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Published: March 25th 2006
The MCG
INCREDIBLE!!Helloooo everybody!
After leaving Cobram and sitting on a bus for three and a half hours i arrived in Melbourne city centre. My first port of call was Melbournes beachy suburb of St Kilda. I was booked into a hostel there for three days to chill out for a bit and relax my aching bones. However my journey wasnt quite as easy as it probably should have been. i stumbled across the tram stop for St Kilda beach, which was where my hostel was, and climbed through the door of what felt like a moving sauna, and that i should have been wearing just a towel and definately not my big backpack. After making the mistake of getting off about thirty stops to early i decided that insted of wait for the next tram ill just walk it! Little did i know that it was about a 40min walk to my hostel. When i finally arrived i had a wander along the seafront and through the town, which is full of trendy cafes and cake shops (some of the lushest looking cakes i have ever set my eyes upon and only about 10,000,000,000 calories each!) I treated myself to a
Ramsay Street
Apparently me outside the Kennedys House portion of fish and chips and settled down for the evening in front of the tv with my room mates and played a few games of cards till the wee small hours.
The next couple of mornings i got up early to watch the English teams in action in the Champs League and to get myself down to the beach early on to watch the sunrise which was pretty sweet. On my final day in St Kilda i decided to have a head up to central Melbourne to check out my hostel in the CBD that i was going to be staying in for the Commonwealth games. After previous experiences on trams i thought it would be best to walk it. Its funny how deceiving maps can be and two hours later of what looked like a half hour walk on my map, i arrived in central Melbourne. I had a quick wander and then hopped back on the tram to St kilda (i even managed to get of at the right stop this time). that evening i went to the cinema with two girls from my room to watch 'Firewall' which was a pretty decent film and went
The Steeplechase
The Kenyans ended up gettin a 1,2,3 finish to a bar to meet up with a couple of the others from the hostel for a drink or nine (at $2 a pint i couldn't resist!)
I checked into 'Hotel Bakpak' in Melbourne CBD the next morning and into a 16 bed dorm. A wall of stale farts and breath that could melt steel greeted me as i opened the door and i was finally lucky enough to get a bottom bunk, so no more stubbed toes for me! That evening i went down to the 'Roobar' with Denise (a girl from my dorm) and she introduced me to Tom and Sarah (a couple from up North). I later found out that every Friday night there are three transvestites that visit the bar and put on a show. Although it was slightly amusing, i dont think i have ever seen anything so horrible in my lifetime and pray every night that i will never do so again! I have nothing against transvestites but if u are gonna dress like a lady then its prob a good idea to have a shave every now and then and for god sakes invest in some good tape to hold the crown
The Yarra River
Part of the 71 fish lining the river jewels in place.
Whilst in Melbourne i thought it would be rude not to go to the Crown Casino, which is a mint building with a shopping centre, massive foodcourt and of course a casino. Five of us headed to the casino feeling lucky and it turns out none of us actually were. i lost a collosal $3 on the pokies, but Tom wasnt quite so lucky and found himself about $150 down. But still a good night was to be had by all. After the casino we headed down to the bar for a social one and i ended up stumbling across another lad from Uni (Cheggers for all of you from Uni), which always seems weird.
Also, although its sad, i couldnt resist a trip to Ramsay Street the home of popular day time soap 'Neighbours'. The trip involved a visit to the church that Scott (Jason Donovan) and Charlene (Kylie Minogue) got married in, Erinsborough High (the school), we breezed past the studio that it is filmed in and then our final destination Ramsey Street itself. If you ever watch Neighbours you may notice that it seems to take them about 20mins to get from
The Telstra Dome
Early on in the rugby 7's Tourney one house to the other and it looks like its quite big, but Ramsey Street only has four houses in it and the street is only about 10metres across. All the houses are owned by regular Australians and we saw a couple of them doing their gardening. We all took a few photos and discussed characters and plots, although everyone could have been chatting in Swaheelie for all i knew because i didnt have a scooby what they were nattering about.
The next day i went for a wander around Melbourne Centre and i dont think there was a square inch of it that i didnt cover. The skyline here is amazing and the city is dominated by skyscrapers and fancy old and modern builidings. That evening i found myself in the roo bar again for trivia night. the quiz was sport and commonwealth games orientated questions, so i thought i could be quite handy. It turns out we were to do quite well. Sarah, Tom, Denise, Scott and Myself all started the quiz and had a pretty decent first round. After that it was only Tom and i left to take the trivia crown. After winning a jug
in the second round for getting 10 out of 10 correct the trivia turned to a special round to win a free massage. I stepped up and 20 seconds or so later later i was the pround owner of a free massage. The competition was to see out of about 8 people, who could drink a pint through a straw the quickest. its good to see the last three years at university haven't been wasted!
As you are probably aware, the Commonwealth Games are in melbourne at the moment and it has been wicked being in Melbourne whilst it has all been on. The five of us along with Queeny (Michelle), another girl we met as we were heading out went to the Yarra river (where all the illuminated fish are representing each nation of the Commonwealth)to see the ceremony. If theres one thing the Aussies know how to do (other than Swim bloody fast) is put on a show, and they definately didnt let themselves down this time either. The main ceremony was in the Melbourne Cricket Ground but they had shows going on all over the place. There were fireworks coming out of everywhere including along the
river, the skyscrapers behind us and from the MCG and we could see them from all three spots from where we were sitting on the river which was awesome.
I had tickets for two events for the games, the Rugby 7's on the 16th and the Athletics on the 24th. The Rugby was held in the Telstra Dome, a 56,000 capacity stadium. I really enjoyed the rugby 7's and is so much more fun to watch than normal 15 a side rugby. The pace of the game is incredible and you have to be extremely fit and have a crazy stamina level. All four of the favourites to win (ENGLAND, Aus, NZ and Fiji were playing on the 16th in the evening when i had my ticket so that was wicked but the highlight of the evening, and the game everyone wanted to see was England vs Australia and this was the last game of the night. i was kitted up in my England shirt and red shorts with a big England flag and perched myself in my seat, later to find out that i was surrounded by Aussies from every angle. The evening was really good though as
we were exchanging friendly sporting banter all night and i had some good ammo behind me due to the Rugby World Cup and the Ashes. When the big game came along the whole stadium erupted and the atmosphere was unlike anything i had ever seen before. Although i was on the backfoot in the banter stakes for the first half as Oz scored first, England then got a couple of tries and conversions then Oz got a try with the last possesion of the game and the aussies had a chance to tie the game with the final kick, but they scuffed it, so naturally i tormenetd the Aussies around me and they all took it in good spirits as i would have got a roasting im sure had they won.
The Athletics was held in the MCG. On the day i had a ticket there was an attendance of 81,000 which was unreal certainly more than i had ever seen in the County Ground. I had a mint seat right by the pole vault and at the beginning end of the home straight of the track. The only bad thing about the seat was that i saw the
The Observation Deck View
A view of the Yarra River, Federation Square and Southbank from up high English 4x100m relay team fail to change over the baton after being about 10m ahead of the rest of the field, right in front of me. I was a bit annoyed i didnt get to stand up and sing the English national anthem as we didnt get any golds that day but we did get a silver in the womens 5000m and a bronze in the mens pole vault. Although i think after seeing so many Aussies win golds i now know the words to the Aussie national anthem betted than god save the queen unfortunately.
On the 19th, i peeled myself out of bed early to stand in the street and watch the marathon participants run past. i tried my hardest to get on TV and i must have been seen by at least two cameras but they probably realised that my dashing good looks would take away the attention from the racers so decided not to air it.
On the days i havent had tickets, i have spent my time at Federation Square (a major focal point in Melbourne) where they have a big screen and they show the games all day and late into the night. when the games finish there are a number of 'Live' sights jotted around the city and outer suburbs where every night during the games they have live music and shows which are free of charge so everybody piles to these sights to enjoy the festival. I have also been to a club called 'the last lap', and no its not some seedy stip club gaff, its a hotel that has been converted into a club for the duration of the games. its where all the athletes go to celebrate, and there have been loads of the top athletes in there. We managed to get some free tickets to get in (which saved us $35 each) and 5 free drinks each so it ended up being a pretty cheap night but also a pretty decent one.
Other than the games Melbourne still has a lot to offer and over the last couple of days I have been trying to see as many of the touristy things as i can. I started with the botanical gardens, which are pretty massive and theres loadsa flowers and trees and a massive lake so its pretty relaxing. So i took my iPod and a book with me and had a mellow day laying down by the lake. I even spotted a few turtles in the lake so watched them for a bit. Next up was the Docklands. This is one area of Melbourne they are really trying to develop and it looks pretty cool already. There are a load of swanky bars and cafes down there and loadsa smart yachts so i had a wander round there. I also couldnt resist going to the Aquarium, which as you can imagine had all sorts in there. I was quite lucky as by pure fluke i managed to be in there whilst they were feeding the sharks and rays which was cool, because some of the sharks and especially the rays were massive. Ive also been to the top of the Rialto tower building, the tallest office building in the Southern hemisphere, to the observation deck on the 55th floor. The view from the top of here was incredible and you can see the whole of Melbourne, and using the binoculars even into office buildings. Ive also been to the Queen Victoria Night Market where there are loads stalls selling typically girly things such as sarongs and beads etc but where blokes can go to enjoy a good burger. That evening i ate a Kangaroo Burger, an Emu sausage and a crocodile tail fillet and all were well tasty, i would particularly reccomend Emu!
So thats all my stories from melbourne so far, im booked in for another 10days, and possibly gonna go to the Formula 1 grand Prix on the 2nd April so quite excited about that too.
Hope all is well in snowy England and look after yourselves,
Dunc
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Neil G
non-member comment
Nice one
Good to hear from you mate. Glad you are doing well. Enjoy the GP Speak to you soon Neil