Last and Final Stop - Melbourne

I decided to fly to Melbourne as opposed to taking the bus since it was only $25 more and only took an hour as compared to 10 hours. Sold! I tearily left Sean in Canberra to finish the last leg of my Oz journey before heading to New Zealand. Once I arrived and settled in, I had just enough time to throw my stuff in my room, shower and head on over to the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) for an Aussie Rules match. The MCG is an institution in Melbourne and Australia really, much like Yankee Stadium is for baseball fans (unless you hate the Yankees). It's practically hallowed ground. This day I was attending a match between Richmond and North Melbourne and had a hard time deciding who to cheer for since I was sandwiched in between a Rickmond supporter and a N. Melbourne supporter! There are several AFL teams in Melbourne so they share the MCG or the Telstra Dome so they have to announce who the home team is to everyone. It's kinda strange! I basically just cheered when anyone else cheered, but by the time the match was over I had the basic gist of the rules. The main thing you need to know is this - Aussie Rules players are tall, fit muscly men wearing tight shirts and shorts, running and jumping into each other for two hours. It's better than an all male Vegas revue!

The next day, after a crap night of sleep courtesy of drunk girls running up and down the halls of my dorm, I headed into Melbourne via tram (I was staying in St. Kilda, on the beach, right outside Melbourne) and got directions for two themed walks around the city. FYI - the visitor's center at Federation Square is the best! I chose to explore the lane ways and arcades (shopping centers) and then the riverfront and docks. Melbourne has a very European feel to it and this is apparent in the tiny laneways containing coffee chops and tiny cafes. Very cute! Combined with a break for lunch and a brief visit to Crown Casino, it took up most of the day and my dogs were beggin' me to return for some rest. I just made up some dinner that night, watched some TV in the lounge and prayed for some restful sleep or there would be hell to pay!

I started the next day with a plan. It started at the Australian Center for Moving Images with an exhibit on the history of video games! It featured 125+ games that you could play - from the first Pong to prototypes for future games. Holy crap! Jackpot! Along with the history on the creators, companies, and fans of the game, I ran around and played Pitfall (Atari!), Asteroids, Space Invaders, Donkey Kong, Mortal Kombat, and tons of others. It took me back to my childhood and that was cool until I realized I'm old enough to have stuff from my childhood as a museum exhibit. Doh! Next up, I took the free city circle tram to the Melbourne Gaol to see the famous prison where Ned Kelly was executed. I was excited to learn the design of the gaol was modeled after none other than the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philly! One of the guides asked me where I was from and when I told him he got all excited and told me all about the relationship between the two gaols. A very nice fellow! 146 (?) people were hanged in this gaol and it houses quite a macabre collection of death masks. These masks were molded after their death so the shape of the skull could be studied (phrenology) and they are so creepy! These two things took up quite a bit of time so I just meandered past the Parliament House and Treasury Gardens before heading back for another night of pasta and TV in the lounge!


I finally decided to book a tour and I chose a winery tour of the Yarra Valley. It was a kinda overcast day so I'm glad I did a tour this day because walking around Melbourne or St. Kilda would have been crappy. We visited four wineries, tasted MANY wines and had a beautiful gourmet lunch. The visit ended at Domain Chandon, owned by Moet & Chandon, and is the only Aussie winery to make sparkling wine in the same manor as in the Champagne region of France. I wish I could've bought a few bottles, but shipping is $$$ and I didn't trust them to make it the rest of my journey intact (or without me drinking it). It was one of the better tours I've been on and I'm so glad the weather held out for us. After getting dropped off from the tour, I took my buzzed ass to the Elephant and Wheelbarrow on Fitzroy Street for dinner and drinks for my last night in Australia. I was invited by a group to join them and play Quizzo and we cam in 2nd! They were very nice locals and I'm so glad they invited me over! They teased me a bit for being American, but it was all good fun :)