Hi Guys!!

We've finally found a computer that works in this crazy city, but now the STA site is not allowing us to upload our phots - hopefully be able to do that soon.

Our first full day in Melbourne, Tuesday, consisted of wondering around the city, before we caught a tram to St Kilda. St Kilda reminded us of Freemantle in Perth - it's a bit of a hippy town. We found the accommodation that we were meant to be staying in next week in St Kilda, but decided against it - so cancelled that. We wandered around for a while, before getting on with our next task - finding somewhere nice to stay for less than $90 per night!!

We took a tram into North Melbourne to look at the hostel we were due to go to next week, it turned out to be a little oasis - hence the name Melbourne Oasis. We managed to get booked into here from Wednesday, so went back to the Metro to get some dinner.

Wednesday morning we lugged all our bags across the city to our new home the Melbourne Oasis YHA. We quickly settled in and set off to explore Melbourne. We got a tram into the city where we found the free city circle tram that takes passengers all around the city for free! We jumped on and soon arrived at the Victoria Parliment buildings. We had a quick look at the huge buildings and then walked down to Treasury Gardens and Fitzroy Gardens. Here we saw Captain Cooks 18th century Cottage. This orignally stood in a small village in North England, and in 1934 this cottage was moved by Sir Russell Grimwade in 253 cases and 40 barrells, from England to Melbourne, where he had it rebuilt to introduce a solid reminder of the old world to this a young country. We also saw a model tudor village and Sinclair's House.

Thursday, we set off into the city to Victoria Market where we bought lots of delicious food for the next few days - we had a great experience walking round this massive market. Once the chores were out of the way we set of back to the city to explore again. We walked up and down streets, and eventually found ourselves at the Yarra River. We walked along the River until we found the Federation Bells, these bells are set to play only 3 times a day, and we just made it for the last tune - not that we recognised it. After another long day we returned to the hostel for a brilliant steak dinner and a few glasses of wine - yum yum!!

Speak soon.

Love Lee and Emma xxxxx