Melbourne

Friday the 26th

Packed my bags and said good bye to new zealand and took the flight from christchurch to Melbourne. As it turned out I probably picked the best weekend of the year to go to Melbourne. On saturday the grand final of the Aussie rules was on and on sunday there was a festival. When I got into melbourne I met Mickey Lynch, a mate from back home in Sligo, who is now living in Melbourne. He put me up for the weekend. We had some malaysian food and few beers afterwards but nothing too crazy. The area we were in was called St Kilda, and is 6 or 7km from the city centre. In melbourne there seems to be a city centre with the skyscrapers and then out at the start of the suburbs there are self sufficient little towns, such as St Kilda. It felt a little bit like london. The coverband in the bar we went to were, in terms of fashion, like a cross between Rod Stewart, Kiss and the Police. And they played a cover of 99 red baloons. What more could you ask for.

Saturday the 27th

A friends of Mickeys was having a BBQ for the Aussie Rules Grand Final and we were invited along. There was a good gang there a mix of Irish and Aussies. I managed a few burgers and then of course started on the beers. I think beer has a really important place in peoples hearts here. After the match, with Hawthorn having Beaten Geelong 115 to 89, the BBQ turned into a bit of a party and went on for most of the evening. The BBQ and beers is an institution here for grand final day and i was glad i could make it. After a failry long day we were in bed by 12 so we could get well rested for the concert the next day.

Sunday the 28th

Myself and Mickey went and met some of mickeys friends in one of their houses. We made a few bloody marys to help us get over the grand final BBQ form the day before and then about 8 of us headed off to the concert. It was a dance festival, which ususally doesnt interest me, but the sun was shining and there were an awful lot of good looking girls floating around so I suppose I was happy enough. The concert was right in the city centre so around the venue there were all the skyscrapers, all in all a pretty cool setting. But i couldnt tell you who was playing there, and still have no interest in buying dance music, but the concert was really good fun with mickeys mates all dancing like proper lunatics.

Monday the 29th

Just took a flight today to sydney, so havnt seen any of it yet (well I did get a glimpse of the Opera house from the plane window. Will definately need a few good nights sleep after that weekend in melbourne. And tomorrow Im doing a sailing course out in sydney harbour. Should be fun and relaxing.

---

---