Melbourne

Our first night in Melbourne we stayed in and relaxed, by the time we hit the city it was early evening, we had been stuck in traffic for nearly 2 hours and had to walk half an hour in the rain with our backpacks so when we arrived at Cooee (our newly established clean young and friendly hostel) we used the rest of our evening to get some shopping in and use the internet…… at around midnight we were shattered! Fit only for our bunks!! With clean comfy duvets it was such a treat!! We booked in Cooee, St Kilda for 7 days and had planned to stay with family friends for a couple of days outside Melbourne also, so from day one we looked forward to spending our longest period of time staying in one place since Bali……..

Day 1

Today we headed into the city centre, it was pretty simple and cheap because we didn't pay!! We jumped on a tram that stopped right outside our hostel unsure of how we were suppose to pay we attempted to use the machine however it had broken so a guy just told us to sit down!! Bargin!! We had never used a tram before and found it strange that the driver is kinda out of bounds and not the slightest bit interested about where you wanna get on and get off, as we later found out!! In Melbourne the trams are the main form of transport, their easy and cheap to use & the drivers are locked in their cabins, but there are guys in uniform on the main tram stops who will instruct you as to what tram to get on, also electronic billboards with times of the next trams are situated everywhere, simple and effective!! Stepping off our first tram ride into the city centre we knew we'd immediately love Melbourne!! It is a young, up and coming vibrant city that is not as built up as Sydney, it has different forms of architecture and many young people appeared to be sat around in federation square just chillin out…we liked it!!

In the evening we got ready, bought a bottle of wine and met one of the Danish girls we had met on the Oz experience tour……we drank at the hostel whilst playing cards (The Ring of Fire! Up the river down the river! Yep we got some good games to teach you when we get home girlys) we had heard that there was ladies night at one of the other busier hostels called Base & we knew they were giving away free drinks to ladies, that kinda swayed us…lol!! We must have been drunk before leaving the hostel because we found a trolley and got Lucy to jump in…. we wheeled her all the way to the club at base we were laughing all the way…it was so much fun & so was the rest of the evening, we cant remember the specifics (that's 2 hours of free champagne for you!) only waking with a hang over, so it must have been fun!!

Day 2

We were so hung over the next day we managed literally nothing….waking late in the morning we used the internet and watched MTV on the wide screen, it felt so good to relax in comfy clothes in a nice clean trendy hostel. Around 5ish we decided to move, we got changed and headed back into town we did some shoe shopping (we know…….. naughty! but Melbourne has some awesome funky vintage shops) we then met up with the Danish girls, their hostel was situated right in the heart of the city by the harbor which was a really hip place in town, but too busy for us!! We were thank full after meeting them that we were staying in St Kilda near the beach just outside of town, it was then that we gathered that it was the backpackers place to be!! We had a lovely evening with the girls we walked along the harbor admiring many a dressed up couple having an evening meal or some funky friends out for a couple of drinks, Melbourne had a real vibe about it! We decided to go to the cinema in the harbor complex, inside there was a huge casino, food court, cinema and trendy bars and there was us dressed like scruff bags! The one downfall of being a backpacker! No appropriate clothing! Once we bought our tickets we couldn't resist an Italian Ice cream…Lotte one of the Danish girls was totally addicted to Ice cream so we couldn't allow her to indulge alone now could we???? Real Italian is fabulous!! We watched Step up 2, its a dance film about a group of young street dancers…it was the best film we have seen in a long time, we left the cinema trying to break dance and found ourselves imitating all the lines in the movie, we were on a real high!! We hit the tram home to Cooee talking of our evening all the way home……….Thinking Melbourne is such a cool place to be…..

Day 3

We caught the tram into the city, to go shopping again!! anyone that hasn't been to Melbourne before cannot criticise us!! Shopping is real cool here and we're sure you'll understand once you come visit!! Also because we had planned a big night out…… it being Saturday night and all we wanted to get dressed up and hit the town….. but that is never possible until we found the right clothes to dress in in the first place!!

We bought a couple of bottles of wine and got very drunk playing drinking games before leaving the hostel, we were with the Danish girls and a couple of guys we'd randomly met in the hostel beer garden….we were that drunk before we left the hostel we forgot where we were heading and just ended up following the crowd!! we ended up in St Kilda town right on the beach……from hitting the first club most of it's a blur…but what we do remember is drinking a shot of vodka with every round of drinks and a tequila slammer in between each, as you can imagine it got very messy!! Donzy lost her cardigan that was approx 5 hours old…well we think roughly 5 hrs, that was from the estimated time of losing it anyways, this is never a good sign!! Lucy ruined a brand new pair of sandals that she bought that day….this was achieved by dancing on them till the blisters on her feet were starting to bleed and the sun was coming up….hopefully Angie can sort them out when she gets home….. it's a big job but fingers crossed!! coz she loves them very much…yes!! that'll teach you Spinner!!

Upon reflection this was by far our best night out of the whole trip!! It was roughly 7am in the morning that we stumbled out of the club and attempted the journey home, note! the word attempted!! This may reflect the enjoyment of the evening! In short……….Lucy met the fockers!! Donzy did the 213 and the Danish girl was nowhere to be found…..hmmmmmmm wonder what she got up to????? Nothing more than a good nights sleep we hope!!Well a good mornings sleep by then even…….needless to say the next day was spent giggling about the night before's antics, who was drunker than who, who coped off, and who pulled off the best stunts on the danced floor or maybe on the monkey bars…lol.…god did we laugh and laugh hard!! We sooooooooooo love that part of a 24hr bender…….who acted the biggest Idiot????????? ……………………………and the prize goes toooooooooo……..ooohhhhhhh it's a difficult one…….it was prob the green hooded idiot bouncing around the dance floor all night!! You simply were by far the best…but then again we were all completely on your wavelength!! Its too tough to decide….all we do know is that we are almost positively certainly certain that a good night was had by all!!

Day 4

The next day well…… what can we say…….we cant!! we've said enough tis just too difficult… well just talk facts….after meeting up and laughing uncontrollably about the night before's antics!! We headed to the beach, we walked through St Kilda beach twon on a sunny sundya afternoon, it was such a nice place to be,a really funky little hip strip with loads a nice little cafes and places to have a drink….we just walked talked and laughed, dropping comments continually about our behavior the evening before! Trying to point score…boy did it make us giggle!! We grabbed a subway sandwich and chilled out on the beach literally!! It was quite chilly the wind was cold but we sat, ate and continues to laugh amongst ourselves……. We headed back to the hostel where we met up with the guys and lolled around on the settees in the huge reception area most of the evening, Donzy even dropped off for an hour (as she does at most social gatherings lol!!)whilst we were all engaged in a game of trivia quiz!! exciting times a?? never good to try use your brain on a rest day and especially after infecting it with so much alcohol the evening before…….we made ourselves all the usual promises…. Like we wont drink like that again, were taking it easy from now own, but to justify ourselves we don't drink like that often!! & we only drink to get drunk…..girls wait till we teach you those drinking games!!

Day 5

Today we went to visit Ramsey St, from Neighbours!! we met a guy called Thomas Crocker who was traveling alone and had a car…yeah as you do?? He offered to take us along with another friend of his, a lovely Irish girl, we forget her name, you just meet so many people its simply impossible to remember everyone. Anyways we traveled the 40 mins out of town with the guys to arrive at Ramsey St….. and to our amazement it was just a normal street that looked rather on the small side, ( I don't know what we were expecting, maybe a movie set or something, but this looked like a quiet little cul-de-sac) as we pulled in there was a security guard stood in the middle of the street, we got out of the car walked around and eventually started to recognise some of the houses, Tom appeared a big fan and pointed out most of them, there was the Robinsons, Harold's house and of course the Kennedy's…… suddenly it all became clear, but we were still dumfounded that it was just an normal street with ordinary people living in the famous houses even with their own cars in the drive ways, the security guard explained that the people there live almost normal lives but get given weekly filming schedules and are paid substantially amounts for filming and any inconvenience caused, how cool?? We were unlucky that we came a day to early, if we had come tomorrow we could have watched filming!! Never mind we were going to Neighbours night tonight so would hopefully get to meet some of the stars, exciting stuff! We got back had a little drink…… just a bottle of wine between us! and jumped in a taxi with a couple of peeps we had met….we headed to Melbarz in the city for Neighbours night, we were too late for the Neighbours quiz but just in time to meet to stars, we met Paul Robinson, Elle Robinson, and Lynn Scully they were all really nice and carried body guards around with them but were happy to pose for a pic or two, it was quite exciting lol!! Donz got carried away with a Canadian photographer called Marv and soon fell in love with his camera, she spent the rest of the evening taking pictures of everything but her passion was shadows, there were some real good pics! know we know where your careers heading Donzy girl!! We hung around till about 1:30pm but were really tired, so headed home and got our heads down, we were completely Neighbours'd out!!

Day 6

Today we arose early, at 6am to be precise!! We had a meeting with Steve Crockford the head master of St Albans Medows Primary school at the other side of Melbourne in a socially economically deprived area of town. Our morning did not get off to the best start when the taxi turned up 20 minutes late and plonked a huge map on Donna to give him directions, the migrant was obviously not very clued up on the area but surely he didn't expect us to direct him??? as we had no idea either…..oh yes….. he did, Donna being the more pateint one of the two of us calmly started trying to map read, Lucy on the other hand could not bloody believe what was going on from the back of the taxi but tried her best to keep quiet and not make a bad situation any worse (she found it very tough!!) Maybe the trams in Melbourne were fast and efficient but their Taxi's were something to be desired!! Ever heard of a taxi that asks you where to go?? Especially when your from the other side of the world!!! We just couldn't get our heads around it…..anyways it all turned out for the best when we realised we were just around the corner from where we had to meet him & in no time we were in his very posh sports car on the road to the primary school. We had the best morning at the school, we both felt it fantastic to be back around children, which we reaslied we miss so much being away from home, our friends and our jobs, part of the fun about being around children is that your allowed to be one yourself!! Although that has rarely stopped us…………there's just a magic that they inject!! We were taken around by Mr Crockford himself and were amazed to see that yr's 5/6 used apple mac lap tops!! How lucky?? There were many differences in the systems, the Australian schooling appears a lot more laid back and there is still a huge respect and regard held for all teachers, another big difference is the outdoors; the children can go to the park for an English lesson, grow there own fruit and vegetables, and practice extra circular outdoors sports regularly, another difference was the language used, much of the terminology they use is American, eg recess = break time, grades = years Kindergarten = Nursery, when questioned they explained they were pleased to eventually be breaking away from their mother language…another dig at us pommies!! Our trip to the school instigated us looking into working aboard, if we decided to work with children in Melbourne it would only be for the better, the job is more laid back, the sun shines a lot more and the money is double!! Yep double!! crazy a? but it still wouldn't be good old Wales, you never know we may come to like the rain………….

Colin & Jannettes

Day 7, 8, 9

That evening Mike & Colin (Family friends that Nana Sheila & Grandad Alan that they stayed with last year) picked us up from Fitzroy street in St Kilda….laden with backpacks, cooler bags, hand bags & rucksacks we truly represented the modern day backpacker!! We had never met Colin & Janette before but had been given an enormous amount of positive information about them and their lifestyle, trusting Nana Sheils info we headed to the Mornington Peninsula about an hour outside of Melbourne to go meet the extended family of which was what they became like to us ……

We were again excited to start another leg of this worldwide adventure tour, this time going to explore Australian livelihood…being nervous about meeting them we were so happy when they greeted us with a big traditional welsh CWTCH!! But even more excited to find the ladies (Mike & Gaynor were Janette's brother and sister in law, staying down for a week, they lived in the gold coast Australia) had prepared a good old fashion pork cooked dinner, the table had been laid beautifully with wine & all the trimmings, it all looked so special, (probably because we had not had a home cooked meal since we left home, & to have the welsh cook it too was almost to good to be true!) it felt so wonderful we almost may have looked sad!! It was just a meal but a meal we appreciated so much because it reminded us of home & probably for the first time since we had been away we realised how much we appreciated it,) they had gone to so much effort just for two wandering travelers that they had not yet met…… The meal was just as good as it looked and smelt….delious and with roast pumpkin (a big thing out here in Oz) it was soo good will def try it again at home we thought pumpkins were only for Halloween….lol…..over dinner we talked of many a story about Aberbargoed and got to understand the links between Colin and Grandad Alan, Lucy realised she had heard many a story over the years about the Cox's in abaerbargoed and could now put faces to names…after dinner we repaid our thank yous by doing the washing up and were shown to own room well apartment block…you wouldn't belie ve how excited we were to find out we were staying in a large granny flat alongside the pool underneath the house…we had our own double bed, settee, wide screen, dvd, kitchen, fridge, kettle cutlery, and bathroom complete with walk in shower and all the trimmings (after sharing 10 bed dorms for the last 6 weeks we were like children in a sweet shop!! ) we immediately unpacked, hung things up, put the kettle on and put our feet it…it couldn't have felt any better!! For the first time in a long time we had our own space and it felt good………we slept that night for 12 hours straight when we awoke & went upstairs the guys had left us a note stating they had gone to the market & to help ourselves, we were upset we missed the market but pleased they made us feel so at home, we had some breakfast watched morning TV showered and changed in our own time, it was wonderful……(surprising how good small things can appear once they've been taken away for a while) we immediately knew we would have an opportunity to recharge our batteries whilst staying with our new friends, we the time we rose it was gone 2pm we were about to take a walk to the beach when they came back from the market and then men isisted we go with them to the local harbor port and they would show us around town, we explained we did not want to put them out, but they were happy to take us, it was so cool that they lived so close to the sea, we saw star fish of all kinds and were told many a story of the boats they once owned and fishing trips they encountered…………..so different to hear how easy going a life is in Australia living by the coast… That evening Gaynor had made a meal of creamed potatoes, fish cakes and salad, all of it home made and absolutely delicious, so much so we took down the recipes and will be sure to be repeating it at home, it just tasted so good …..we again talked at length throughout dinner about the welsh and Australian culture, weather and quality of life, we washed up helped out tidying up and went down to our little home catch a dvd before sleep time…. Mike and Gaynor had offered to take us out around the peninsula today we were excited to go and explore, we packed a flask some cappuccinos and stopped to get some creamcakes for our pit stop during the afternoon…..we had such a delightful afternoon and did so many different things we were lucky to pack so much into one day, we visited Arthers seat which was a high ground looking point, here we saw many vintage cars (vintage cars are common in Australia as you have the opportunity and weather to look after them for longer) we then trailed around the beautiful farm land, stopped at a strawberry picking farm, bought some premium strawberries and chocolate dipping sauce for teatime (they were probably the best strawberries we have ever seen!!) we also stopped at an honesty box, again common in Australia, it's a small stand at the end of a farm this particular one was for tomatoes, you put your money in the box and take the goods, yes you can steel but people don't, it was so good to see!! We stopped for our afternoon Coffee and cake at the lighthouse it just felt quite surreal we were being treated so well by people we hardly knew but really liked!! We all got on so well all day, we talked of many different things and both enjoyed their company and knowledge very much. On the way home we stopped to get Colin and Janette some flowers and wine to say thank you for our visit…..again when we got aback another great dinner had been made, Janette had made her own Pasties, we had them with potatoes veg and gravy along with the strawberries cream and ice cream…. we were being fed so well I'd recommend a detox programme of something similar……..was just what we needed after the east coast good old fashion mothering……we loved it and our time spent with our new friends, our last night we were given an opportunity to wash and dry all our clothes (which again was a blessing when your paying 10$ a wash for it to come out worse than it when in!!) we packed a bags ready for an early morning start back for one night in St Kilda before heading to Adelaide…….In the morning we gave Janette and Gaynor big Cwtches and thanked them very much for their hospitality leaving them a little thank you card for inviting us into their home and making us feel very welcome………not for the first time we ………Thank you x X Day 10 Cooee St KildaIt was strange to be back at St Kilda, Colin and Mike had been good to take us back and stop at many a place on the way back meeting many more of the family exploring their houses and understanding the way they all lived (right next to the sea!!) we dropped our bags and decided we'd have a little drink at the hostel with our friends (one last drink before we went on…Adelaide in the morning!!) we proved lightweights and were in bed by midnight we had to be up at 5am to catch our next Oz Experience bus so we gave the partying a miss on our final night, it proved to be the right decision…. Our next day was filled with adventure……….