Melbourne Airport

Sitting in departure lounge at Melbourne airport waiting for delayed flight to Sydney.  Delayed due to adverse weather conditions.  Yes that's right it's bloody freezing here.  Today we've had gale force winds, rain and a hail storm.  Apparently it's due to clear up tomorrow; the bad weather is moving up the coast to Sydney - thunder storms are forecast tomorrow a.m.  I kid you not

Despite this we've had a great couple of days in Melbourne.  The city has quite a European cosmopolitan feel (helped by the weather!) Difficult to believe you're on the other side of the world.  Great shopping, good bars & restaurants, interesting little lanes full of boutiques/bistros etc.  Did the tourist thing and travelled round the city in a Victorian tram.  Went to Queen Victoria Market (Kirst bought some socks - exciting stuff), had lunch & did a bit of shopping.

We were actually based in St Kilda - a little beach suburb a short tram-ride from city centre.  It was cool here, just like Brighton really, in fact there was a place called Brighton just down the road. It has a bohemian, hippy feel about it but also really funky and trendy and bang up to date. The shops and restaurants were really eclectic and is a brilliant base for travellers and students alike. In fact, we liked it so much, we spent our first day doing a pub crawl which ended in crashing at 8pm!!

Sorry the pictures are not as interesting as Tokyo but just so you get an idea.....

The 1912 beachfront fairground Luna Park in St Kilda

Victorian Flinders Street Station with skyscraperin the background

Hardware Lane where we stopped for lunch and to people watch

The millions of dollar project at Fedearation Square - horrible if you ask us

Ackland Steet in St Kilda (when the rain had stopped for 2 mins) where we had our spree of t-shirt and cowboy hat shopping

I hear it's warmer where you are so I guess I shouldn't have gloated about our hols before we left - divine retribution!!!

Will update from Sydney - love and hugs to all

Kirst and James xxxx