Melbourne & Emerald

Well I managed to stuff my camera during the new year - so its been sent of for repair so it will be a while before I post any more photos (canon reckon 20 days). Since leaving Sydney I spent a week in Melbourne and visited Federation Square, the botanical gardens and Queen Victoria Markets. Federation square was interesting to see as they were building it when I was last in Australia. The botanical gardens were really good and I think edged Sydneys in the wow factor. My hostel was right beside the Queen Victoria markets which is a massive market mainly fruit, vegetable, meat & clothes; their are approximately 1100 stalls so it takes a while to get around.

My hostel was Bev & Micks backpackers and was a classy joint above a pub, however the atmosphere was really good and they had activities like quizzes, pool comps etc on every night. After a week in Melbourne I felt like a change as i'd been in city's for the past couple of months, so I have now moved to a little place called emerald which is about an hour and a half outside Melbourne.

My trip to Emerald was slightly hectic, I left the hostel and walked to Spencer st train station with my backpack in 35-40 deg heat, and was truly knackered by the time I got their (only about 2KM). ON arriving at the station I realised it was Sunday and I had actually left the previous hostel a day early! After walking to the station I thought i'd carry on regardless, I arrived at Belgrave station which is the nearest to Emerald expecting to get a bus to Emerald; unfortunately been in the middle of nowhere the buses didnt run on Sundays! Plan C was then to find some accomodation in Belgrave which again included walking round in great heat with my rucksack - with the addition of steep hills. I walked up a massive hill to get to the only B&B to find that they had closed for rennovations, at this point I decided to deviate from independent travel and hailed a taxi.

Anyway Emerald is a really nice place its a really small town - i'll have to update you later about it as i've run out of time (got to catch a train).