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Hello again and a belated Happy New Year! As always, hope that you are well and thank you for sticking with my lengthy blog entries, I hope that they don't bore you, if they do you should probably stop reading now as I'm guessing that this is going to be one of the longer ones!
So, Melbourne.
After our tiring Greyhound journey to the city, as I said before, we were pleased to sleep it off for most of the first morning. We then made our way, by tram, into the city centre and, as we discovered, our hotel was quite away out! We were staying in a northern suburb called Preston and it wasn't the nicest place in the world, ha. The weather was also very grey and windy for the first few days which always makes a place look a little less pretty.
Nevertheless we spent the first week wandering around in Federation Square or 'Fedo Square Mate' as we called it (we don't even know if the Aussies called it this but they shorten everything and add an 'o' or an 'ie' so we just assumed); a large public square in which people meet, watch street performances, people-watch in cafes and/or visit the surrounding exhibitions and galleries. We window-shopped along the 'Paris End' of Collins Street, (slightly out of our price range!) we walked through China Town (this has become a tradition of sorts) and generally perused the main city districts.
We also took a tour of the MCG Stadium or the 'G', a place we'd be spending Boxing Day and the following day, really interesting - had this lovely old gentleman showing us around; he volunteers there four times a week to 'keep himself out of trouble' ha.
We also spent a morning in the ever-so-trendy Brunswick and Smith Streets just to the north of the city. Very edgy; lots of very 'cool' people hanging around and generally being cool, we visited the BEST ever vintage shop called 'Lost and Found', Matt bought a 1966 Australian Army shirt for twenty bucks (sorry bucks has become part of the lingo).
We also spent that particular afternoon walking through Fitzroy Park where we found Captain Cook's Cottage, the cottage in which Captain Cook's parents had lived in Yorkshire. The cottage was dismantled, shipped and re-built, brick-by-brick in Melbourne in 1934. We had a quick look around and I tried on some of the period clothing, much to Matt's embarrassment, ha.
We also went to see Mary Poppins at the theatre during our first week in Melbourne, Matt spent the whole interval in complete distress due to the fact that the storyline had been changed and the actors' London accents weren't quite up to d*** Van Dyke's standards. All in all a lovely show to watch just before Christmas though, she even bloody flies out into the audience at the end. The weather had improved by the end of the first week and we met Emily (she was in Melbourne before leaving Australia to begin working in New Zealand) in Fedo Square for a few ciders in the sunshine, by this time we really began to understand why so many people love Melbourne.
We, thankfully, moved out of our hotel in Preston on Christmas eve and moved into what would be our Christmas treat; an apartment in the very nice district of South Yarra (in between the city and the beach town of St.Kilda). The novelty of having a kitchen and therefore being able to make toast, cereal, lunch and dinner did not wear off, nor did the fact that we had our own washing machine; HEAVEN. We were washing clothes just for the sake of it. We spent Christmas Eve in St.Kilda, a really cool little beach town full of bars, restaurants, cafes and shops; absolutely loved it there. We had planned to do the same on Christmas day but it was really overcast so we ended up just chilling at the apartment; we did go out for a walk in South Yarra in the afternoon (just for something to do!) and found that a few shops and even a Subway were open! On Christmas day!
The next morning we were up bright and early for the first day of the Boxing Day Ashes Test at the MCG; such a brilliant atmosphere walking around the ground before we went in (although we didn't go as far as to volunteer ourselves for the 'Dunk a Pom' stand, ha). Melbourne is renowned for having 'four seasons in one day' and Boxing day was definitely one of those days; we were freezing in the morning (people were dressed in hoodies and jeans) two hours later the sun was shining and we were melting away, stripping off layers and applying the sun cream every couple of minutes. We were seated on the third tier of the 100 000 seater stadium so had a really good view. I was sitting next to an Australian lady and her family; just before one of the breaks somebody came and told her that they were 'nearly ready for her'. During the break her face appeared upon the massive MCG screens as she was giving an interview on the pitch whilst the 'Milo' kids were playing cricket. We found out that her name was Nicky Buckley; a pretty famous Australian TV Presenter and former model now supporting cricket for children in Australia. Needless to say however, Nicky and her family left early when her side went all out for 98! The following day we met up with Matt's friend's Allan's mum, Dawn and her partner Neil. They had been following the cricket around the whole of Australia and we ended up right in with the Barmy Army with them. At first I was like, "Matt I can't do this, I don't even know the songs" by the end we were both on our feet enjoying such favourites as, 'We are the army' 'You're getting sacked in the morning' (aimed at Ricky Ponting, bless him) 'Jeruselum' and 'Cheerie Cheerie Cheerio' (to the few Aussies who let the Barmy Army get to them and got themselves thrown out). Matt was in his element, I also thoroughly enjoyed my day of basically being a little yob and the snake-spotting and Mexican waves which came with it, ha.
I met Emily in South Yarra on the Tuesday for a quick drink and then Matt and I were up very early (by travelling standards) the following day for a full day trip of the Great Ocean Road. We had the best tour guide ever - Leeroy a Fijian man living in Australia and working for Go West Tours. After picking up a few more English, Welsh, German, Japanese, American and Australian people we were all told to introduce ourselves. Oh no. It was absolutely fine though and before long Leeroy had us pretending that we were all on a rollercoaster (on a particularly bumpy section of the Great Ocean Road) and singing songs; sounds so cheesy, and it was, but it was a really funny day. We saw all of the iconic sights, Bell's Beach, Apollo Bay, the Twelve Apostles, Loch ard Gorge and The London Bridge; all absolutely stunning. We also had a few added extras thrown in such as Koala-spotting, exotic bird-feeding and rainforest-walking; one of my favourite days so far.
We met Emily on St.Kilda beach on the Thursday for what would be the last time I would see in her in OZ as she's now in New Zealand. Matt and I also spent all day New Year's Eve there when the temperature rose to 40 degrees! Unbelievably hot, although not hot enough to put off some English and Scottish people from having an impromptu game of cricket on the grass, ha. After getting back fairly late from the beach and cooking dinner we decided to watch the Melbourne New Year's fireworks from the balcony. It turns out that our apartment was slightly too far away and at slightly the wrong angle to properly see them! Oh well, ha.
We flew to Sydney on New Year's Day and I was really sad to say goodbye to Melbourne by that point, after starting off in a not-so-nice area and with not-so-great weather our opinion of the place had completely changed by the second week; an absolutely brilliant city, I can absolutely understand what all the fuss is about!
I will update again with Sydney stuff asap.
Lots of love to you all xxxxxxxxxxx
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