Ramsay Street......Well no! Pin Oak Court actually

No trip to Melbourne would be complete without a trip to the * cough * legendary soap street that is known as Ramsay St, realname Pin Oak Court the street is based in South Vermont about 23km outside the City Centre. We jumped on the tram and headed out as I couldn't have been bothered with all the groupie hype of the official tour. The street itself is smaller than you'd imagine and has its own security guard (in fairness he was a nice guy)

Melbourne - Its NO Sydney!!!!!!!!!!!

We flew to Melbourne (narrowly missing the flight - points finger at Tina!).

The city is OK but its certainly no Sydney! First day we went to St Kilda and it was a ghost town. There's a few bits and pieces to see but alot of places are hidden very well and the lonely planet book is pretty bare on the sightseeing end of things. Needless to say theirs plenty of nice bars and restaurants about but most of the nicer one's are found down alley ways.

We tried to get a table in a Thai restaurant called Cookie but the place was booked up (and jammed) for the night so we found a nice chinese called Dumpling on Swanston St, the portions Myself and Tina got would have easily fed a family of four (with some leftovers for the dog!)...not bad consider it was only AU$70 and that included 4 bottles of Tiger Beer.

We went to The Crown Casino and played abit of Blackjack which I left the casino $150 richer!

A few people have compared Sydney / Melbourne to Dublin / Galway althought I wouldn't in even try and put Melbourne in the same league as Galway...........with the exception of Tuam of course!

St Kilda

Captain Cook Statue

Bikie enjoying a beer

Crown Casino

Melbourne Gaol

Chinatown

St Paul's Cathedral

Rabbitohs -vs- Bulldogs - League Game

I thought I better update the blog after a quiet patch [been busy but in nothing to write home about!]. Myself and the lads went to a league game on Sunday (no photos at the moment!) It was Rabbitohs -vs- Bulldogs, the stadium (100k seater) was pretty empty with the 22,000 in attendence :D, but bang for buck it puts Ireland to shame..$9 for the Train to get to the Stadium, $20 for the ticket (RRP $25 but we got it off a tout!), so thats a days sport for €14 give or take, you wouldn't watch a game in the pub for that back home!

The atmosphere was very friendly and could be compared to a GAA game as fans from opposing teams were beside each other. The game was great to watch but obviously not as exciting as it would be supporting a team your passionate about. The stadium (ANZ Stadium / Olympic Park) is a grand size.

One other plus point...You can actually take a beer back to your seat and watch the game and chill out!

Neil Delamere - The Comedy Store

Myself and a couple of lads went to the comedy store and saw Neil Delamere. There's was a few comedians on before him, can't remember their names but one was a band called 'smart casual' that was very funny. Neil was very funny and got stuck into some frenchies that were talking during the show which was the highlight of the show. A few goog gags including his dishwasher joke at the start...hilarious! Well worth the $11 entry fee.

Smart casual below performed this as their finale