Melbourne

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I only had two days in Melbourne before flying to Singapore but they were really enjoyable.

A few weeks ago I had been chatting various people on the lonely planet website about travelling in Asia, and one guy, Dennis, lived in Melbourne and suggested catching up. This incidentally in one of the interesting things about travelling, in normal life you would never consider meeting up with someone you met on the internet, nor would spending your time socialising with, previous, strangers be a daily occurence...but this is the world I am in (though obviously caution is required to some extent - I am still aware of that!)

Anyway...A few hours after climbing out of the overnight bus from Sydney I was meeting Dennis to head to an Aussie Rules Football game. I was excited about this since it was one of the things that I had intended to do in Australia and, being in the traveller's network the entire time, had never managed. So it was a happy last minute bonus to my time there. Before the game Dennis took me into the members suite to join him and some others in a silver service lunch, and at half time 'afternoon tea'. The afternoon tea consisted of small sandwiches, mini cream teas, and in typical aussie style, mini meat pies.

The game was fast and fun to watch. The players have to kick the ball between two inner goal posted to score a 6 point goal, or between either of the two outer posts to score 1 point. They can kick the ball, pass it forwards and run with it provided they bounce it every 10 feet or metres (forgotten which). The ball is shaped like a rugby ball. The players tackle each other, and if tackled the ball must be released by passing it to a player on your own side. The result of this seeming medly of football and rugby is a very fast paced game that I found much more interesting than the other two sports.

Aussie rules football is the biggest sport in New South Wales, along with cricket and the crowd were fiercely into the game. Having new spectated sport in England this was an interesting experience for me.

The overall experience was brilliant, and I was really grateful to Dennis not only for his effort to welcome to me to Melbourne but also his generosity in paying for my ticket and lunch (the latter of which was well beyond backpacker budget!)

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My last day I went sightseeing - I managed to visit Victoria Market, the main shopping street, Chinatown and St Kilda...a wonderful suburb with a beach front, pier, old style luna park and many cafes, patisseries and bars.

That night in the hostel, rather than getting an early night I headed to the hostel bar instead to watch the comedy night and enjoy a white wine soda to end my time in Australia.

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