More Melbourne!

Haven't updated this for ages! Happy New Year!!

So last time I wrote on here I'd just got the job at Little Cupcakes, so nothing overly exciting happened between then and Christmas, but here are a couple of notable things!

More Neighbours stalking! When I went to Neighbours Night with my sister, Dr Karl promised to play a song I requested if I went to the night 2 weeks later. Luckily I met a girl in my hostel called Faye who wanted to go too. So I went to Neighbours Night again and met my good friend Dr Karl once again! I also met Steph Scully and Mike Williams so that was pretty good! And as promised, my song got played!! And he also came up to me and was singing at me which was funny! He also said I knew the words better than him.. not sure if that's something to be proud of! Ha! But it was a good night anyway!

These were not the final Neighbours characters I was to meet over the following few weeks! I went to see the Christmas lights being switched on in the centre of Melbourne, and who was there promoting a Children's charity... Toadie!! So I had a quick chat and a photo with him which was really cool as he's one of the best Neighbours characters!

As it got closer to Christmas I decided I wanted to get into the Christmas spirit, and what better way to do so than go to the Christmas Neighbours Night! It was such a fun night, there were quite a few cast members there including Sky Mangel, Stingray (who actually recognised me from the night with my sister!), Dylan (who liked my glasses), Irish Connor, Paul Robinson and of course Dr Karl himself! One of his other bands called Ubersavvy also played, they were pretty cool. They also had some Christmas songs which was fun!

I also found time to pay a quick visit to Ramsay Street and the Lassiters Complex, though unfortunately I didn't meet any of the cast!

Anyway, that's enough Neighbours for now! A girl I met on OzIntro came to Melbourne for a while and we discovered a really cool bar called the Croft Institute. It's themed like a science lab and you get drink shots out of test tubes and cocktails from syringes! It was a fun experience anyway! 

Another exciting thing was that the first ever Topshop in Australia opened at the beginning of December in Melbourne, so had to pay that a visit! Also did a few other Christmassy things like had a work party with a secret santa which was nice - so I actually got a Christmas present which I wasn't expecting. Finally, I managed to find somewhere to live from the beginning of January so I didn't have to stay in the hostel when I returned from Sydney! It's on King Street so really central, about a 5 minute walk to work, and I have my own room!!

That's about everything worth mentioning I think! Wasn't the most eventful few weeks as I was trying to save up to go to Sydney for Christmas and New Year!

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!

Neighbours Night!

As anyone who knows me is aware of, I am a massive Neighbours fan! So I was really looking forward to Neighbours Night (even though I've been before...)!

We got there at about 7pm and got seats quite close to the front which was good! We were going to be meeting Malcolm Kennedy, Stingray and the legend himself, Dr. Karl Kennedy!!
The evening started off with the host Safari Pete getting everyone to sing the Neighbours theme tune - cheesy but had to be done! Next the characters were introduced one by one then answered questions from the audience before they made there way around the pub so we could all chat to them and get photos! While they mingled with the crowd, Safari Pete hosted a trivia quiz with a lot of Neighbours related questions popping up here and there! There were also lots of games to take part in to win prizes, I didn't do any though!

So me and Becca got our photos taken with Mal, Stingray and Karl! I managed to have a quick chat with Dr Karl, telling him to play a song called Mattress on the Floor - which he has promised to do at Neighbours Night on 21st November, so I may have to go to that! What a shame!! I also told him Becca was a real doctor, so he asked her to fix his hernia!! Haha.

Malcolm Kennedy!

Karl Kennedy!

Stingray!

After the stars had done their rounds, it was time for Karl to get on stage with his band The Waiting Room, by this point many glasses of wine had been consumed so I couldn't tell you what songs he played!

After the band we had another drink in the pub before heading to a random bar/club in St. Kilda with a load of other people from Neighbours Night, and Stingray came too!

It was a really fun night but ended up being a bit too drunken as I ended up losing the battery from my camera (no idea how I did that) and even worse, I lost my glasses! The first pair I've ever lost and I've been wearing glasses since I was 3 years old!

The Great Ocean Road

After just over 3 hours on the plane, we arrived in Melbourne, and it was COLD! Having been in warm sunny Queensland for so long it felt like a bit of a shock to the system!

We arrived quite late so once we'd checked into the hostel we went straight to bed as we were picking up the campervan quite early the next morning!

We checked out of the hostel the next day and got the bus to Backpacker Campervan Rentals to pick up our van. Turns out we got an upgrade! Instead of just a van with a bed in the back, it was a proper little motor-home type thing! Had a little kitchen area and everything! So that was cool.

The Camper!

Soon enough we were on our way! It took about an hour to get to the Great Ocean Road and our first stop was the surfing town of Torquay. It was a lovely sunny day so we sat outside and had a picnic lunch before heading off to have a look at the massive surf shops!
Next stop was Bells Beach which was really cool. Stayed there for a little while paddling in the sea before heading to our next destination: Split Point Lighthouse aka. the lighthouse from Round The Twist!! I was really looking forward to seeing it as I'm a massive fan of the show! I even put the theme tune on in the campervan as we were driving towards it haha!

Bells Beach

Split Point Lighthouse

Next was time to head to Apollo Bay where we would spend the night. We found a really good campsite and managed to get a discount from the company we hired the camper with. Although the campsite had its own kitchen we decided to take advantage of the kitchen in our campervan! I cooked us some kangaroo, Becca prepared a salad and we had some jacket potatoes - YUM! That evening we had a cider each and watched a film before having an early night as we wanted to make the most of the next day!

We slept relatively well considering we were in a campervan, and the next morning set off to see more of the Great Ocean Road - mainly some pretty amazing coastal features! First stop was the Cape Otway Lighthouse, so we thought! We got there and discovered you had to pay to go and look at it! So we decided since we'd already seen a cool lighthouse (what could beat the one from Round the Twist?!) we'd give this one a miss. That didn't stop us having a look in the gift shop though! We both bought ourselves a stubby holder (a thing you put your can or bottle of drink in to keep it cool) which we used that evening for our ciders! So our first proper stop was The Twelve Apostles, they were pretty impressive! Took lots of photos before setting off again. Next we went to the Loch Ard Gorge which was also very picturesque. We also saw The Arch and London Bridge, and had another picnic lunch! 

The Twelve Apostles

Loch Ard Gorge

The Arch

London Bridge

Soon enough it was time to head back to the campsite in Apollo Bay. As we got there quite early we decided to have a wonder round and look at the beach which was nice.

 Had a less fancy tea that evening of 2 minute noodles and salad, and had another early night! We did take advantage of our new stubby holders though!

The next morning we got up and checked out of the campsite as we had to get the camper back to Melbourne for 3:30pm. We stopped off at Kennett River to have a walk to try and find some wild koalas - Becca spotted one so we took a few pictures! 

We also stopped at a pretty seaside town called Lorne to have a look around. 

After Lorne we drove straight back to Melbourne as we wanted to drop our bags off at our hostel in St. Kilda before giving back the campervan to save us having to take our bags on the bus!
After a mad drive through Melbourne city centre and a very quick check in at our hostel, we made it back to the rental place at exactly 3:30pm! Gave the camper back with no problems so we then got the bus back to the hostel to get ready for our fun evening ahead - Neighbours Night!!