7pm, Monday 13th July. Little India, Singapore. Matt and I are having a drink. 'Fancy going to Australia now Adam?' 'Why not Matt, why not.'
We get on a plane at a gate with 'Melbourne' flashing on its notice board. They let us take biscuits and medicine on. We get off the plane just over 7 hours later, and the receiving airport tells us we can't take any food or medicine in, so we dump it all. We get out of the airport. It's 8am, cold and grey. 'Hey, this feels like England'.
They drive on the left, the signs are all in English, there's sprawling fields with farms, very few leaves on trees, mud, rain, dilapidated warehouses, high rises, somber colours, and they have a funny accent. Did I mention it's really grey? If it wasn't for said accent, I'd have sworn the pilot took a wrong turn and dumped us somewhere in the British Midlands. As it is I'm still having to be convinced every single day.
Melbourne has turned out to be...average? I don't want to lay into it, because as a town there's nothing wrong with it. And likely it's because we've come in winter, but the people aren't as friendly, open or helpful as we've become accustomed to, the other travellers are extremely single minded (sex, booze, booze and sex - how much is beer again? too much) and to top it all it's bloody friggin' expensive. Our dorm beds are costing us 12 quid each. 12 quid!!!
There are however some redeeming factors to be had in winter. St Kilda, a small burb of Melbourne is only 15 minutes away by tram, and has a theme park and beach. We tried to catch up there with a friend we made in Hanoi (Bree) but couldn't find the bar she was on about. None of the locals had even heard of it apart from one guy and he couldn't tell us where it was. But St Kilda is nice, and meant to be amazing in summer, what with the beach and all.
Another day we rented a car with two German guys (a lovely Nissan Micra dontcha know) and I drove 630km to, along, and back from the Great Ocean Road. This was actually really pleasant. About 2 hours away and starting at Torquay close to Geelong, this is meant to be Australia's most beautiful coastal road, and I can easily believe it. Passing through Anglesea, Lorne, Apollo Bay and moving on to Warrnambool and further, it's around 270km long in total. Torquay is the home of Ripcurl and Quicksilver surf brands, and Anglesea is where the lighthouse in 'Round the Twist' (well known Aussie kiddie show from the 80s/90s) is situated. Maybe I'm being a bit sad, but it was one of the highlights!). We stopped off a number of times en-route to see a few sights: wild Koalas in trees, some only a meter away from us; random brightly coloured parrot-like birds, some of which tried to eat Matt; a canopy walk at the Otway Fly (this was an 80km detour inland from the Ocean Road, and not necessarily worth it apart from for true nature lovers due to the $22 entry fee, but it was cool to be walking at the same level as the treetops) and we then made it to the 12 Apostles just before sunset, perfectly timed I might add.
The 12 Apostles are a number of rock stacks which, during the course of erosion have been separated from the cliffs. The tallest is approx 45m high (compared with the highest point of the cliffs being 70m) and are of varying shapes. One actually collapsed in 2005, and in time the others will fall back to the sea as well, but hopefully not for a long while yet. The photos during the day and at sunset are brilliant to see, and I'll post them as soon as possible. There are also penguins which live around the apostles, but unfortunately we didn't see any.
While staying in Melbourne Matt and I have done a little bit of shopping for some more cold-weather clothes (plus new boots and stuff for Matt to replace what was stolen) and not much else. Yesterday I visited the casino (lost $200 on Poker, made $300 on Blackjack so all is good) and tonight we've been invited to a party by another girl we met while travelling through Vietnam who lives here (Chloe). Tomorrow I'm expecting to be a day of recovery, and Monday we'll be winging our way to Sydney.
Addition: It's now Sunday, I have a steaming hangover, Matt has somehow managed to ditch his and has gone off in search of the Salvador Dali exhibition and Cook's Cottage (the original cottage belonging to Captain Cook, it was dismantled and brought stone by stone from Blighty, what a pallaver!). Good party, thanks to Chloe for inviting us!
We get on a plane at a gate with 'Melbourne' flashing on its notice board. They let us take biscuits and medicine on. We get off the plane just over 7 hours later, and the receiving airport tells us we can't take any food or medicine in, so we dump it all. We get out of the airport. It's 8am, cold and grey. 'Hey, this feels like England'.
They drive on the left, the signs are all in English, there's sprawling fields with farms, very few leaves on trees, mud, rain, dilapidated warehouses, high rises, somber colours, and they have a funny accent. Did I mention it's really grey? If it wasn't for said accent, I'd have sworn the pilot took a wrong turn and dumped us somewhere in the British Midlands. As it is I'm still having to be convinced every single day.
Melbourne has turned out to be...average? I don't want to lay into it, because as a town there's nothing wrong with it. And likely it's because we've come in winter, but the people aren't as friendly, open or helpful as we've become accustomed to, the other travellers are extremely single minded (sex, booze, booze and sex - how much is beer again? too much) and to top it all it's bloody friggin' expensive. Our dorm beds are costing us 12 quid each. 12 quid!!!
There are however some redeeming factors to be had in winter. St Kilda, a small burb of Melbourne is only 15 minutes away by tram, and has a theme park and beach. We tried to catch up there with a friend we made in Hanoi (Bree) but couldn't find the bar she was on about. None of the locals had even heard of it apart from one guy and he couldn't tell us where it was. But St Kilda is nice, and meant to be amazing in summer, what with the beach and all.
Another day we rented a car with two German guys (a lovely Nissan Micra dontcha know) and I drove 630km to, along, and back from the Great Ocean Road. This was actually really pleasant. About 2 hours away and starting at Torquay close to Geelong, this is meant to be Australia's most beautiful coastal road, and I can easily believe it. Passing through Anglesea, Lorne, Apollo Bay and moving on to Warrnambool and further, it's around 270km long in total. Torquay is the home of Ripcurl and Quicksilver surf brands, and Anglesea is where the lighthouse in 'Round the Twist' (well known Aussie kiddie show from the 80s/90s) is situated. Maybe I'm being a bit sad, but it was one of the highlights!). We stopped off a number of times en-route to see a few sights: wild Koalas in trees, some only a meter away from us; random brightly coloured parrot-like birds, some of which tried to eat Matt; a canopy walk at the Otway Fly (this was an 80km detour inland from the Ocean Road, and not necessarily worth it apart from for true nature lovers due to the $22 entry fee, but it was cool to be walking at the same level as the treetops) and we then made it to the 12 Apostles just before sunset, perfectly timed I might add.
The 12 Apostles are a number of rock stacks which, during the course of erosion have been separated from the cliffs. The tallest is approx 45m high (compared with the highest point of the cliffs being 70m) and are of varying shapes. One actually collapsed in 2005, and in time the others will fall back to the sea as well, but hopefully not for a long while yet. The photos during the day and at sunset are brilliant to see, and I'll post them as soon as possible. There are also penguins which live around the apostles, but unfortunately we didn't see any.
While staying in Melbourne Matt and I have done a little bit of shopping for some more cold-weather clothes (plus new boots and stuff for Matt to replace what was stolen) and not much else. Yesterday I visited the casino (lost $200 on Poker, made $300 on Blackjack so all is good) and tonight we've been invited to a party by another girl we met while travelling through Vietnam who lives here (Chloe). Tomorrow I'm expecting to be a day of recovery, and Monday we'll be winging our way to Sydney.
Addition: It's now Sunday, I have a steaming hangover, Matt has somehow managed to ditch his and has gone off in search of the Salvador Dali exhibition and Cook's Cottage (the original cottage belonging to Captain Cook, it was dismantled and brought stone by stone from Blighty, what a pallaver!). Good party, thanks to Chloe for inviting us!
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