Early Monday morning I was greeted by the way-to-cheerful, hyped up on caffine Carly and JJ who were to be our guides, drivers and occasional surf instructors for the next five days. Once on the bus they had us introduce ourselves. There was about twenty of us and I was the only English girl. There was another English guy, an Irish guy, a couple of Danish girls, lots of Germans, a Swedish couple and a group of Norweigen girls. We were a mixed bunch! They then proceeded to get us into the mood by playing surfing films of guys who to say 'made it look easy' would be an understatement. By the end of the week, we all assumed we'd be doing that.
We were wrong.
Our first camp was at Crescent Head and we were there from Monday to Wednesday afternoon. The camp was a couple of huts in the middle of the bush. Across a dirst track was some more bush where the 'humpy' was: a small clearing with a camp fire for parties; and just beyond that was the beach. A huge expanse of deserted sand and breaking waves. It was incredible.
We arrived there around 1pm and as soon as we'd signed in and dumped our bags it was into our swimmers and wetsuits and off down to the beach for our first lesson. It soon became apparent that we were not going to be surfing like Kelly Slater any time soon. What all those wonderful movies fail to show is that surfing is hard. And not just in terms of trying to stand up, or stay up, or even just paddling (which trust me is tiring). But even just getting out the back, past all the breaking waves (which is where you want to be if you want to look cool; #1 rule of surf camp) is frickin' hard work. At times almost impossible. The first few lessons weren't that bad for that. We were all happy to stay close to the shore trying to stand up in the white water. Despite spending most of my first lesson underwater I had managed to stand a couple of times and not drown completely. I was comforted by the fact that I didn't get sea sick... unlike one unnamed person!
Tuesday and Wednesday morning was spent on the beach at Crescent Head. To prepare us for our morning sessions one of the instructors - who also happened to be a yoga teacher and who never bothered to learn names (I was, for the whole duration of the trip, "Pommie") - decided we all needed some loosening up. So we had 'lovely' yoga lessons, on the beach, in wetsuits. I have no idea how he managed it. While he was incredibly flexible and didn't seem to have any problems managing some of the very difficult yoga poses, I kept being chocked by my wetsuit just trying to touch my toes!
The Tuesday morning sessions I spotted some dolphins as we were paddling out and Carly said I must have good eyes. I couldn't confess that the real reason I'd seen them was because I'd been nervously scanning the waves for any signs of sharks. We didn't see any. Thank goodness. But on the final day one of the guys found out that the week before two large hammerhead sharks had been spotted off the beach one south from the on we were surfing. Yikes!
Evenings at Crescent Head were spent at the humpy, sitting around the camp fire drinking 'goon' (boxed wine - classy) and chatting. There may have been some dancing. Getting to and from the site was made more interesting by having to walk through the woods on a narrow, unlit path. It was pitch black and we only survived with luck and a lot a of giggling. And hugging trees. Returning to the camp on Tuesday night I was sitting with Carly and some of the guys in the kitchen area eating a sneaky midnight snack of nachos and dip when I found a little black leech on my foot. It bled a lot but came off easily and I wasn't as creeped out as I thought I would be. Still was pretty icky.
We left Crescent Head on Wednesday after our morning surf and lunch. Our second camp was at Spot X (Arawatta Beach, just north of Coff's Harbour). This was very different to Crescent Head as the site is bigger and caters for the Oz Experience and other tour groups, not just the Mojo Crew. We arrived in time for dinner which, like all the meals on the trip, was brilliant. They certainly don't scrimp on food. Huge servings with lots of salad to help yourself to. While at Crescent Head we had to wash our own dishes - the dishwater chosen by group competitions that included Jenga and an 'Aussie relay race' (down a can of beer - blow up a balloon 'til it pops - eat a dry weet-bix covered in vegemite: I had to eat the vegemite. Yum) - at Spot X we were spoilt as the staff did them for us.
Thursday and Friday morning was spent out in the waves and those of us that had the basics down now wanted to head out the back and try our hand at the green waves. Easier said than done as first you had to get out there. At times it was like walking against a brick wall. For every metre gained you'd be swept back about five. It was very fustrating and a couple of times I had to give up and go back to shore to take deep breaths, count to ten, that sort of thing, to calm down before attempting it again. The trick was to wait for a gap between sets and then paddle out as hard as you could. Get it right and you could get out without getting your hair wet. Get it wrong and things got... interesting. I tended to get it wrong. The second best thing to heading out between sets was to 'eskimo roll' under the biggest waves. Simply you take a deep breath as the wave is about to break on your head, flip the board overand hold on underneth it; the idea being the wave passes stright over you and you flip over and paddle quickly once it's gone. It didn't work for me. Not until someone finally told me I had to make sure the nose of the board was under water as well. I'd just been clinging on and still being dragged back towards the shore. I'd just saved the waves the trouble of pulling me under.
Once I was finally out the back it was nice to relax but if you wanted a green wave you had to work for it and paddling fast enough to catch one is hard work. Not only that, if you get things wrong the wipe outs are that much more spectacular - and painful. Did I mention surfing hurts? By the end of the five days I'd notched up a pretty long list of injuries: one pulled shoulder from trying to hang onto the board it was ripped from me by a wave; numerous bruises, the best being a perfect line across my stomach from where I wiped out and landed on the rail of my board; damaged big toe from landing on it funny; grazed knees from a really scratchy board; sore inside arms from my wetsuit; and the most impressive of all - my hands that were rubbed and blistered from trying to hang on to my board. By midweek I was having to tape my hands up with silver duct tape. I looked like a robot!
I loved surfing though, especially when you catch a green wave and just sail stright down it. It feels like flying. Of course, more often than not I got something slightly wrong and ended up in a washing machine effect - being rolled around and around by the waves until they finally spit you out looking like a drowned rat. Mostly these were caused by not standing up quickly enough and there are few things scarier than nose diving. You find yourself practically vertical, looking straight down into the wave and at that point you know you're about to go head over heels so it's not much surprise when you do. Doesn't make it any more fun though.
After lunch with the kookaburras on Friday we boarded the bus for the final leg up to Bryon Bay. We'd all booked into the same hostel and that night we went out for a last meal at a really nice pizza restaurant that gave us free beer. I had a pumpkin pizza. Different but very good. It was a good evening but we were all quite tired.
Byron Bay is lovely. Very chilled out and cool. Spending time wandering around the little boutique shops and then sitting on the beach watching the surfers. The temptation to join them was huge, but my hands protested and sadly I only had a couple of hours there on the Saturday before my aunt and uncle arrived from Brisbane to collect me. It was a fantastic week and I definitely hoping to surf again before I return to the UK.
Sunday 9 May 2010
Sydney
... and around.
My train ride to Sydney was pretty unremarkable, though luckily so many people got off at Broken Hill I ended up with two seats to myself so I could curl up quite happily. I woke up as we were passing through the Blue Mountains the next morning but you couldn't see all that much from the train. Just a lot of trees, and a couple of grey kangaroos. I arrived in Sydney Central station and my train was met by Harry and Jeannette - my Grandad's brother and his wife who have lived out here since the 60s. Thankfully they recognised me as I'd only seen them once before, back in '97 and I couldn't really remember them. They are both absolutely lovely and I had the most amazing week with them as they took me around Sydney and the surrounding area. They live in the Liverpool suburb, about a 40min train ride out, in a bungalow they built themselves with their dog, Jack, who's a kelpie (Australian sheep dog). We often sat out in the garden and watched the local birds - lots of brightly coloured lorrakeets that are so noisy as well as a couple of sulpher-crested cockatoos who were so friendly you could literally get them to eat out of your hand. The first night I was there we had a barbie which was delicious and a sign for all the lovely food I got to eat that week. Yep, even vegetables and salads! I have a new-found addiction to butternut pumpkin (butternut squash).
Our first trip out was to the northern beaches - up as far as Palm Beach which is where the super rich live, and is also where Home and Away is filmed. It was a lovely drive and we came back via the city and Sydney Harbour Bridge. The view over the harbour with the Opera House was just breathtaking. Definitely one of those 'oh wow, I'm really here' moments. During the week we also visited the Blue Mountains, Sydney and the southern beaches.
The Blue Mountains were incredible. The wind up there was really icy at the lookout point for the Three Sisters - three stacks of rock on the edge of the immense Jamison Valley. Words cannot describe how big this thing is, and old too. They say it was already fully formed as you see it today when the river that became the Grand Canyon was only a trickle! We had a look at the Scenic Railway: a cable car and bizarre rail line that goes over the edge of the cliffs to the bottom of the valley. There are a few walking trails down there but you have to make sure you know where you're going as it's very easy to get lost and not find your way out. Some British backpacker got lost in there for three days recently and was lucky to be found alive. We had a picnic in a park and then Jeannette and I took a walk to look at a waterfall. You could see where it meets the valley and just falls down over the ledge. There were some hikers about three quarters of the way down it messing about on the edge of a very high drop-off. I was just waiting for one of them to fall but luckily they didn't.
On the Wednesday we went into Sydney proper via the RiverCat. We dropped the car off at the Olympic Village and caught the cat (a catamaran ferry) into Circular Quay, under the Harbour Bridge and passed the Opera House. After a coffee we walked up to and around the Opera House, which was really odd to see it in real life. It's a beautiful building though and an amazing feat of architecture and engineering. We had lunch around the opposite side of Circular Quay in The Rocks area - the oldest part of Sydney. I had my first real experience of an Aussie hamburger. Absolutely massive and came with bacon, cheese, egg, salad and beetroot (my other Aussie addiction. Mmmm beetroot). We took a walk under Harbour Bridge and then caught the cat around the corner to Darling Harbour. It was gorgeous but filled with very expensive restaurants. We were in time for the 3.30pm ferry back to the Olympic Village but as it was the Easter holidays there were so many people wanting to get on it was full and the next one wasn't for an hour and a half. They hadn't thought to put on any extras. Smart people. We had a drink in a bar before managing to get on the later one and getting back around 7pm. It was a very long day!
The Friday I was there we drove down to Shellharbour where their son Russel lives with his wife and children. We drove through some of the national parks, stopping for an ice cream at a place on the cliffs and watched the hang gliders and paragliders taking off. We'd brought Jack with us and he was very very excited to get out the car and have a look around. We got down to Kiama where there's a blow hole in the cliffs - basically a where the roof of a cave has fallen in and now shoots up water when the waves hit underneath it. We had a late lunch down in the little harbour and then drove to Shellharbour beach but as Jack wasn't allowed on the beach we drove slightly up the coast to where he was allowed to have a run. We had dinner with Russ and Shauna and left soon after as the children had to go to bed. Mind you, I was so tired I was nodding off in the car on the way back also!
Saturday morning Harry and Jeannette came with me to Circular Quay and said goodbye as I caught the ferry across to Manly. There son Stewart had said he'd take me around that day and I'd crash at his before he'd drop me into the city on Sunday. He met me at Manly ferry port and we had a look around the town and got an ice cream from Cold Rock - white chocolate, cookie dough and marshmallows. Mmmm. His house, which he shares with two mates, is gorgeous. Up on the hill overlooking a beach. I've never seen so many surfboards in one house in my life! I was staying in the spare room which was basically a surfboard storage room! It might be paranoia but I did check the room for spiders. Stewart got bitten by a red back in his own bed and while one bite doesn't kill you they do make you pretty ill. Stewart's been surfing for years and he was more than happy to tell me some 'horror stories' in preparation for my surfing trip next week. The one that stuck with me most was the one about his friend who was surfing in Hawaii. The guy was on the beach watching a couple of his friends out in the water when suddenly one of them was fired about 13ft into the air and came crashing down. Great white shark had attacked him. They hit you from underneath at about 60mph and stun you. They found the guys body two days later. Great. Just what I needed to hear. At least that was in Hawaii... At least, I think it was....
Anyway we went out that night. Met a couple of his friends at the Newport Yacht club where they'd spent the day sailing and then we went to a bar near the beach for food and drinks. We left when the bar shut (no idea what time it was) and had to walk up the [very] steep hill back to the house. The next morning we were all feeling a little tender and so went for a swim in the sea to wake up. The sea was lovely but there were quite a few big waves and I got bowled under quite a few times. Dried off in the sun and then went back up to the house to get my stuff together and get ready to go. We drove into Sydney to try and find Bondi Beach, as I figured I couldn't come all this way and not see it. We passed through the infamous Kings Cross area looking all innocent in the daylight. It's the club scene of Sydney and is renowned for drug dealing and gangs, and has now been dramatised in the Aussie tv show Underbelly: The Golden Mile (which is actually quite a good series). Finally we found Bondi and went for some food as we were starving before having a walk down the beach. There were a lot of surfers out and it was interesting to see the lifeguard tower where the documentary series Bondi Rescue (another of my Aussie tv addictions) is filmed. Stewart then dropped me off at the Wake Up! hostel in the city where I was going to stay that night as my surf trip leaves from outside it early the next morning. Checked in and asked if they were going to be showing the Grand Prix anywhere in the hostel. They said they weren't, but instead there was a free gig that evening in Hyde Park so I wandered down there to check it out as guess who was playing live? The Stereophonics!!!! They were awesome! I joined about 5000 other people just sitting on the grass listening to them. I had an amazing view and they were brilliant live. Feeling very happy I wandered back to my hostel to get ready for the week ahead. Surf surf surf!
My train ride to Sydney was pretty unremarkable, though luckily so many people got off at Broken Hill I ended up with two seats to myself so I could curl up quite happily. I woke up as we were passing through the Blue Mountains the next morning but you couldn't see all that much from the train. Just a lot of trees, and a couple of grey kangaroos. I arrived in Sydney Central station and my train was met by Harry and Jeannette - my Grandad's brother and his wife who have lived out here since the 60s. Thankfully they recognised me as I'd only seen them once before, back in '97 and I couldn't really remember them. They are both absolutely lovely and I had the most amazing week with them as they took me around Sydney and the surrounding area. They live in the Liverpool suburb, about a 40min train ride out, in a bungalow they built themselves with their dog, Jack, who's a kelpie (Australian sheep dog). We often sat out in the garden and watched the local birds - lots of brightly coloured lorrakeets that are so noisy as well as a couple of sulpher-crested cockatoos who were so friendly you could literally get them to eat out of your hand. The first night I was there we had a barbie which was delicious and a sign for all the lovely food I got to eat that week. Yep, even vegetables and salads! I have a new-found addiction to butternut pumpkin (butternut squash).
Our first trip out was to the northern beaches - up as far as Palm Beach which is where the super rich live, and is also where Home and Away is filmed. It was a lovely drive and we came back via the city and Sydney Harbour Bridge. The view over the harbour with the Opera House was just breathtaking. Definitely one of those 'oh wow, I'm really here' moments. During the week we also visited the Blue Mountains, Sydney and the southern beaches.
The Blue Mountains were incredible. The wind up there was really icy at the lookout point for the Three Sisters - three stacks of rock on the edge of the immense Jamison Valley. Words cannot describe how big this thing is, and old too. They say it was already fully formed as you see it today when the river that became the Grand Canyon was only a trickle! We had a look at the Scenic Railway: a cable car and bizarre rail line that goes over the edge of the cliffs to the bottom of the valley. There are a few walking trails down there but you have to make sure you know where you're going as it's very easy to get lost and not find your way out. Some British backpacker got lost in there for three days recently and was lucky to be found alive. We had a picnic in a park and then Jeannette and I took a walk to look at a waterfall. You could see where it meets the valley and just falls down over the ledge. There were some hikers about three quarters of the way down it messing about on the edge of a very high drop-off. I was just waiting for one of them to fall but luckily they didn't.
On the Wednesday we went into Sydney proper via the RiverCat. We dropped the car off at the Olympic Village and caught the cat (a catamaran ferry) into Circular Quay, under the Harbour Bridge and passed the Opera House. After a coffee we walked up to and around the Opera House, which was really odd to see it in real life. It's a beautiful building though and an amazing feat of architecture and engineering. We had lunch around the opposite side of Circular Quay in The Rocks area - the oldest part of Sydney. I had my first real experience of an Aussie hamburger. Absolutely massive and came with bacon, cheese, egg, salad and beetroot (my other Aussie addiction. Mmmm beetroot). We took a walk under Harbour Bridge and then caught the cat around the corner to Darling Harbour. It was gorgeous but filled with very expensive restaurants. We were in time for the 3.30pm ferry back to the Olympic Village but as it was the Easter holidays there were so many people wanting to get on it was full and the next one wasn't for an hour and a half. They hadn't thought to put on any extras. Smart people. We had a drink in a bar before managing to get on the later one and getting back around 7pm. It was a very long day!
The Friday I was there we drove down to Shellharbour where their son Russel lives with his wife and children. We drove through some of the national parks, stopping for an ice cream at a place on the cliffs and watched the hang gliders and paragliders taking off. We'd brought Jack with us and he was very very excited to get out the car and have a look around. We got down to Kiama where there's a blow hole in the cliffs - basically a where the roof of a cave has fallen in and now shoots up water when the waves hit underneath it. We had a late lunch down in the little harbour and then drove to Shellharbour beach but as Jack wasn't allowed on the beach we drove slightly up the coast to where he was allowed to have a run. We had dinner with Russ and Shauna and left soon after as the children had to go to bed. Mind you, I was so tired I was nodding off in the car on the way back also!
Saturday morning Harry and Jeannette came with me to Circular Quay and said goodbye as I caught the ferry across to Manly. There son Stewart had said he'd take me around that day and I'd crash at his before he'd drop me into the city on Sunday. He met me at Manly ferry port and we had a look around the town and got an ice cream from Cold Rock - white chocolate, cookie dough and marshmallows. Mmmm. His house, which he shares with two mates, is gorgeous. Up on the hill overlooking a beach. I've never seen so many surfboards in one house in my life! I was staying in the spare room which was basically a surfboard storage room! It might be paranoia but I did check the room for spiders. Stewart got bitten by a red back in his own bed and while one bite doesn't kill you they do make you pretty ill. Stewart's been surfing for years and he was more than happy to tell me some 'horror stories' in preparation for my surfing trip next week. The one that stuck with me most was the one about his friend who was surfing in Hawaii. The guy was on the beach watching a couple of his friends out in the water when suddenly one of them was fired about 13ft into the air and came crashing down. Great white shark had attacked him. They hit you from underneath at about 60mph and stun you. They found the guys body two days later. Great. Just what I needed to hear. At least that was in Hawaii... At least, I think it was....
Anyway we went out that night. Met a couple of his friends at the Newport Yacht club where they'd spent the day sailing and then we went to a bar near the beach for food and drinks. We left when the bar shut (no idea what time it was) and had to walk up the [very] steep hill back to the house. The next morning we were all feeling a little tender and so went for a swim in the sea to wake up. The sea was lovely but there were quite a few big waves and I got bowled under quite a few times. Dried off in the sun and then went back up to the house to get my stuff together and get ready to go. We drove into Sydney to try and find Bondi Beach, as I figured I couldn't come all this way and not see it. We passed through the infamous Kings Cross area looking all innocent in the daylight. It's the club scene of Sydney and is renowned for drug dealing and gangs, and has now been dramatised in the Aussie tv show Underbelly: The Golden Mile (which is actually quite a good series). Finally we found Bondi and went for some food as we were starving before having a walk down the beach. There were a lot of surfers out and it was interesting to see the lifeguard tower where the documentary series Bondi Rescue (another of my Aussie tv addictions) is filmed. Stewart then dropped me off at the Wake Up! hostel in the city where I was going to stay that night as my surf trip leaves from outside it early the next morning. Checked in and asked if they were going to be showing the Grand Prix anywhere in the hostel. They said they weren't, but instead there was a free gig that evening in Hyde Park so I wandered down there to check it out as guess who was playing live? The Stereophonics!!!! They were awesome! I joined about 5000 other people just sitting on the grass listening to them. I had an amazing view and they were brilliant live. Feeling very happy I wandered back to my hostel to get ready for the week ahead. Surf surf surf!
Monday 3 May 2010
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!
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!
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