Day Out to St Kilda

Hello All!

Today we spent most of the morning on the phone, trying to sort out our stay in the Snowy Mountains. We've decided to spend some time in the township of Jindabyne instead of Gelantipy, simply because we can do both white water rafting and abseiling in Jindabyne with no problems or conditions. Or so we think - we haven't rang the abseiling place yet! But we shouldn't really have a problem. We hope. We'll still be staying in Gelantipy one night anyway cos it's an overnight stop, and the cool thing is we can still do the package for $40 where you get your overnight stay, evening meal, night time wildlife tour and a go on the 7m climbing wall!

Anyway, today, we stayed at the hostel long enough to get our free pancakes (with lemon and sugar just like at home - yum!), then got the 12:30 tram to St Kilda - Melbourne's hip and happening beach suburb.

We alighted at the Esplanade where the Sunday Craft Market was going on, so we had a wander down. One of the first stalls we came to was selling animal models made out of coloured wire, and next to them were labels stating their names. They were most bizaare - names like: "Promiscuous Cheque Forging Kitten", "Turd Munching Halitosis Hound", "Decaffeinated Bikini Waxing Dragonfly" and "Chihuahua Abducting Pelican". How strange!

We had a stroll down the pier, and I have to say I was expecting St Kilda to be like Byron Bay or Glenelg, but it really wasn't. It was more like an upmarket Blackpool. There was this horrible brown haze on the horizon, both towards the city and down the coast. In fairness, we didn't come across the main shopping street, Acland Street, where all the nice shops probably were, because we walked down Fitzroy Street instead thinking that was the main street. So we may not have done it justice. But never mind.

We had our packed lunch by the beach then sat sunning ourselves for a while, not going in the sea because of it's ominous brownness. After, we had a wander over to Luna Park, the small theme park with the hideously scary face at the entrance - Mr Moonface - who's mouth you have to walk through to get inside the park. We didn't go on any rides because, well, apart from the fact that it was $7 a ride, we're going to spend a night at the one in Sydney.

On our return to the city we had the strongest craving for a good kebab, so we set out to scour the streets for a kebab shop. In our efforts we happened upon the Antipodes Festival in Melbourne's Greek Precinct. I swear we were the only Non-Greeks present! There were carnival rides in the street, stalls selling Euro 2004 Greek Memorabilia, stalls selling kebabs with mile-long queues, and a big stage at one end with some Greek dancing show going on. It was pretty good, but in our hunger we had to leave earlier than desired really. We did find a kebab shop in the end, but it was the most disappointing kebab I've eaten while I've been here. Utterly tasteless.

Now we're off to meet up with Becky and Jenny and go to the Fluid Oz bar for a couple of rounds of pool. Frankly I just feel like sitting at a nice cafe with a good hot chocolate, but I guess a couple of Baileys will do!