Melbourne part 1

So I arrived in Melbourne and after expecting to take ages to get through passport control and quarantine, it only took half an hour and I made it take as long as possible. Watching all that "Nothing To Declare" makes it come across that it takes hours and all your bags get x-rayed and you get sniffed by a dog, but nothing, just a look at my landing card and got to take the quick exit. Disappointing! Especially as I wanted to kill a few hours before heading into town. So I sat around in the airport taking advantage of the free wifi, which seems to be everywhere, and skyped home and killed a few hours before getting the bus into Melbourne at 9. 

I left my bags in the hostel, which looked like it was full of 18 year olds, and it mostly is but only to be expected, but a small reality check for what is to come. It only seems that the English ones are excessively noisy! 

As I had 4 hours to kill I hopped on the free city circle tram and stayed on for the whole route then double looped and got off at the Queen Victoria market. It was a mix of Twerton market and Brick Lane. Loads of lovely thai pants and skirts but cannot buy anything as my rucksack is 19.9kg! Much heavier than I expected. They also had loads of Uggs which I can't belive anyone can even think of looking at in the 39oc heat then there was the other standard market tat but a good food market. I bought some nectarines and grapes for $2.35 and fruit send to be the only thing that is cheap, everything else is so expensive! $4.50 for a little bottle of coke! And had to pay $2.50 for water which annoyed me, but found out that they have water fountains everywhere to fill up on which is great. 

I then stumbled across an antipodean festival, which just seemed to be a Greek festival, and a pretty rubbish one at that. Maybe antipodean means something different in Australia as I didn't think it meant Greek! After a walk through one of the many gardens and finding a sprinkler to cool my fat roasting feet in I got back on the tram and did another loop as it was still not time to check in. I met a lovely woman who was visiting from Gold Coast but used to live here. She had been shopping and was waxing lyrical about how great the shops were here. I was pretty unimpressed but she said they were so good in comparison and conplained that everyone is so scruffy in Gold Coast and don't even where a shirt to the casino! So I'm looking forwards to the relaxed east coast. 

We got off at the same stop and I went to check in. The hostel is massive! I'm in a room with some French and German girls and one other who I've not spoken to. They were showing the Winter Olympics on TV and I watched the moguls briefly before remembering that I should go and see the sights! 

I went to Federation Square which seems to be a cultural hub of the city and was just across from the hostel. They had on an aboriginal culture festival which was great. Lots of dodgy country singing and just caught the end of an islander dance. I'll try and see some more tomorrow. They also had free wifi which was amazing. I came across stage Federation Bells which played amazing chimes. There is just so much georgeous open space and things to see. After falling asleep in the park I realised I should come home. I have just forced myself to stay up and watch a film they had on, some Steve Jobs biography.  I kept falling asleep, hope I was quiet!!!