Melbourne

Giving The Doctor A Kiss

Matt and I flew into Melbourne - it only takes two hours and it was about as cheap as taking a bus for a day and a night. We were staying close to the city center - just north east in a area of town known as Fitzroy - which is the cafe, restaurant, gallery and of course bar region. We stayed in a hostel called 'The Nunnery', which was once a nunnery and had an old, church like feel to it, with big communal areas including a lounge with a fireplace and resident cat.

Melbourne is an interesting city. It is the cultural heart land of Australia and has a very multicultural community here. It makes the city like no other in Australia. In the center, the streets are wide and apart from the English style buildings, has a very New York look to it. You would honestly walk down a street and think you were in Manhattan. However, in the suburbs, or just outside the CBD region, like the area of town which we were staying, there are small side-streets, parks and pubs and you genuinely feel like your walking down a street of London. If I had suddenly woken up in these areas of Melbourne mysteriously, I would probably have guessed that I was home. The weather was just like England too, it was the middle of winter here and due to it's southerly location, Melbourne was rainy and cold for pretty much most of the time we were there.

We totalled a week in Melbourne - just enough time to see well some of the main highlights. On our first day, we had already booked a trip to see an Aussie Rules Football match at the famous Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) stadium. Aussie Rules is huge in this part of the country and the MCG is definately the place to see it. The stadium holds 90,000 people, is huge from all angles and (you could tell) would rustle a terrific atmosphere when full. Unfortunately crowds generally only fill the MCG during cricket games - Australian's main sport. We also picked an Aussie Rules game with two teams not particularly doing so well - and so there were only 20,000 people that day - which was a shame. Nevertheless, we watched in complete enthrall and total confusion, for a game where even the players don't seem to know what the hell is going on. The game - with breaks takes about three and a half hours and so Matt and I, along with the rest of the supporters decided (as at most games) to fill our watching time accompanied with beer and pies. We were in the away end (I think) - supporting North Melbourne against just Melbourne. Our team won (I think) and we both thoroughly enjoyed the whole fiasco.

On our other days in the city, we spent checking out town; along the Yarra River; through the shopping center; admiring the semi-old looking Parliament House and other such buildings and just taking in the atmosphere. We did also have time for a game of tennis (I am officially useless at that sport) and to check out the modern art gallery - which was very interesting, especially the fact that a blank canvas just solely painted in a shade of yellow can be up with a price tag of A$40,000. Now I'm no expert in the field, my artistic eye is somewhat short sighted, but I still fail to see how such an item can be considered to cost so much. Other pieces were far more to my taste. If I'm ever short of cash though I'm going to consider painting a piece of paper yellow and hope for the best.

We spent one day in the celebrity good-time suburb of St. Kilda, with it's seaside surroundings and great views of the city and on our last day in Melbourne we went on the famous Neighbours tour. Now I haven't seen the show for many years but we both agreed it was a must thing to do while we were here. The popular soap has been running in England since about the time I was born and is still going strong apparently. On the tour, you visit the Erinsborough School which is much smaller than they make it look on TV, to a few other spots where they have filmed over the years and then to the main attraction - Ramsay Street. They only do the outside shots here and it's a normal road with residents living there. The road is tiny - far smaller than you would imagine, but the houses are just as they appear on TV. We naturally got our picture with the famous street sign and listened to stories of famous incidents from the show by our enthusiastic guide.

Our 'Neighbours' extravaganza in Melbourne didn't stop there though. During most nights out in the city, we headed to pubs and bars, hidden down alleys and side-streets. Like most pubs in Australia - they are all named as a hotel - even though to many a confused tourist - none provide any sort of accommodation. On one of our evenings though - we went on the Neighbours Night. Your put on a table with 7 or 8 other people and there is a quiz (not Neighbours related thank god), games and many drinks. Then 4 stars or ex-stars from the show come out. You can ask them questions before each one comes round to your table for autographs and pictures. We had; Marco (who is new and I had no idea who he was); Ginelle (I think); Stu (who I actually recognised) and the main star - Dr. Karl Kennedy who does this every week and is the main attraction of the whole event, simply because he has been in it for as long as anyone can care to remember. Unfortunately or not, by the time they all came round, Matt and I had had a few too many vodka and coke's and so thinking it was a good idea at the time - decided to pull stupid faces or do stupid things with each picture. The best is naturally of the two of us giving Dr Karl a big kiss - we did that last minute - hence his shocked expression!!! Later, Karl actually gets on stage and plays in a band for everyone to finish off the night. He is trying to get his music career going and his group are called - 'Waiting room'. Actually they were not too bad although I did find it a bit odd that I was on the other side of the world, listening to a Neighbours star that I used to watch when I was a kid - playing 'Mr Brightside' by 'The Killers' in his very own band!!! It was however a great night and one that won't be forgotten until at least that very next morning!!!

Now, I may have made a mistake. I once mentioned recently that its not a small world. Well, I was wrong. On that Neighbours night out, on my table was a girl that I recognised who was in my halls at Southampton University - we reminised over old uni days. On the same table, I get chatting to an Irish girl who I know I have never seen before. She tells me how she has travelled all over Australia (including the West Coast) in a 'Wicked' camper. Wicked camper-vans are those which you hire out but each is unique because they paint (graffiti) them with different designs. She explained that her's had the design of the Beatles on it. Of all the Wicked campers - a Beatles designed camper was the only one I had taken a picture of (for my dad) - over a month earlier when I was traveling up the West Coast. I had my camera with me and it turned out to be her camper. We had crossed paths once before but we may have never realised it. It is a small world after all!!!

After all that - you would have thought that there could be no other Neighbours stories - wrong!!! Matt had found out that some friends from home had emigrated over to Australia and were living in Melbourne. We went to meet them for a night out. They actually lived a bit out of town - past St Kilda. Somehow - they are family friends with an ex-Neighbours star. He was the Irish guy named Conner in the show and he came out with us on that night. I had always assumed that he was putting on that Irish accent because it was so dreadful but actually he is Irish. He has put on a fair bit of weight since leaving the show but it's him alright. He is a really nice guy and we had a good chat. Later on in the night when he had had a few drinks he told me that he writes rap music and then started rapping to me - which I found quite bizarre. It was fun all round though.

After all that mayhem, we had to leave Melbourne - we had had a great time here but finally it was time to leave. We took an overnight bus to my last stop in Australia. It was of course...... to Sydney!!!