Exploring Melbourne

Quite a lot to report since yesterday morning.

I went to Victoria Market as planned and it was brilliant. It was loads bigger than I thought and it has to be the best food market I have ever seen. I bought two apples the size of my head. Unfortunately I couldn't really dig it as I suddenly realised just how tired I actually was. I went back to the hostel for a quick snooze, however this 'snooze' turned into a 6 hour sleep and I was woken up at around 5pm by a chirpie Aussie voice on the tanoy saying "hey there crazy cats, we're having a barby on the roof terrace at 7". I was bloody starving at this point, so headed up there.

I ended up meeting with some lovely people and having an awesome evening. There were two girls who are from England but currently living in the hostel. One of them, Callie, works for the BBC Asian Network and is currently on a career break. This of course means that she may not have a job to come home to. We were joined by two guys who have been travelling around Australia in a van for the last few months and they plan to sell the van soon and leave for Asia. The last of our group was an Aussie chap who works in the hostel called Michael. Through Michael I learnt some interesting Aussie slang:

Bogan - chav or redneck (apparently they are often seen outside stations sporting mullets and swigging VB)

Handy - wank (and no I didn't before you ask)

Ranga - readhead, as in orangutan. I see what they did there.

Frullet - when someone has a mullet but the wrong way round.

Goon (or goon bag) - the sack of wine inside a box of wine.

And my personal favourite:

Goon of Fortune! - apparently at some parties here, they hang loads of goon bags to rotating washing lines and you stand underneath. When it stops, you drink what's above you! Jen - if we don't play this at your next gathering, I will be very disappointed...

I also asked Micheal if Australia have beer festivals and he looked a bit puzzled and replied "erm... football?" I'm guessing that's a no then.

I went to bed fairly hammered but slept very well.

The next day I walked to the Melbourne Gaol and Watch House. That was really good and I took loads of pictures of the beam where Ned Kelly was hanged.

Afterwards I wandered down to Federation Square, which is next to the Yarra River. This is terrific place with amazing buildings and galleries. Luckily, there is an International Jazz Festival going on at the moment, so I caught some live jazz in the square too. I called into the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) which is basically a huge media centre, but has a great museum about film history. There is also a section where for free you can sit in a booth on a very comfortable sofa and watch Aussie made TV shows, films and documentaries on a massive TV. I watched a few Aboriginal documentaries, which were very interesting. I then started watching Dot and the Kangaroo but got bored and left.

Afterwards I crossed the river with the intention of going up the Eureka Tower and standing on the glass floor (brilliant views apparently) but the queue was huge so postponed that one until tomorrow.

Melbourne really is an amazing city and I'm loving just walking around and taking in the sights.

It is late now, so taking my beer up to the roof terrace to enjoy the mild night. I have a full day and evening tomorrow, so will blog again when I settle in Sydney.

Cheerio!