Melbourne, Australia

After a week in Sydney we flew down to Melbourne where we were met by Mike's flat mate from uni Alex and his wife Nicole. It was Australia Day so they were both off work and were free to spend the day drinking and having a BBQ with us and Codi, Mike's other flat mate from uni who is also living in Melbourne at the moment.

Whilst we were there Melbourne was in the middle of a heatwave with temperatures reaching 44 °C on three consecutive days. Apparently it was the hottest week in over 100 years.

On the first of these days we went into the city and walked around a couple of parks and the botanic gardens. Because of the heat we had to take lots of breaks and sit in the shade until we had the energy to carry on. Fortunately there were lots of water fountains around so we could refill our water bottle regularly.

We stayed in the city that evening and met up with Alex and Nicole when they finished work. We went to an outdoor bar down a side street where we were joined by Jonny and Nat (they were on holiday in Melbourne) and a couple of their friends. We had a few drinks there then all went to a Chinese restaurant that Alex and Nicole know where we ate loads of dumplings. Jonny and Nat then went off to a Neil Young gig with their mates and the rest of us went round to Codi's flat for some drinks.

The following day Alex was off work so we went to St Kilda beach with him which is a short tram ride away from the city centre. The beach, or more accurately, the ocean was definitely the place to be during the heat wave. Nicole came down after she finished work and we all went to the St Kilda market to have a look around and a bite to eat.

The Australian Open was taking place whilst we were in Melbourne so on the Friday we bought ground passes that allowed us to watch the days big matches on the giant screen in Garden Square. There was a good atmosphere inside Melbourne Park and there was a Garnier tent set up where Ellie got her hair put into a fancy style for free and we were given goodie bags full of products worth much more than we paid to get in.

We watched the women's doubles final, won by Serena and Venus, and one of the mixed doubles semis in a good spot at a table in the shade. Between the games Mike got out his diablo and a Channel 7 camera man asked him to stand in the middle of Garden Square and do some tricks that he could film. We never found out if any of the footage was used on TV. Probably not.

We were then sitting back at our table when a woman came up to us and asked if we had tickets for the Nadal vs Verdasco semi final. We said we didn't and then she gave us her two tickets, worth A$180 each, that she wouldn't be using! It was almost surreal for us to have ended up inside the Rod Laver arena as we had planned on watching it on the screen outside. We had an amazing view of the court and of what turned out to be one of the matches of the tournament. It went to five sets with Nadal, the eventual champion, just edging it. The match didn't finish until after 1am (it started about 8pm) which meant that we missed the last train home.

On the Saturday we had a BBQ at Alex and Nicole's house with Codi and a couple of their friends. We got the food from the local market in Preston, the suburb that Alex and Nicole live in, so it was all fresh and really tasty. It was an enjoyable day and the drinking went on until the early hours meaning that Sunday was a bit of a write off.

After the weekend we had two more days in Melbourne and we did some more walks around the city. We went to Fitzroy Park where we saw James Cooks house, walked down the river where there is some interesting artwork and good views of the city, and through various shopping arcades. We also explored some of Melbournes side streets a bit more where there are lots of bohemian cafes and bars as well as some really cool graffiti.

On our final night we went back to the Chinese restaurant we were in the week before and had more dumplings then went round to Codi's again for more drinks before catching the last train home.