Four seasons in one day - in Melbourne

Melbourne - I loved it!I was fully blessed in Melbourne as I had practically run out of money but I managed to have the best time, most of it through such generosity from people I met.First of all I had a free place to stay as a friend,who's australian but I met in Ireland,arranged for me to stay at her brothers' and friends house,so i slept on their living room floor.it was great to see her again as she'd left ireland about 2 years ago.i spent time with her and then got to know melbourne city a bit better by just wandering around.also my friend phill who i'd met on the easyrider tour happened to be in melbourne at same time as me,staying with friends in st.kilda so i got to hang out with them one day,going to healesville animal sanctuary (phill loves his animals and so it was like having my own personal tour guide - he knows so much!) and then we went and found ramsay street and larked around there for a while,swinging off lamp-posts and everything - the poor people in that street must put up with so much from us tourists!the following day phill and i hit melbourne in style,i don't think i've ever walked so much in my life!we did everything we could fit into one day,from cake in aclan street,walking st kilda pier,the markets,melbourne museum,imax theatre,visiting rod laver arena,the MCG,walking along Yarra River,the casino,watching the 'pigeon fryers' and finally having a race on plastic horses in the games arcade!it was an action packed day and a most enjoyable one!

coincidentally another friend of mine,who i hadn't seen in nearly 2 years as him and his girlfriend moved to england,emailed me to say that he was in melbourne,and so was i!i also discovered that he'd been in touch with another friend of ours,who was australian but who we'd met in ireland (there are quite a few aussies who come to ireland!), who lives in melbourne.so,one evening,in a pub in fitzroy,i was with these 2 guys again,the last time we'd all been together was in a pub in bangor (my home town) when i said my final goodbyes to them both as they were both leaving in the same week!it was a tad surreal to be reunited in melbourne with no planning whatsoever!not only did i have a great night with them,i was also introduced to the couple who stephen and jenny were staying with and the guy,damien,was the most generous guy ever.he was horrified to hear that i wasn't going to get to see the Great Ocean Road as I'd run out of money,so much so that he decided he was going to take a day off work to drive me,stephen and jenny down it and go see all the sights along the way eg.the twelves apostles,london bridge,koala santuary,port campbell etc. as much as i protested that i couldn't let him do that,especially as he'd only known me for a couple of hours,he wouldn't take no for an answer and so it was arranged for the day before i left melbourne to fly back to perth.i was even more overjoyed when they rocked up at my door early in the morning in a vintage kingswood car which he'd done up and it just looked amazing!i love roadtrips,so with the cool car,cool music,cool people and oh the amazing scenery - i was in my element!we spent over 15 hours doing our road trip and i just loved it all!it was definitely the best day i could've ended my first period of travelling on.one of my favourite days in oz!sunset over the great ocean road view was a memory.ahhh,i wish i was there right now.