Melbourne, I live here.

We arrived late into Melbourne and got a cab straight to our hostel-BASE st Kilda, a very large red building right in the centre of a very, very cool town! St Kilda is on the coast of Melbourne and is an AMAZING PLACE! It is buzzing with quirky shops and cafes/bars all out on the street. Everything is outside! The fashion is somewhere between urban outfitters and the OC, but you could pretty much wear anythign and feel cool in this town. The food is very LA but with British terminology and in fact the culture is altogether a curious miz of British and American, it is the perfect place for our duo-today we saw a target next to a safeway! The shops sell English things but the salespeople actually help you! Ruthie and I have the perfect hair for this place too-brushing is not required and straightening even less so, so we have gone au natural and are donning great beach heads. As Ruthie said we could live here in a 'hot' second-literally, I will come back to the heat!

Our first day was spent checking out the local scene, I was pleasantly suprised when ordering an iced coffee to find not ice but ice cream-two of my favourite things in one! And who doesnt love a bit of ice cream at 9am...especially when it is 45 degrees outside. Another trait we began to notice was the automatic water delivered to your table in wine bottles-just one of Australias many ways of being green. We were intrigued by the childrens books we say with the enticing titles of 'turn off the lights' and 'don't waste water' etc...The shower has an egg timer to ensure we take less than 4 minutes worth of water and the loos, this one is great, have a dual flushing system so you don't use more water than is required for your flushing needs.

Back to the heat, its seems we arrived into the hottest heat wave since 1908, and Australia is not a cold place. The was like nothing else. Imagine walking through an oven, too hot to sit or touch anything and when a breeze hits you it feels like a hairdryer in your face. We were sweating even in air conditioning, I felt sweat in places I didn't know could sweat. It was hot! However we did not let this get the better of us and have enjoyed dining and, well dining! Next to our hostel is an amazing retro/vintage style cafe with great food, this morning I had poached eggs with sweet potato and rocket hash browns..mmmm....

Some other great things we have done include a visit to the Botanical Gardens to see twiglight on a big screen outside, at twiglight, with a big picnic and lots of wine! We ventured to the open to watch some tennis, thankfully it was cooler that day, and followed that by a drink by the river. Yesterday we bought tickets to another twighlight event, this time at the zoo. After seeing the animals, including some fast and scary looking kangaroos who seem to roam free and who people actually seem to want to pet (not me-they are big, and hop fast!)-we set up another wine fuelled picnic. So pleased to see our good friend Fiona from camp we danced, ate, sang and drank listening to a motown and blues band sing and play some great music. By the end of the night the grass was full of people of all ages dancing on the grass, think American Bandstand in the Zoo!

And so sadly our time in Melbourne has come to an end and we are preparing again to embark on the next part of our trip, flying up to Cairns this evening.