Australia

Melbourne is a delightful city. Old fashioned trams (and new ones) provide a great transport system.
The weather was good, we amused ourselves for a few days here, down by the river. Now this is a much nicer place to be a rower than paddling up and down the itchen river!

After a traumatic goodbye in Singapore, I landed in Perth and was amazed at the tight customs and security process, they sure take it seriously here and pick on lone travellers! I was getting concerned for the safety of the marmite that I knew my Mum would be smuggling into the country for me later in the week!

It was a gorgeous sunny day and I was looking forward to wandering over to Kings Park for the afternoon. Advised to get the airport shuttle by my hostel I sat at the shuttle stop..............for 2 f***ing hours. A very random 2 hours indeed, I was adopted by an elderly German man who thought I was 16 and was concerned that I shouldn't be going to a hostel and I would be better off going to his hotel with him. Unsure of whether this was friendly or very disturbing (given that there were 4 other German people there and he was talking to just me) I started to ask other people if they would like to share a cab with me, including a good looking frenchman :-) as soon as he agreed, the bus turns up!

If you go/leave to Perth airport, get a taxi, they are better value, nicer people and you get immediate service!

It would have been quicker and less scary to walk into the city! The bus route seemed to take forever (well another 2 hours) and I was 2nd to last to be dropped off (luckily my German friend was the stop before me!) so I spent the beautiful sunset stuck on a bus and arrived at my hostel in the dark 5 hours late....... :-( Not that I was missing much as my hostel was a bit of a hole and my room really smelt!

I woke up the next morning and headed off for a bit of pampering at the hair salon. That went really well and I went back to do my washing at the hostel in the rain. The washing machine was crap so it took me all afternoon :-( will I ever see the sights of Perth I ask myself? Luckily a spillage of washing powder marginally improved the smell in my room :-)
Everything improved from then on as I met up with Karen. We had a gorgeous veg thai meal and I finally made it to Kings Park the next day :-)