville

Today we left the house around 11am after booking via the phone for the Great Ocean road leaving on Thursday. Once in the city we went down to The Neighbours' shop on Flinders Street to book the Neighbours' Tour!! Very excited!! There was no way we could be in Melbourne without going to Ramsay Street!!!

We booked the tour for Monday and then we went to head into the city but we got a little bit way layed by a lunch offer which we had to take advantage off!! So we had a lunch of a pizza for $5 and then we walked from Flinders Street in the direction of the main city shopping area.

Much to Caroline's disappointment this took us past the Immigration Museum!! Now me being me couldn't walk past there without taking a look. We agreed that we would just go in and find out how much it was, well once we were in there we were offered free entry instead of the $8 charge so we couldn't say no, could we??!!!

It was actually very interesting especially about the 10 pound families in the 1950's who came from England to Australia. Caroline will actually even admit she enjoyed it!!!

From here we went to Bourke Street which is the main shopping area just to take a look!! We did end up in a surf shop buying some Haviagnas! Haviagnas are a make of flip flop and a very popular one at that. We have both wanted some for a while and we are hoping as there a good brand that they may last a bit longer than any of our previous market bought flip flops!! This being because since we've left home we've spent pretty much everyday/ night in flip flops, its all you wear!! Anyway Caroline actually bought mine as my very belated Birthday present. Mine are chocolate coloured with gold Haviagnas symbol on them and Caroline's are chocolate with gold straps.

Well enough about flip flops, and although we had a look in a few shops neither of us actually bought anything, well for today anyway!!

By now it was nearing on for 6pm so we hopped on the train back too Yarraville where tonight we cooked a Spicy Chicken butter curry but with Lamb instead of chicken. Chicken is seriously expensive out here!!! Unfortunately for me I had too make a dash back to the supermarket after we'd started cooking because although the jar stated a medium strength sauce it was more like a seriously hot one, Caroline and Kirilee both agreed that they also thought it was hot. But once armed with some natural yogurt it was bearable and pretty good!!! Another lovely night of good food enjoyed whilst sitting on the sofa watching some good old Australian soaps and police dramas.

Wednesday 28th October 2009, Melbourne-Yaraville

Today was blog and shop day mixed with a little Australian wine!!!

We made it into the city today about 1pm and we went straight to the internet café where we proceeded to spent about 3 hours blog writing and photo uploading!! Tedious but it has to be done sometime!!

After finishing on the internet we went back to Bourke street where this time I will admit to spending a little bit of money in Target (a bit like Mataland) on some new tops and a couple of skirts. Skirts because I don't own any skirts or dresses out here and tops because most of my clothes are either very worn out or I'm very bored of!!! Caroline was good, this time, and didn't buy anything!!

From here we decided it would be nice too have a small glass of wine or 2 before heading back to Yaraville. It was very enjoyable and we had a good spot for a bit of people watching.

Once back in Yaraville we packed a bag each ready for our trip tomorrow up the Great Ocean Road and then we had a reasonably early night ready for our 5:30am start tomorrow!!!!

To find out all about the Great Ocean road take a look at the next entry!

Goodbye for now xxxxxx