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Exploring Em
WARNING!!!This is a badly written rushed blog!Â
Well i arrived at melbourne aiport and was met by the lovely kylie! She is a friend who i havnt seen for 5 years!!! She was travelling and settled in leeds for a while, she worked with Wendy at the Pier and we all became friends.
Anyhow she is a native Melbourner! So i stayed with her and Dave her boyfriend , who i have only met once before. They were so kind to me! i had my own room, doble bed! my own key, access to free internet and car! They worked through the day so i could just get up watch TV and act like a normel person again! And i could use straughners and a hairdryer! Fantastic! its the simpliest things you miss! Also been able to take things out of my bag and not pack them away was bliss!
Anyway, that night we all just sat around talking and catching up, then dave went to the gym and kylie gave me a guided night tour around the city to get my bearings. the net day i checked my mail to find that Dom (from berlin who I met in New Zealand) was in town so after a long walk to the city (i didnt realise how far it was), and a walk around the market i met up with him. there was a free jazz festival going on in federation square so we spent the afternoon there, it was more like funk really! Very cool. Ian, Alex , James, Wendy...infact most of you would have loved it! Well at least one band called erm ive forgot but ive written it down somewhere!
Then Dom had to go catch a bus and I went to meet kylie after work. We went for a walk down the Southbank (simular to londons) and sat and had coffee and caught up! it was lovely. Then we went back to her local restaurant and had tea and then to her local pub.
The next day I caught the tram to St Kilda, which was brilliant! it was just like 'the secret life of us' for all those who used to watch it! It is such a cool place, loads of cafes and great food on offer, in fact Oz as a whole has such a wide range of food choice. So i obviously made the most of that! I felt sick i the end! the cakes were just too much! i then went for a long walk through the harbour and down the beach! Its like a cross between Santa Monica and Venice beach (lindsay). Then caught the train back to the city and bought a few bits i needed then met up with kyles after work.
We went to a bar as one of her friensds was having a work leaving do there. Stayed there for abit then we went to meet dave and his mate Antony to go to Aussie rules footie!!!Which they insisted on paying! Although when we were walking up to the turn styles Kylie said just scan the barcode on walk straight in... if it doesnt work dont let any of the staff come and help you as its only a junior ticket! So of course my ticket wouldnt scan and i was frantically trying to make it worse as staff looked like they were coming over! Luckily just at the last minute it worked! I was in! And for $13 instead of $50!!!
Now what a weird game this was! It was the Kangaroos V's Estendon. Dave supported the Roo's and Kylie the other... which side are we sitting I asked , oh know they dont have sides! You sit anywhere! Now i could talk about this for ages but wont, it was a weird game but a nice atmosphere and the players dont roll around if they get tapped with someones little finger like ours do! The first thing i asked were who are those aluminus (prob spelt that really wrong) people running around the pitch! Well they are runners who run from the managers who arnt pitch side to oass messages to the players! And if they get in the way of the pitch they get fined $5000 dollars! They have about five refs although the pitch is huge! And if the ball goes out of play the ref throws it in... backwards...over his head! Weird! I there are so many rules that the more they told me the less i understood, and infact the less THEY understood! But it was a fun game to watch! After that we all just went for a few drinks.
The next day I got up at the crack of dawn to go on my great oceans road trip, from 7:30 till 9:30 at night! Kylie.. even though it was her only sleep in got up at 6 to take me in to town! My tour didnt have a backpacker in sight however, full of old americans! We saw loads of nice sights along the coast, bells bay in torquay where Rip curl invented the surf board wetsuit! Watched some surfing there and had some coffee (which confused the americans as they didnt know what instant coffe was!) Then we made a number of stops which i wont go into coz basically i want to finish this blog! its doing my head in! Stopped at the tweleve apostles (which 7 are left) London bridge, saw wild Koalas and Kangaroos, lots of gorgeous sights and we got back to Melbourne for about 9 at night where I was picked up by the lovely Kylie. Then we had a drink and an early night as we had to get up at 6 for the christening. When I got to bed, there was a box on it full of aussie goodies that kylie had made for me!!! Lovely!
So we woke up early and went to Ocean Grove for Kylies nephews Christening. It was a Lutheran church which neither of us had been to before! The service was LONG and i nearly fell asleep during the surmon... really! But it was an interesting experience. But things looked up when we went back to her brothers house for a aussie BBQ!!! All of her family were there and her sister in laws family. It was such a lovely day, they were all so kind to me! I had to have some BBQ chicken which was gorg and a tinny! We stayed there all day, eating alot! I discovered Jelly slices, which even though they arnt chocolate are possibly the BEST dessert in the world! Ever! I ate so many of them. Kylies brothers mother in law, gave me a box of them to take home as i loved them so much! She has since emailed me the recipie which is really kind! I have promised to tell her how it goes! (Bex will you make them for me and i will say i did it!?! hee hee) No they do seem easy enough!Â
Then Kylies brother James and his mate, along with me and Kylie went on a ride along ocean grove, checked out the beach and other places around. It was like having my own personnal tour guide with James! He was quite drunk but amusingly so and loving showing me around his area. He even rang his mate who owns a surf shop to get me a t-shirt! But it was closed, kind thought though! I could go on forever about how kind they all were to me, really kind. Thank goodness i bought her nephew a christening present to try and do something in return!
That night, my last in melbourne, Me and Kylie went out for a Thai meal... the best i have ever had! Gorgeous! I tried pay for Kylie but she was having none of it! Then we met Dave and went to there local. Had to drag ourselves away as the drink was going down too well and we all had to be up before 6! Kylie had to be at work at 6 and Dave insisted on taking me to the airport for my early morning flight!
I woke up the next day and was met by Kylie who had rung in sick! So she took me to the airport and I was so so so sad to say goodbye to them both. Such a fab couple! But hopefully they will both be coming to the Uk for Wendys wedding next year! That will be fab!
So i flew to Ayres Rock, ok flight, 4hrs. Got to the resort which was a weird place. A self made resort in the middle of the outback! The place was nice enough, was met by an old english woman in my dorm who talked none stop for what seemed like hours! sweet enough but really found out stuff i didnt need to know! In the first 5 mins i knew about her bladder problem...lets just leave it at that!
Boooked myself on a tour to the Rock, decided to go for the Aboringinal tour as it helps the local communities more and definalty not to climb the rock! I cannot believe people do that! It is so disrespectful! Imagine if people climbed the Taj Mahal or Pyramids! Awful. They all look like ants going up the side! Also booked on yet another star gazing tour but suprise suprise it got cancelled! That is my 3 or 4th attempt of this trip! So had an early night as there really was nothing to do or no one to talk to! Did see that woman again and sat with her coz i felt sorry for her and she gave me her spare pass which saved me some money and was also very kind.
Got up the next morning and had a tour around the Rock, it was a fantastic sight and nice to have a local show me around. We had a translater but he kept breaking out into english too... like saying blah blah blah, have a look? I thought i might be disapointed by the rock, you know too much hype etc but i wasnt! It was truly amazing! And you just didnt get the full effect in the photos! The afternoon however was so boring! Once you have sewen the rock, unless you pay loads for another tour there is nothing to do. I was going insane! It went really slow and there was no one to talk to! Ended up climbing up a sand dune to watch the sunset over Ayres Rock and got talking to an Irish guy who was staying in same place. He had been equally bored, seeing as for the second night in a row my star gazing tour had been cancelled we decided to go to the pub! Luckily we sat down next to another guy and got talking to him... he worked for the brewery so we got free drinks ALL night and what a long night it was! Great fun though with lovely people.
The next day i was glad to leave Ayres Rock resort though, too much time there! I flew to Sydney to meet Mark! Which was actually over a week ago and we are now half way up the east coast in a campervan! But i will write that later coz im boring myself! Off surfing tomoro! Yippee!
Cant believe ive got just over two weeks left.
Take Care Love Emma.xxx. Â
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