We got back from our trip between Sydney and Melbourne and checked into another Base hostel. The hostel was in St Kilda which is a suburb of Melbourne, its a really nice place with lots of character by the sea and its only a short tram ride away from Melbourne. Just before we left the bus we organised meeting up for dinner with a few of the people from the bus. We sorted our stuff out then had a drink at the hostel bar and then headed into st Kilda for dinner.

The next morning me, Michelle and Emily went into Melbourne to have a look around. Our first stop was the Neighbours office, Michelle and I already had our Neighbours tour and night booked months ago but Emily just needed to get her ticket. We then got on the free circle tram which takes us around the city although whilst we were in Melbourne most of our tram rides ended up free as it is difficult for a poor backpacker to understand how to pay. The tram took us around the city and we hopped off at the markets where Michelle had her characture done and basically had a day looking around. We fell in love with Melbourne even after the first day, it had such a nice feel to it and is by far the best city! That evening we were sitting on the computers writing our blogs when our Danish friends (Rene and Jo) from Fraser Island turned up.

The next morning we went to Melbourne Gaol the home of Ned Kelly! The prison was great it felt just like the set of badgirls but each of the cells had stories of some of the people that had stayed in them and their deathmasks. After looking round the cells we went over to the City Watch House to be arrested. The watch house is like role play with a man acting as the officer and we have all been arrested. It is actually really scary and I got he giggles so he picked on me! We all go through the different stages that a prisoner would go through and at one stage we got locked in a cell with the lights swiched off! We were then free to look around the watch house and take mugshots of each other. After the Watch House experience we watched a mock trial on the first women hung.

To recover from the scary prison experience we went for lunch. Afterwards as we were walking through Federation Square and we heard something going on...it was some free comedy as the comedy festival was on in Melbourne. It was really good as it was a warm day and everyone was just sat in fed square watching it.

The next day we mulled around in Melbourne. That night we hit the town and went to the Casino as thats what all backpackers on a budget do!!!! The Casino was amazing (its the biggest one in the southern hemisphere!) We only had a couple of goes at roulette wiith a lot of help from Rene and Jo and played on some machines. Emily was really lucky and went on a 2C machine and won $50...she only put in a $1!!! It was great, we had such a good night and before we left we went for a giant cocktail, between 3 of us of course.

The following afternoon we went to the footy!!! That's Aussie Rules Football for you poms back home. When we were in Sydney James (the aussie one) offered to tak us to a game when we got to his home city of melbourne. Of course we went to his team which was Hawthorn (the Hawks) who played South Melbourne (the kangaroos). Melbourne is a really sporty City and most of the Aussie Rules teams are from there. The game was really confusing at first but I think I got the jist of it by the end of the match. I found it really strange though as the fans of both teams were sitting next to each other and they didnt kill each other! We are now official Hawks supporters (to James's delight) and even have a scalf to prove it. I like it more than English Footy as the players are not sissies and there is much more going on in the match. Later on we went for a few drinks with James and some of his friends.

On Sunday we chilled in St Kilda, we went round some craft markets that they had on the sea front, then got some fish and chips and went and sat in the park, it was really nice as the guys and Emily were so much fun. As we had seen the comedy in Fed Square a few days before we decided to make the most of the festival and booked to see two acts. We saw two completely different acts, one was a young comedian who was quite sexual and the other was an older guy who was very political. They were both really funny and in the 2nd act we ended up in the front row but we didnt get picked on too much!

Now here comes the highlight of our trip, the reason we came to Oz and travelled all these miles....NEIGHBOURS!!!!!!!! The Neighbours tour bus picked us up from our hostel in the morning. On the bus we watched some really cool old episodes to get us in the mood! Our first stop was Erinsbrough High, well it isn't actually called that, we had to get an Erinsbrough High sign and put it on the fence. It is a real school though and they say the pupils find it a bit strange to see these weird pommeys always taking pictures outside the school. We then drove past the studios. As we were getting closer to Ramsay Street itself it all started looking familar...the houses started to look like real Neighbours houses! We then pulled into the street...ooohhhhh the excitement!!! The road is really called Pin Oak Court and real people live there, it would have been nice to knock on a door an be invited in by Karl or Susan for a cup of tea but sadly my dreams were shattered and we would probably get a grumpy old man instead. There is a security guard at the street 24hrs a day so you don't attempt to go in the houses or steal anything. The street is alot smaller than it looks on tv, they only film the outside scenes on the street and the rest in the studios although two of the houses have pools in the backyard and they film in them at times. As you can imagine we took tons of photos and it was so cool to actually be in Ramsay Street. After the street we went back to the studios where we get to meet a cast member for a picture. It was quite exciting guessing who we were going to meet and when we got back on the bus the driver told us it would be....Susan! Our driver went off to look for her but in the mean time she came onto the bus. She was so lovely and was really chatty when having the photos done. We then made our way back to Melbourne, watching more neighbours clips on the way.

Rene and Jo were leaving that day and it was really sad to say bye to them as we all had such a great few days together...but we will be catching up with them in Denmark pretty soon!

It wasnt all over with the tour we still had neighbours Night to go. It was really hyped up and so much fun! We got 2 meet 4 of the cast; Stu, Stingray, Rachel and Connor. We were really lucky and got front row seats! We were put into teams and had a quiz...general knowledge with a bit of Neighbours thrown in. It was also made really fun with lots of games and things. Whilst the quiz was going on the stars made their way round to all the adoring fans! Stu was our first cast member, he was really tall and couldnt wait to push Michelle away to get to me! Then Stingray came round he was sooo lovely, he was quite small but really nice and chatty. Michelle ended up getting another pic with him when he turned around to say something. We then met Rachel she was really sweet. Finally we met Connor who was a lil podgy but nice aswel, he even said sorry for taking so long to get round to us. After the stars went they turned it into a disco to finish the night off.

Tuesday morning we packed up our stuff and picked up our little red Hyundai Getz (Scarlett) for the journey down the Great Ocean Road!