Melbourne

Have just finished a lovely (if not wet, stormy and cold) weekend in Melbourne. Quite a different city to Sydney, not just in climate, but in feel. Was a lot easier to get to know and hang out with my room mates here, whereas in Sydney the Hostel was so big and people were on the go all the time so there wasn't much of a chance. In Melbourne hung out a little bit with Lisanna from the Netherlands, Ashleigh from Ohio and Helen from London. I even bumped into two more guys from Bournemouth - seriously what are the chances!
Despite bad weather I still managed to do quite a few things including The Melbourne Aquarium, The Royal Botanical Gardens (Huge and beautiful!), Free tourist tram around the city, chilled in federations square, ice-cream in the pouring rain, $3 pizza and a one day sunset tour bus trip along the Great Ocean Road!
So here are a few photos, I will do a whole separate post for the Great Ocean Road as there are lots and lots of photos! Quite a lot of the photos are flowers from the gardens in Melbourne, boring I know but beautiful and I am LOVING the macro setting on my camera lol!

Random (but apparently quite famous) modern art in Melbourne...

Royal Botanical Gardens

City-scape!

Red marble wall and red stone paving at Federation Square - nice!

Taronga Zoo (Sydney) and Melbourne Aquarium

Taronga Zoo

Melbourne Aquarium

Sydney

So here I am at the end of my first week in Australia! I have stood on Sydney Harbour Bridge eating yummy Mango Ice-cream, been to Hillsong, sought out fruit bats and parrots in the beautiful Botanic Gardens, caught the ferry across the harbour to Taronga Zoo where Koalas, Kangaroos, Crocodiles, *scarily big* Pythons, sealions, baby elephants and penguins (amongst hundreds of other animals) were seen. I have hung out in the sun at Bondi Beach, body surfed some big waves, walked a little of the South Sydney Coastal path, seen a play (for free and whilst seated in the lighting box) at the Sydney theatre starring Hugo Weaving and Kate Blanchett (Thanks Soph!), caught up on life with a lovely cousin and her hubby, been swimming in the Hostel Pool, met lots of interesting people from all around the world, finished a whole book whilst sat in various beautiful places and done a pretty good job of showing myself round without any problems or hitchs so far! Happy Days!!

Obviously I have already taken a couple of hundred photos but in the interests of time (and the cost of the internet) I have chosen a few just to prove I'm here to start with. Lots more to follow when the opportunity (and the funds) allow I promise.

Just an ikkle taster....

A few things I've discovered so far...

• You can think you've suncreamed everywhere and constantly re-applyed it but you will still end up getting burnt. Usually in some weird and obscure pattern or small place, like in one weird thin line down my arm and the very tip of my nose! Silly Sun!
• I can travel halfway around the world, sit on a beach amongst 1000+ other people and still end up sitting next to a family from Bournemouth (my hometown)! I know it's a small world, but seriously!?
• Australia is expensive, or maybe just Sydney, I'll let you know! Even at the beach where tourists are dumb, $4 for a bottle of water is ridiculous!
• Suncreaming your own back is a tricky dilemma!
• It rains here too! Storm over Sydney all day today!
• Pasta is soon going to get really really boring! Cheap, few-ingredient, meal ideas anyone?
• Sydney is a beautiful City that whilst being a heaving metropolis of fast-paced people as cities are, still maintains a completely relaxed vibe! Amongst all the sky-scrapers are lots of havens of green, perfect for book reading, where quickly it's easy to forget that you're in a city at all. Above all, it's super friendly! When a shop keeper here says 'have a great day' you can tell they really mean it! It's bad that this surprises me but in England this is far from the case.
• It's only been one week out of nine, but already I miss Mike to the point that it feels like half of me is missing and I can't think about it without getting a funny feeling in my stomach! 
• I'm having a great time and am really looking forward to all the rest of my adventures but may I just say that I am sooooo glad I'm only doing 2 months away and not 12!!

Going to Melbourne tomorrow on the train for 11 hours, good job I have a new book!

More posts soon!

Mike - I Love You!