Back to Melbourne!

Arrived back in Melbourne in the morning on 4th Jan and moved into my new flat! So me and Ellie spent most of the day out buying bedding and did a big food shop etc! We also had a wonder down to Southbank where we had cocktails in the Crown Casino!

The next day we picked up our hire car for our road trip! We drove to the Mornington Peninsula where we stopped for a walk and a picnic, then drove over to Philip Island! We checked into the hostel which was really nice, probably one of the cleanest I've stayed in while I've been in Australia!
I knew there was a place called Rhyll on Philip Island so we decided we had to go there just to get a picture with the sign! (For those who don't know, back home in Wales I live really close to a place called Rhyl!)

Then we went back to the hostel for some food before heading out to the penguin parade! It was just as good second time! The penguins were so cute!

The next day we went to the chocolate factory on Philip Island which was really fun! There were random games where you could win chocolate, and you could make your own chocolate in whatever shape you wanted. After that we set off back to Melbourne! The drive was fun, we listened to Aussie radio which is actually better than at home, plays a bit more of a mixture of genres, though a lot of the same songs do get repeated!

When we got back to Melbourne we spent the next few days just chilling out. Ellie booked a skydive which kept getting put off because of the weather, but she eventually got to do it on the day before she left which was lucky! Think she enjoyed it!

We also had a bit of a mad night out on the Saturday night! Got quite drunk so spent Sunday relaxing and took advantage of the pool in my building! Went to chinatown in the evening for food to try and cure the hangovers!

Monday I was back at work, which is also the day Ellie did her skydive, so she had something to do while I was working! Then as it was a Monday evening, the only cool thing to do in Melbourne is obviously Neighbours Night!As usual it was a fun night, though less drunken than normal as I had to be up at 6am the following morning, and Ellie didn't want to be hungover for her long journey home! We met Chris Pappas and Sky Mangel, and as my good friend Dr Karl wasn't there, we got to hear Paul Robinson sing with The Waiting Room instead!

So the next day Ellie flew back to the UK, was such a fun couple of weeks! Haven't done a huge amount since then, went to watch some of the qualifying matches for the Australian Open which was surprising quite good! Everyone in Melbourne seems to get pretty into it so thought I should watch a couple of the games!

It was also Australia Day last week! It's the national day of Australia celebrating the arrival of the first fleet into Sydney Cove in 1788. It was a really fun day, went to a house party with some of my flat mates. It was robot and monster themed (very random!) but we didn't bother dressing up! 

Me and my flatmate Rosa on Australia Day!

So yeah, apart from that I've just been working! Need to try and save my money now! Can't believe I only have about 10 weeks left in Australia.... :(

Melbourne

The next few days in Melbourne were mainly spent recovering from Neighbours Night, and for me, job hunting!

We wondered around Melbourne a few times which was nice. Went to Federation Square, went to some markets in Fitzroy, walked along the Southbank, and went to the beach at St. Kilda!

We also went to a Good Charlotte gig! A band who I was obsessed with when I was about 15! They're actually really big over here in Oz. When I was working on the farm and we had the radio on when picking zucchinis, Good Charlotte were always getting played! Don't think they'd be on the radio at home at all!!
But the gig was really fun, the support band, Amy Meredith were also pretty cool, I actually recognised one of their songs from the radio at the farm too, just hadn't known who it was! For some reason the main part of the gig was Good Charlotte playing songs from one Weezers albums, as they're a band who have really influenced them. It was good because they played a song called 'Buddy Holly' which is my favourite Weezer song. But the best part of the gig was obviously when they played their own songs! They played a really cool mix of stuff including some of my favourites, 'Riot Girl', 'Boys and Girls', 'Last Night' and loads more from all their albums! So it was a really fun night!

Another cool thing we did was go to the Penguin Parade on Phillip Island - a treat from Becca as my early Christmas present! It was a really good day out. First we went to a wildlife sanctuary which was ok, nothing special though as I've seen all these animals before, and it wasn't the nicest wildlife place I've been to. We also visited a cool beach, went on a walk to spot some penguins and had a yummy pizza dinner (including a kangaroo and crocodile pizza!!) before seeing the main event - the penguin parade!

We all got a mat to sit on, and sat on the beach to wait for the penguins. Just as it was starting to get dark at about 8.20pm, the penguins started to appear! It was amazing! They appeared from the sea in little groups, and slowly made their way across the beach to their nests on the shore. It was so cool to watch them! And every now and again they'd run back to the sea because they were scared of the seagulls.
Once they'd all gone across the beach, we went to the boardwalk where you could see them running through the sand dunes to get to their nests. It was amazing! I don't have any pictures though as cameras aren't allowed. Here's a picture I've found on the internet though, to give you all an idea of what it was like!

The day after the penguin parade was Becca's last day in Melbourne :( We decided to go out for tea to a really cool restaurant called 'Lentil As Anything'. It only serves vegan food and you pay what you feel the food is worth. So instead of a til they have a big box where you can put your donation, so even the waiters don't know what you pay. It was really cool and the food was yummy! I had a vegetable curry and it's the best curry I've had in Australia!
After the meal we went to a couple of bars for some drinks as Becca's flight wasn't til 3am! We got back to the hostel at about half 11 - 12ish and it was time to say goodbye :(
It was really weird once Becca had gone as I'd got used to having someone else with me. Was so good to see her! 

Now I'm on my own again, I've not done much since Becca left. I moved out of the hostel in St. Kilda to a cheaper one in the CBD. It's a really good location right on Elizabeth Street. And I've managed to find myself a job - in a cupcake shop!! It's pretty good, I get free cupcakes which is a bonus, though I don't want to be putting on weight!

It feels really weird at the moment though as Christmas decorations are starting to be put up around the city, and today it was sunny and 34 degrees. It just doesn't feel right! Christmas is supposed to be a time when you have to wrap up warm etc! Oh well, Christmas in Australia is going to be an experience anyway!

I'm glad I'm finally up to date with my blog now! I'll keep updating every now and again when I do something interesting in Melbourne :) But for now the crazy travelling fun is over and it's back to work!