West Coast Bound- Melbourne

It was my first journey on the Greyhound a nice enough 12 hour journey through Canberra on toward Melbourne, not much in between it must be said. The only odd occurrence was this weird skinny guy in front of me stripped to his boxers and treat the bus like his own bed, he may have been the biggest geek I've ever seen too, almost like a white Jewish version of erkal. Once dropped off I didn't have the slightest idea to where I was so thought I'd just as well go to the nearest Hungry Jacks for breakfast and a consult with my Lonely Planet guidebook to see whatever hostels were about and so at least i'd have an idea of where I was at. Unfortunately i didn't quite get that done straight away as of course i had to encounter a complete weirdo first. I'd clocked him while queuing thanks to his odd demeanor and the strange bag he was carrying so I thought i'd best keep away from that one; of course he had to just sit right next to me. Despite the fact i was eating while having my head buried in my book he deemed it utterly necessary to start bombarding me with random information and questions. "Where are you from?", "How Long are you here for?", "how much money do you have?", "What's a pint?"....ah go away please, it's only half eight in the morning and i can't be dealing with this....I was picking up major psycho warnings so decided it be best to munch breakfast and then head off on foot with the book looking for street names.

I'm easily pleased when it comes to Hostels, all i want is clean linen, reasonable prices and a good atmosphere so when I heard a place called 'Bev and Micks' was a measly 100 dollars a week, then i knew i had to have a gander at least. This was easier said then done of course with not having a clue where i was, it didn't really help when my hostel was really a bar disguised as one and with my complete lack of peripheral vision, I even ended up walking past it twice before finally getting in. Everyone was really friendly there with most people being long termers which i much prefer, the attached bar though could easily be a disaster zone for me with the hostel having a very Bedlam like atmosphere but I've been very well behaved really. Too behaved some may say.

Instantly I very much liked Melbourne, Sydney is a little more spread out whereas here it's a lot more dense and just a bit more 'my thing' you could say. Plenty of music venues, great shops, bars, art venues, culture and the amount of sport is unreal too: Rod Laver Arena, MCG, Etihad Stadium, AAMI Park, Olympic Park and many more all a stones throw away from each other. I spent the first few days just wandering about trying to get my bearings and avoiding the drink, both were very successful. Most people in my room were here indefinitely annd were cool. A mad girl from somewhere in Europe really wanted me to do medical trials with her and i'm stupid enough to do it but she disappeared one day, can't say i'm surprised. She seemed the type to go missing.

Before flying onto New Zealand, Cara 'Dave' Murphy was in town so i said i'd meet up with her for a drink on the evening, a simple task you'd think? Well you'd be very wrong on this occasion certainly. Firstly she didn't have a clue where her hostel was, or what side of the river she happened to be on, so I had to go to McDonald's to use google maps and find out where the Nomads were. According to this they were too in the area, one on Spencer street and another on the south side of Melbourne with my Lonely planet concurring the latter. She said it wasn't the one on Spencer street so I headed down to the other with google saying it would take a bout an hour to walk, Cara said this was a load of crap though as her bus stopped off at the other one and it wasn't that far, this becomes important later. With google maps on my iPhone as my guide I headed off on the road and reached the river for about 9:20 (I left the hostel at 8ish), I started to get an eery feeling as the area wasn't built up at all and quite dark, it seemed an odd place for there to be any hostels. My iPhone was saying I was standing right at the Nomads but i couldn't find it anywhere, Cara was no help at all on the phone either, laughing at me when i asked where the fuck i was and if she was winding me up. After about half an hour of looking I came to the realisation that the Nomads had obviously relocated and in the meantime been replaced by of all things another 'Bev and Micks', how ironic. ..So I headed to another McDonalds to google Nomads, it came up with A'Beckett as the street name not York street and this turned out to be about 3 minutes from my hostel, I'd been out for an hour and a half and it was an hours walk back. I wanted to weep, Dave loved it all obviously barely being able to speak on the phone thanks to tears of laughter. On the way back I just had to stop off at another McDonalds to get some comfort food, of course being me I met some complete tools there in the form of an over the top, obese, camp emo who shouted at me "Isn't this place crazy....do you come here much?".....I was in no mood for this. He then got really offended by a tramp screaming at nobody specific "GET A JOB!....DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD I STRUGGLE JUST TO SURVIVE?", erm not very much by your fat arse and face mate. On the way back I had more struggles, the iPhone died and Cara's one bit of help was "There's a global gossip sticker in the window", so when i saw one and went in I really wasn't surprised that it was the wrong one and she wasn't there, this was the story of my night. I had to demand she came out and pretty much just followed the sound of her laughing to find her completely pissing herself at me. It was now eleven o 'clock, i should've got there at ten past fucking eight. Nobody was worth this effort for a drink and i made sure she understood this. So we finally had a pint while she tried to contain her laughter at it all while hassling me to go to New Zealand with her, Matt, Lucy and Aled. At least i could take solace in that Melbourne looks great at night and i got to see a bit of the south bank.
One of the highlights of Melbourne (and to be hones everywhere) was going to the Australian Centre for the Moving Image at Federation Square. The centre was a history of everything to do with the technoligial advance of moving images from film, television, mobile phones, video games and everything in between. I really could have spent hours in there (and did), going round and round like an idiot. There was just so much cool stuff to see, a camera that produced the bullet Matrix effect for you, image and light manipulation exhibits, history of TV, global broadcasting, and my favourite probably being the video game section. They had spectrums, commodore 64s, ataris, nes's, Lemmings and even Super Mario bros 3. I'll never forget the day i got that as an early Christmas present from my Nana and therefore hadit before everyone else. The whole estate must have come round my house to watch me play buit of course nobody else was alloewed to touch it at all having being an arsehole all my life it seems. I was a bit dissapointed to be here too early for the Tim Burton exhibition but the current one was quite worth seeing too. It was from a film called Max and May which uses the same stop motion technique with plasticine characters to film that Aardman studios (Wallace and Gromit) use. Stuff like this just astounds me, the process is just so painstakingly long and everythins so intricate. It baffles me how anyone can have the patience but I guess that's why the do so well, they genuinely love doing it.

The first weekend was a quiet one but I was on the hunt to watch the football if possible but could only find it on at the Casino, I was just about to give up when i bumped into Jason and a few others so followed them to a bar not too far form the hostel. Sadly we walked in to the sight of 40 Chelsea fans jumping around as they'd already took the lead, my stomach turned intantly. I fucking hate the majority of cockneys and Chelsea fans are right near the top too so after Caldwell got sent off and Lampard scored the subsequent penalty, I just stormed off after sculling my drink. The title was over and they'd be fewer places i'd rather not be. All in al it was good first week here and I do love the city, i really could see myself living here sometime....not just yet mind....

Song for the Day - Metronomy : A thing for Me