Arriving in Melbourne

G'day!

Funnily enough, no one even says G'day in Australia...It's the same as expecting English people to greet you with 'Good day to you sir' - it just doesn't happen!

Our final afternoon in Sydney was spent tidying Cazz's appartment, bidding fairwell to Toby and Jonny who were flying to Cairns and leaving Cazz a few gifts for when she returned from Brisbane. At about 7pm, we made our way to Sydney Central Station, to catch our 12-hour Greyhound bus to Melbourne. I figured, 12hours...I'll grab myself a double seat, lounge-out and get a good 10-hours sleep! Sadly, this was not to be as the coach was at capacity, so Andy and I were squished next to each other and I think it's fair to say that neither of us had the best night's sleep!

We arrived into Melbourne at 8am where we would be staying with my cousin, Max. I hadn't actually seen Max in 10 years! He had moved to Melbourne when he was 13 and although he makes an annual visit to England to see family, this tends to be during the English summer time, which is when I'm in the States at camp. Still, Max had contacted me a few months prior, and offered for us to crash at his place for the week, which was very kind of him.

After settling in and catching up with Max, the three of us headed into the city centre to watch the AFL (Australian Football League) Grand Final. n.b. This is not soccer/football but the commonly referred to Aussie Rules Football! Although many people seem to assume that rugby and cricket are the big sports in Australia, in Melbourne, AFL is all they really care about. This was quite a special occassion as well, since it was the first time a Grand Final game had gone to a replay. We had watched the first match between St Kilda and Collingwood, the previous week in Sydney, and had seen it end in a draw. The official rules are that in the Grand Final game, a drawn match must go to a replay. This seemed kind of stupid and was a rule that most people were unaware of, since it's never happened! We piled into Federation Square, with 1000's of other crazy supporters to view the game on the big screen. After 80 gruelling minutes, The Collingwood Magpies secured the win.

After the match, we headed over the river with Max to check out the Parklife festival which was featuring bands such as The Dandy Warhols, Groove Armada and Cut Copy. Unfortunately, we didn't have tickets, but it was nice to hear a bit of the music and see the atmosphere present.

Andy and I had decided that Melbourne would be our place to chill out. Everything had been pretty busy in New Zealand and Sydney and we needed to recharge our batteries, Therefore, we were both looking forward to a week of chilled nights and late lie-ins!

The next day, we went back into the city centre and saw the World Cycling Championships, which were taking place in Melbourne. Andy had chosen to wake up early to see live, the start of the mens elite race. I however, placed greater value on my beauty sleep and rocked up late to watch the race on the big screen in town. We then spent part of the afternoon checking out the famous Queen Victoria Market before heading back to make dinner, play some Fifa '10 and watch a DVD.

The next day, we visited the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) which was a whole museum looking at the evolution of cinema, film, television and games. Definitely well worth a visit! Highlights included reenacting a scene from the matrix and creating your own flipbook. We later checked out the Parliamentary buildings and strolled down China Town.

That brings me up to today, where once again we will be rising late, eating lunch and then heading into town to check out one of the other places on our to-do list!

Much love!

Sam