Hey guys I'm now speaking to you from Melbourne.

Last friday me, rory and emma picked up our rental car and started our road trip. It was quite a nice car, a 2006 automatic toyota corolla saloon and it ran fine so we didn't have to use our jump leads this time! After driving round for about an hour we eventually made it out of Sydney. Roads here are confusing! We then drove to Canberra which took about 4 hours with a break in which i let emma drive (scary!). I have now been to the australian capital territory so this blog is no longer lying! Canberra was quite weird. It was all very picturesque but theres hardly anyone there. Its hard to believe its the capital. Apparently it was only built coz Sydney and Melbourne kept bickering about who should be made capital! We stayed the night in a B+B called Victor Lodge which was quite nice and only $29 a night.

The next day we went down to Lake Burley Griffin which is in the middle of Canberra and it has an 145ft waterjet that fires into the sky. When we were there, there was some jetski racing going on which was quite fun to watch. We then rented a 3 man canoe and went sailing out on the lake. We also went to the national museum of australia. Then after lunch we made our way to a town in the snowy mountains called Cooma. The snowy mountains are busiest in winter coz they're are mostly ski resorts so it was really quiet. They're still nice in the summer though and driving through the mountains we saw some of australia other than the cities which was nice. We also saw a couple of wild kangaroos on the way (and lots of dead ones (roadkill!)). We stayed in the bunkhouse motel in Cooma which was a really nice hostel and it was only $25. Bargain!

The next day we got up and drove to a town called Thredbo which is the other side of the snowy mountains in Mt Kosticuzko National Park. Again it is a ski resort so it was really quiet but we went on a nice walk along the river. It was boiling though. We then drove towards the south coast of australia. Along the way there was a whole lot of nothing! It was all desert and loads of empty fields with big rocks in them. Where did those rocks come from?! At one point the road became a dirt track for 28km and this was the main road to go south! We eventually found civilisation again and stayed the night at a YHA hostel in a town called lakes entrance.

The next day we drove the last leg of our journey to Melbourne. All in all we drove about 1200km and most of it was nothing. It was really nice being out of the city for a bit though and i feel like i've seen some of real australia now not just the westernised cities. We then dropped our stuff off at the hostel before returning the rental car to Thrifty rentals in the city. The hostel we're staying in is called All Nations and its in St Kilda which is a suburb of melbourne thats about a 15 min tram ride from the city centre. This meant that after dropping the car back we had to negotiate the tram back. We got a bit lost but found our way back eventually.

The next day we went into the city centre to try and find emma a job. However me and rory got bored and decided to go for a quick beer at the backpackers world bar. However this swiftly became a full blown session coz the cricket was on and before we knew it it was 1am and we hadn't eaten anything just drunk all day. Needless to say we were a bit of a mess. We got a taxi back but didn't know where we were and ended up getting lost and walking around melbourne for about 4 hours. We found our way back eventually though at about 5.30am. It wasn't all a lost day though coz emma got a job by meeting a recruitment agent in the pub we were in.

Pretty hungover the next day so didn't do much in the day. In the evening me and rory met up with Sal and Rick who had just got the bus from sydney to melbourne. Again we were only going to go for one or two drinks. We started in the elephant and wheelbarrow which is an english pub where they have the neighbours night on mondays. We then went to St Kilda and went to a bar called La Roche where its happy hour from 9pm-1am. Stayed there till 1 then went to an indie night at l'otel. Again we got in about 5am. Why does this always happen!

Feeling a bit rough from two nights out in a row (I'm getting old and can't handle the pace anymore!) so don't do a lot on thurs. We do go to the MCG though coz when we were drunk tues and england beat new zealand and made the final me and rory ordered tickets on the internet so we went to try and pick them up. However we can't pick them up till the next day so it was a wasted walk. We did bump into my friend from my course at uni Lucinda and her friend Laura and met them again in town for a quick drink. We get an early night though coz we're knackered and want to save ourselves for the cricket.

Yesterday me, rory, lucinda and laura all go to the cricket which was awesome. Not only is the MCG a great stadium (bigger than the SCG) but england only went and won it! Barmy Army! We actually beat the aussies! We then went to backpackers world for a victory drink but we were knackered so went home about 1am.