Travel | Melbourne, Australia

As mentioned in yesterdays blog post, my surprise birthday present from Stew was a trip to Melbourne for 3 nights! Not only did I spend my birthday in Sydney climbing the harbour bridge but two days later we were flying here. Talk about the best birthday ever.

I have a few friends in Melbourne and Stew had some friends he'd met traveling now living there so it was great to get some help on what to do as we were only spending 2 real days in the city.

Luckily we had a beautiful apartment just off Chapel Street, and no sooner as we landed we were in the Holy Grail drinking vodka and vodka with his friends. It was great to go out, and especially on Chapel Street. It was heaving with people, being a Saturday night and we had so much fun hopping from bar to bar.

The above couple of photos were taken from the top of the Eureka Skydeck. It costs around £15 for a ticket to the top and it holds breathtaking views of the city. Enclosed in glass for the most part there are signs and view finders dotted everywhere to explain what you can see. And there's one section where you can actually step outside and get a better view.

Near the Skydeck is Flinders Street train station which is sight to see in itself but also close by is Federation Square which offers peace right in the middle of a chaotic couple of streets. Here you can enjoy free use of deckchairs and free wifi, yes outside! Something you would never find in the UK. It was a beautiful day when we were there so we stopped to take a load off and lap up the rays.

Near by is Hosier Lane known for it's graffiti. This small cobbled street is plastered with artists work. Every door, window, wheelie bin and even the multi storey carpark was covered.

Back home on Chapel Street we had a bite to eat at a number of kitsch places and couldn't resist a trip to the Soda Rock diner. It felt like we'd stepped on to the set of Grease with waitresses in American 50's costumes, duke box tunes and leather booths.

We enjoyed a double cheese burger with chili fries, and the lovely waitress asked if we wanted to split it so the burger came halved. I love that they ask you this in Australia. I also opted for a blue milkshake which was mysteriously names and turned out to be bubblegum. So sickly but so good!