Melbourne

Week 12: 4/20-4/26

I spent the next week recovering from the long trip and preparing for the next one to Melbourne. It was another wild weekend – our flight left around 5:30am Friday morning, so I actually never went to sleep Thursday night. The hour and a half hour flight landed in Avalon airport, which is the smaller domestic airport further outside of Melbourne than the main one. By the time we got to our hostel in the southern suburb of St. Kilda, I was ready to pass out, but our rooms weren’t available to us yet, nor would it be for another couple hours. Danielle, Alli, and I strolled around the quaint little town of St. Kilda and took in the less touristy shops and cafes and eventually found one to sit down at and have some breakfast. We got back to the hotel and when I went to our room, one of the mattresses was finally available, so I took a nap as the girls went downtown to the markets in the city and did a little site-seeing. One of the main things I wanted to do while here was attend an Australian Football League (or AFL) match. It’s the Aussie equivalent of American football, but is completely different – I would describe it as a combination of rugby, soccer, and American Football; so, when the girls got back and woke me up, we proceeded to order three tickets to the ANZAC day match between Essendon and Collingwood (two suburbs of Melbourne) at the Melbourne cricket grounds. ANZAC (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps) day is an Australian and New Zealand day of remembrance to honor all those who died in the Battle of Gallipoli in Turkey during WWII, but now is just a general memorial day for anybody who has served in military operations for Australia. Every year a large Aussie Rules football match is held at the MCG and usually draws a large attendance. When we told other people in our hostel that we got tickets a day before the game they were amazed and it turned out we even had really good seats. That night we took a bus ride from our hostel to the CBD and caught one of many trams to a street off of which was a micro-brewery. Trams (or trolleys) are still the main form of transportation around the city and Melbourne is continuing its efforts to expand the tracks. The brewery (Mountain Goat Brewery) was essentially in a dark back street and housed in a warehouse building. Apparently it operates as a regular brewery during the day, and then at night, they clear the entry floor, set up tables and furniture, and serve their beer and pizza to order. At night we went to a bar on Brunswick Street which I can’t remember the name of (which shows you how much I liked it) for “90’s Night”, but really involved very little 90’s music, but instead mostly remixes of classic 90’s dance music. The drink prices here were outrageous and it was very overcrowded and not very interesting. The next day we got up around 10am, ate breakfast, and caught a tram to the Melbourne Cricket Grounds. Before leaving, a roommate of ours at the hostel was surprised to hear we were planning on buying tram tickets because “NOBODY in Melbourne buys tram tickets”. Against my better judgment, I took his advice and none of us bought tickets. As luck would have it we pull up to one of the stops and I see two uniformed men with a clipboard who appear to be possible transit workers. The doors closed and I thought I dodged a bullet, but before the tram could take off, they approached the doors and knocked for them to be opened. It was a routine inspection and everybody was asked to show their tram tickets. I was sitting in a seat across the aisle from the girls so we were asked by separate officers for our tickets. They played the ‘ignorant tourist’ card which worked for them, because they had their passports and American IDs. I unfortunately decided to carry on me only my Australian ID, and was given a fine of $165. It isn’t due until June 21 and with the appeal that I will be entering, it won’t be due (if at all) until after June 26, when I leave the country, however I understand most cases like mine are overturned anyway. Needless to say, this put a damper on the mood for a while, but it was soon forgotten when we reached our seats at the match. They were about 11 rows back from the field and provided a great view. It was an awesome match that went right down to the wire and the huge stadium (probably the biggest I’ve ever been in one) was nearly sold out. The attendance for the match was somewhere around 86,000 (or approximately 2.5% of Melbourne’s population) and that atmosphere was electric. In the final minutes the skies opened up, and as the rain intensified, so did the pace and intensity of the match – a last minute goal by Essendon sealed the victory for them in an exciting finish. After the game we went to Crown Casino and Hotel just down the Yarra River from the MCG. It’s the biggest casino in Australia, so we spent a little time gambling here before making our way home and into bed.

Sunday we took a tour of the Great Ocean Road – the greatest tourist attraction near Melbourne which everybody is supposed to do while visiting the city. It really was a beautiful trip that began with crossing the largest bridge in Australia and continued along the rocky cliff faces of the Great Ocean Road. The conditions were cold and rainy which made visibility awful but really brought the ocean to life. Our tour guide was a cool kiwi and knew a lot of interesting things about the Great Ocean Road. He managed to keep us engaged even while the windows fogged up from the cooler, humid air outside. He told us stories of an infamous ship wreck and the meaning behind the Twelve Apostles rock formations. Our first stop of the tour was at the official entrance to the Great Ocean Road which is marked by a huge wooden overhang on the road. After getting some cold and rainy pictures, we hopped back in the van and made our way to our next stop at an old lighthouse. The lens in it has been functioning for about 100 years, but when it goes out it will cost thousands of dollars to replace because it was made using a special formulation that has since been lost. Nearby is also the location of an international surf competition at a place called Bell’s Beach (where surfing began) – surprisingly when I went up in the rafters overlooking the beach I saw about 20 surfers out in the water despite the unpleasantly cold conditions. It was a little bit of a ride to our next stop at a rainforest walk that brought us through some very old forest. We stopped for lunch at a little café and I had the best fruit salad I’ve ever had…I mean, besides yours Mom. Next was the main attraction, the Twelve Apostles – at this point the sun had been peeking through here and there so we were able to enjoy some amazing views.

After that we drove another 20 or 30 minutes to the site of the great ship wreck – there were only 2 survivors (a man and a woman) and there’s a great long story that I won’t get into. The final leg of the journey brought us to a site known as the London Bridge, because of the rock formations resemblance. Our guide was very excited about this stop because under the given conditions the waves over the rocks would be enormous; he actually got out and took pictures despite having done this same tour for three or so years now. The waves were great, but they had been great at every stop so far – they would actually rise up when they broke into the cliff faces and engulf the entire front tip in a misty haze. It seemed like it would rise in slow motion and was really cool to see.
Thus begins the long ride home. We made one stop for dinner and about three hours later we were dropped back off at our hostel. It was an early night because the girls had to get up very early to catch their flights – we originally booked to leave all together at about 12pm, but Danielle realized she had to be back for a presentation by early Monday afternoon. I woke up the next morning, got my tram ticket, caught my shuttle to Avalon airport, and flew back to Sydney.