Nov 15th

Took a early morning flight for AUK to Melbourne. Checked in the Greenhouse hostel, AUS$28/day including breakfast. Hostel is centrally located in Melbourne.

I really liked Melbourne, lot of gardens and very interesting architecture. The federation square is very interesting place, certainly not a standard glass building. In general I found architecture in Melbourne to be bit more interesting than standard big cities around the world. The federation square has interesting museum of Aboriginal art. It also have Museum of moving images which is worth going to.

Melbourne has Chinatown much similar to San Francisco. You can buy 3 Aus T-shirts for $20 and you can haggle. Atleast in downtown Melbourne during business hours I saw many people in sui and tie, compared to relaxed NZ, AUS seem to be bit stiff. In my dorm room there were three lads from Ireland, so at night went on Neighbours tour. I had absolutely no idea what the show is about, it seems like is some big show in Euope/Aussie, I was there just for the beer. Every Irish guy/gal I have met so far has been extremley jolly, wonder if its the Guiness in their blood makes it so ;)

Nov 16th.
Checked few more museums around Melbourne. Then in the afternoon walked over to MCG. The ground itself was completley dug out as they are getting ready for 2006 CommonWealth games. The MCG itself does look very big on TV, it certainly is not that big in reality, boundry certainly looked smaller than Eden Gardens. I visited the dressing room, instand replay booth etc. Just outside the stadium there is a big statue of Don Bradman and there is Don Bradman gate.

It would have been nice to see the ground with wicket on it.

At night went to a Jazz club, band was okay, met the Irish lads gain for few rounds of Guiness.

Nov 17th
Walked over to the Victoria market. The hostel had a nice free BBQ in the afternoon. Went to a movie with few folks at night then hit few bars. I must get used to the fact that nightlife in NZ/AUS is not going to be same as South America(B.A.).

Booked a ten day trip to Alice Springs with Adventure tours, via Adelaide.