Melbourne

The train to Melbourne was long and dull. Unlike the Indian Pacific and the Ghan, who despite being longer they were also overnight so you could sleep, I didn't enjoy this one at all. It left Adelaide at 7am and didn't get in to Melbourne until 5pm. I had to put my watch forward by half an hour (yes, there is a half-hour time difference between Adelaide and the East Coast. Why? How? Not a clue. Crazy country) and then catch the metro to the stop nearest my hostel. The area I was staying in was called Fitzroy and my first impressions were not favourable. The whole area looked run down and a little bit rough, with deserted shops and a lot a graffiti. But the hostel was lovely, when I finally found it that is. It's quite an old house, with a courtyard area and balconies tucked away inside. And a couple of huge fat cats lolling around the place. Very homely. The people staying there were nice, but apart from one German girl (Jana) and the English night manager, they all seemed a little distant. I joined them for breakfasts and dinners at the most amazing vegetarian restaurant about a 15min walk from the hostel. It was called "Lentils as Anything" and you ordered breakfast (I had the best sweet French toast ever! And they had something called a Sri Lankan Farmer's breakfast which was sort of like a pancake filled with curried potatos) while dinner was a buffet, often themed. And the best part? No fixed prices. You paid whatever you thought the food was worth, or however much you could afford. There was just a donation box to put money in. It was incredible. But apart from these meals and a Sunday watching free comedy in Federation Square I didn't really hang out with anyone from the hostel.

My first full day was spent finding out how to get a tram into the CBD, getting a tram into the CBD and having a look around the central part of Melbourne. It was definitely the busiest city I have been in since reaching Australia and has a very European feel about it, with lots of little lanes and cafes. It was also quite cold while I was there (less than 20 degrees some days *shock*). I actually wore jeans, but still did the Aussie thing of keep wearing my thongs. I think Melbourne considers itself the cultural centre of Australia and to be honest it does live up to its name. There always seems to be some festival going on and there's a lot of theatres, street performers and music concerts. The big event while I was there was the Melbourne Comedy Festival with literally hundreds of stand-up comedians, sketch shows, musical comedy... anything funny you could think of on display. So of course I had to go to at least one! The first one was the promisingly titled "Accidents are Prohibited on the Road" by a guy called Russell McGilton, said to be 'comic travels tales on a road less travelled'. I thought it might be appropriate. Sadly, while it had its funny moments it wasn't the best stand-up I've ever seen and some of his stories were just boring rather than funny. However my second venture to a gig was 100% better. I went to see Sarah Millican (off Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow and Live at the Apollo) and she was hilarious! Her show was called "Typical Woman" (here's a clip of it from the Melbourne Gala) and there was only about 40 people in the audience so it was very 'up close'. Everyone was practically crying with laughter the whole time and we all came out with a big grin on our faces.

On my third day in Melbourne I managed to meet up with the guys at the Melbourne Shorinji Kempo Club for a wonderful training session. It was nice to do some proper exercise again, as just walking around really doesn't count (even if I've done a lot of walking. Two of my days were spent exploring the city centre with Simon, a guy I knew it the OTC who is working over here. It was a nice surprise to find someone I knew here and we had a fun couple of days watching bizarre/depressing short films by Adam Elliot (director/writer of "Mary and Max"), taking photos of Batman (John Batman, founder of Melbourne. Yes, this really is a city founded by Batman!), eating French crepes and trying to visit the Immigration Museum on one of the two days of the year it's shut. Oops. I also met up with three of the four girls I met in Halong Bay and we had a lovely afternoon in the Dandenongs (the hills just outside the city). We took a small walk through the bush to a viewpoint to get an amazing, if hazy, look over the whole of Melbourne (it's huge!) and then stopped off in a little village for coffee.

On my final full day in Melbourne Jana and I caught the tram to St. Kilda, the 'beach resort' area of Melbourne. We stopped into a McDonalds as we both had a McFlurry craving and I got a bit of a surprise when I bumped into Sven - the Swiss guy I'd spent an afternoon walking around Singapore with. Small world! We went and sat on the beach with him and his friends from his hostel for a bit until the rest of the German girls from my hostel arrived and we went to see them. After chilling out in the sun for a bit we caught the tram back to near our hostel so we could go to the $4 pizza night at a place called Bimbos. I had a halloumi and green olive pizza which was different but really nice.

I was up at 6am the next morning to catch a tram to the train station, arriving in plenty of time to get the Overland back to Adelaide. Another insanely long and dull train ride but it was nice to get back to Sunny's Hostel (where I was in the same room and same bed again - just like coming home!) I had my first taste of Campbell's Tomato Soup that night and it was no Heinz, I can say that. Ugh, not nice.

My final two days in Adelaide were spent seeing the rest of the 'sights' that I hadn't seen already. Namely the Botanical Gardens, the Japanese (Himeji) Garden and a tour of Haigh's Chocolate Factory (that was actually pretty rubbish and they didn't give us chocolate! Well, a tiny bit but I was disappointed). I made sure I had enough snacks and food (mostly a whole heap of peanut butter sandwiches) for my final 'big' train ride of Australia: The Indian Pacific to Sydney. I said my final goodbyes to the lovely people at Sunny's and left for the train station on a really wet and rainy Friday morning. Next stop Sydney!