Day 20 – St Kilda and Pimms.

Shruthi and I had arranged to go to St Kilda today as she had majority of the day off. The last time I went there (3 Years ago) was after the neighbours tour and it was raining... Obviously that meant when I woke up this morning it was too! 

I caught the free tram round to Spring street where we caught the 96 straight there. On arrival the rain had mostly stopped and we found somewhere to grab a bite to eat. By this point it was about midday so we stopped in a place called 'Leo's'.

After lunch we walked down to Luna Park fun fair, this has just gone past it's 100th birthday. This fun fair was clever in design as the rollercoaster goes around the outside creating the wall to the park. We walked to the seafront and walked along a harbour bridge

Fitzroy and Acland are the two main streets in St Kilda. I was very good and didn't spend any more money on clothes and things. We jumped back on the tram to Federation Square and went to a bar that overlooked the Yarra River. Surprisingly they have named this place ‘Riverland Bar’. We bought some dinner and a jug of Pimms, I have now had the perfect tennis experience.

Day 19 – Breakfast, Royal Botanic Gardens & Yoga.

Shruthi had the morning off so we went for brunch along Lygon street which is just up from where my hostel is. We ate in a place called Stuzzichino and ohhh my it was amazing! I went for one of the specials, this consisted of grilled ciabatta with avocado and feta mash topped with 2 poached eggs, delicious and very filling.

From here we walked down to Federation Square and caught the free Australian open tram to the tennis where our plan was to walk to the Royal Botanic Gardens. We didn’t make it as far as there before we decided just to pass out on the floor. It was hotter and less windy today compared to the rest of my time so far in Melbourne. We walked across the Yarra river and saw quite a few rowers training on the water.

When Shruthi had to go back to work I decided to walk back into the central area, on walking Heather was in contact and she was nearby with a friend so I met up with them. We walked around a couple of shops but slowly made our way up Swanston Street back to the hostel. 

I noticed a poster when I arrived about a free yoga class that is taken on the roof of the hostel every Thursday evening, so we decided to check it out! My yoga skills are no where near as good as they used to be but it was a fun way to spend some time doing some much needed stretching after sitting in arena chairs for 2 days straight at the tennis!

I said my final farewell to Heather as she is off to Sydney tomorrow but who knows what the future holds and whether we will meet again!

Day 18 – Gym, More Shopping, Big Screen.

For some reason last night it took me ages to get to sleep. I had arranged with Heather to meet up about midday so I decided that I would actually go and use the gym seeing as I have to walk past it everyday to get to my room.

After the gym I met Heather on the roof where the views are just amazing! I hadn’t been up there yet and it was bigger than I expected. It’s covered in astroturf with a hot tub and quite a few sun loungers. We left the hostel and walked down to the shopping outlet I went in yesterday. The things I wasn’t so sure about yesterday I may or may not have picked up today… I got 5 items for about £35 quid which is alright and 1 of them is a jumper and another is a light jacket which make up for the hoody I lost on day 5! We decided to stop in a little café to chill in the sun and grab a much needed refreshment.

We were still on a mission to find Heather a hat but we weren’t having much luck. We made our way down Bourke Street, which has a lot of big shops on it. After looking in a fair few, a girl suggested we tried Sportsgirl and we were in luck! It may have been slightly higher in price than she wanted but we finally find a hat! Success! We made our way back to the hostel to cook dinner. I decided to have the same as last night as I still had plenty left over.

After dinner we made our way down to Federation Square to watch the Murray V Federer match. I text Lucy, the other girl I met last night, to tell her where we were and to join us too, which she did. It was an agonising match and at the beginning of the 4^th set we made our way back to the hostel to catch the end in the warmth. Fed Square can get pretty windy and the temperature drops quite a bit in the evening. Unfortunately he lost but other than that, it had been a pretty good day!