Batmania aka Melbourne

Manchester Lane in Melbourne's CBD...vurry nice.
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Why did they change the name to Melbourne?!  It was originally called Batmania and they changed the name to Melbourne!  Jodie was 'well delighted' to learn of the original name o' this place, but we are both 'well sad' that it's now called Melbourne.

ANYWAY!  We arrived in Melbourne from Canberra on our incredibly easy Tiger Airways flight...would you believe it, the flights were almost half the price of the bus trips, and it took almost one tenth of the time!  We paid $50 total, and the bus journey would have been $91 each!!  Stick that in ye'r pipe and smoke it Greyhound!  So the flight was reaaaaaaaally easy...we gave them our names, he gave us a receipt, a man scanned me (I agreed to it under the proviso that he wouldn't be touching my bum).  By the way, proviso is a real life word - we checked on dictionary.com to make sure of it.  So after the man scanned me with his scanner-y thing, we went upstairs, and our receipts were swiped, and we boarded our flight which was smooooooooooooooth!

Why did they change the name to Melbourne?! It was originally called Batmania and they changed the name to Melbourne!

Us performing an example of the face-chewing pout which has become so trendy of late.
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Got the Skybus in to the CBD (city centres are Central Business Districts here...have we mentioned that already), had a wee wander around and found a hostel with free internet and breakfast AND a dinner (Greenhouse Backpackers just off Swanston Street)...dumped our stuff, checked our emails and went for a wander for fooooood.  Contrary to popular belief, it is COMPLETELY acceptable to have curry several times a week.  In fact, it is COMPLETELY acceptable to have curry several times a day.  So we found a cheap wee curry place and had lunch there...The Curry Bar was it's name, and tasty munchies was its' food.  You thought we'd say game didn't you?  HAH!  After that, had a wander and familiarised ourselves with the area around the hostel; did a bit of research on what's further afield, and we've decided to head out to St Kilda's via the tram tomorrow.  They have TRAMS here.  So we're going to have an exciting day of tram riding and crowd-hitting-with-our-bags tomorrow.  Had a wander along the Yarra river, checked out some of the nearby bridges and architecure (accidentally while out walking).  Thoughts so far on Melbourne...we like it.  Lots of cool wee cafes, eateries and vintage shops (Retro Star just 'round from the hostel...I had to zip my arms in my jacket so I wouldn't touch the stuff and BUY BUY BUY).  The vibe's a bit more art/culture/music orientated here in comparison to Sydney the business city, but we shall see whether or not that's true once we've been here a few days.

Nichola's impression of Luna Park
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Currently updating our blog in a PUB called e fiftyfive which is vuuuuury nice...it makes the updating so much better when you can have a drink with it (gin and rum to be precise).

Sooooo, we'll write more after a couple of days.  On Friday we're gonna be visiting Jodie's Melbourne based relatives, so looking forward to that (especially if their cooking's as good as Shanthi's!).

Farewell for noooooo...hope you're all well and happy and we hope that all your Christmasses be white.

No, this isn't Nichola, this is actually Luna Park. What a great impression she does, eh?!
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(PS we're now on CD number 6 of photos since we've been away.  We'd like to apologise in advance for the holiday snap boredom induced by looking at each and every photo!)

Oops...Donna has pointed out to us that we haven't updated in a while, so here we are!  Today's the 20th, but we've got a wee journal with stuff in it to make sure we're remembering the good stuff.

On September the 10th we relocated hostels...ended up in the St Kilda area at a cheap cheap hostel.  Spent the day wandering around St Kilda; checked out the beach, Luna Park (which is the scary brother of Sydney's Luna Park) and some shops.  Also found an amazing community garden run by a bunch of artists...it did smell like crap, but it looked good.  Didn't do too much that day as we were looking for a post office so Jo-man could send his stinky shoes back.  Had a wee cheapo pot of beer in a pub called Banff...a pot's what we'd call a half pin in Ozland.

We have to apply suntan lotion here because IT IS HOT!
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On the 11th we checked out some stuff in Melbourne's CBD like the Queen Victoria Market, Chinatown and the Chinese Museum.  Took us a wee while to find the museum, but it was worth it.  'Tis but a wee place, however the downstairs section made it worth our while...it had a boat simulator, and a fake gold mine caving section which I managed to wriggle through, thus confirming I hadn't lost any of the new testicles I'd grown in New Zealand.  As usual, Jodie read every single little piece of information!  Oh, and we saw a gigantic Imperial Dragon (Loong) at the museum which spanned two floors.  That little piece of information doth proveth that maybe it's ok to read the information in museums rather than just look at the stuff.  Just not every single bit.

Nichola post-caving...tight.
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I was going to make an inappropriate joke here, but Jodie said no again.  So you'll just have to imagine what the joke was going to be.  It was really funny.