Melbourne
We arrived in Melbourne at 6am local time on April 1st. We chose the cheapest hostel in the lonely planet (needs must and all that!) at AUD 20 we thought this was very expensive but found it really is the cheapest you can get in Aus. Coming from Asia this was a shock, i suppose thats another drawback of doing Asia first as the prices smack you in the face almost immediatley!
Our hostel here is called Bev and Micks and when we rocked up outside it was a beaten up old pub with rooms/dorms upstairs but we knew this was the cheapest. Luckily one of the live in residents here ( there a lot of them as they came to stay here and 6 months later they havnt left and are working in Melbourne) saw us as he was leaving for work early and let us sit in the common room ( which is actually in the bar - just some skanky old sofas with flees in them and a big t.v). We checked in when Bev came to work about 10am and slept untill 4pm as we were so tired from the flight and the manicness of Singapore caught up on us! We decided to head into town on the tram to see what Melbourne was all about. We were too late to find out about the city from the info centre though so we took a short walk around before heading back to the hostel. When we got back i had a nice hot shower and was just about to chill out when one of the guys from downstairs come and dragge us downstairs to join in the pub quiz - errrr do they know how rubbish we are at facts???! Oh well we got on with is and didnt do too badly, we recruited the help of another team - joining forces :-) Then Natz got called up to do the practical round. It was a tub full of water ( murky water so u couldnt see) with about 8 pool balls in the bottom ( they dont float), using only her mouth she had to get the balls out for points. I have to give it to her, she did great, didnt win but gave it her best, infact i have pictures of her almost climbing into the tub - very funny. I think she still has coffee in her ears now.......! hahaha! The drink ( wine) of choice here for a travellers is Goon, i thought for the price of it that it would taste like vinegar but its actually nice and for AUD 2 a glass we filled our boots. After we finsihed the quiz and failed miserably we all sat around and sang along to the guys playing their guitars. Yessssssss i can hear you all saying - dear lord why did they let Danielle sing ahahaha! But it was fun and we were all a little worse for wear so knowone heard me sounding really bad hehe!
What a quality night it was but another 3am turn in caused a goonover (my new word for hangover) and a late rise the next day which in turn meant we once again didnt have long in town. We went for a nice long walk along the river, watched the sun go down and took some good pictures of the scenery. Melbourne is a very pretty city, like a little London but less built up, warm and clean.
Today ( Friday 3rd April) we woke up early ( well done us!), booked our camper van to do the Great Ocean Road. We leave tomorrow afternoon, after our Neighbours tour ( a must apparently). We have this camper for 5 days, im not sure you can call it a camper its a van with a bed in the back and a make shift cooker and a sink - we will report back about this once we have finished. I think its going to be interesting, but hey ho it was the cheapest option. The organised tours cost $395 each and the van onlly cost $200 each so we are off to the supermarket to buy some rice and beans! ha!
