Melbourne

I bloody love Melbourne.

With a 5am flight from Perth I decided to use the airport as my bedroom for the night, which meant spending my time getting lost and finding myself in all three of the airport's terminals thanks to a mixture of getting lost and closure's etc. I managed to find the time to skype and relax for a bit though so it's not all bad, also meant that the whole 4 hours were spent sleeping in the classic aeroplane positions which were ridiculously uncomfortable even with the three seats that I had to myself.

The first three days here were straight up exploring and being a massive tourist, seeing the botanic garden's which were awesome and a really nice day of doing nothing with a book which is a nice way to settle in.

Melbourne is perfect for me, in that all of the sports stadiums are within a stone's through of each other - almost literally. 5 minutes away from my hostel is the tennis (which has spent all week being dismantled after last weeks Australian open) with the massive Rod Laver arena. 2 minutes on from that is the 100,000 seater Melbourne Cricket Ground which I have obviously had a tour of already. The MCG is also home to the sports museum where I managed to spend over 3 and a half hours somehow - it's essentially my idea of heaven in there. Another couple of minutes away is Melbourne City's football ground which looks more like the Eden Project than a football stadium, but I'm a fan of it somehow.

I don't know what's wrong with me but I've also had a walking tour since I've been here. As in I had the option to get a bus but I decided to walk... Weird. I really enjoyed it to be fair though, despite it being a solid 4 hours, it was interesting and had the right amount of info which is definitely what I look for in a tour in a weird way.

That evening was spent getting to know my room mates and led to a beach day the following the day. I burned. A lot. A hint of advice to anyone heading to a beach in the 35 degree heat... sun cream. I'll say no more on the matter out of embarrassment. Also had a jelly fish swim pretty close to my leg which I might claim as a near death experience??? (Kind of)

Saturday was cricket once again and managed to get introduced to all the players and fans (40 odd people somehow) there, including an England U19's international playing for Nottinghamshire and Paul Franks who has an England cap to his name which was pretty surreal - especially when they gave me a lift home. Was also told that Alex Hales and James Taylor have both spent seasons playing over there as well. They out 8 sides out every weekend so it looks like I'm gunna have a run out for them on the last couple of days of their seasons which could be interesting...

That evening the Melbourne derby was being played (Melbourne Victory Vs Melbourne City) so I obviously couldn't say no to going there. Atmosphere was impressive and the attendance was 40,000+ and with Victory winning 3-0 the pyro came out which was all good fun.

Finally was the St Kilda festival which was unbelievable. St Kilda is a coastal town and holds a yearly festival for 5 days right on the sea front. I'd never heard of any of the acts but the headliner was a DJ called Hot Tub Time Machine, which was unbelievably good. He essentially went back in time to 1954 and played the best song of each year up till 2015 and I can honestly say it was one of the best hours of my life. I strongly recommend youtubing him or seeing if you can, I loved it.

Anyway, enough rambling for this week. All picture's are now on Facebook. I hope all is well + happy birthday to half of my family for this week!

Lot's of love X