Victoria - The Place To Be

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VICTORIA - THE PLACE TO BE

I almost didnt make it down to Victoria. This was thanks to an airport bus that decided not to bother running in the evening in Brissie. Luckily a formula-one-like taxi driver raced me round so I didnt miss my flight! It was probably one of the worst flights I have been on though as I was so hungover due to Jesse's 21st the night (and day) before...

After crashing in my hostel at a late hour following the flight, I took a walk around Melbourne on a nice clear day - once again the sun had decided to follow me around Oz 😊

It's hard to place Melbourne, there is such a mixture of different buildings and feelings there. It's definitely the most European city in Australia, with some buildings that wouldnt look out of place on many a European city square. There is also an array of cafes, some with outdoor seating - another aspect of the European feel to the city. But there is much more to it than this as well, parts of it reminded me of Vancouver and other places I'd been. What I do know is that it has a great feel about it and I loved it almost straight away. There is a laid back feel about the city, but it also loves it's sport, music and nightlife - three of my favourite passions, so it's easy to see why I liked Melbourne.

But I didnt spend too long there my first day as I jumped on a train down to a town called Ballarat where I met my mate Tom, also known as Bill. I met Tom aka Bill in Brussels about a year and half ago while I was across in Europe with the University playing in a volleyball tournament. Our flight from Brussels to Glasgow was cancelled due to fog, so we all decided to take the ferry across to Rosyth and Tom came along with us. There were obviously a few Scots on the ferry and we sat with a big group at the bar. We met 3 guys named Bill so decided just to call all guys Bill - hence Tom's alias name (all girls were called Kirsty as there were a few of them around!). After arriving in Scotland, Tom crashed at my flat in Glasgow after a night on the town and it was his turn to repay the favour - which he did and more!

I stayed with Tom and his partner Amy in Ballarat. I met his mother Moira and brother Matt and took a tour of Ballarat beforehand. Ballarat is predominantly famous as the place where a major gold breakthrough happened many years back. I, however, wanted to see a proper Aussie (bogan) pub - so Tom and I went to the worst pub in town to experience some true Aussie culture!

But aside from the occasional drinks I took it easy in Ballarat - which I needed to do after my exerts up north. Tom is also taking a break from the drinking (I think he drank more than enough while he was travelling as well!) so we relaxed at his place, played some cards and watched some Australian comedy shows.

Tom was working down near the coast one day, so his brother Matt and I hitched a life with him and then got a bus to a beautiful place called Port Fairy. Apparently this is a very popular holiday resort in the summer and it is easy to see why. The lagoons and small beaches were beautiful on another sunny Australian winters day - apparently they'd had snow down these parts not so long ago but once again the sun had followed me around! We took advantage and took some 'shadow photos'! Homer came along too and enjoyed it.

After checking out the lighthouse and walking along the (deserted) beaches - which would be perfectly suitable for some beach volleyball I thought - we went to a fish and chip shop that claims to make the best fish and chips in South Australia. Walking in I barely recognised anything on the menu. There was 'flake' and 'whitey' fish. I had never really heard of or tasted either of these before (flake is apparently just shark). So I had some flake and chips, being served a HUGE portion and the flake was absolutely awesome. Up there with the best fish and chips I've tasted (which can be found in Anstruther in Fife, Scotland).

Afterwards Matt and I walked around town, jumped on a bus back to the town where Matt was working and, with time to kill, jumped into the pub for some pool and a few beers. Arriving late back in Melbourne we had a relaxing night in. Tom showed me his new plan to get rich - short term trading in currencies. Naturally being financially orientated I was quite interested and we set up a couple of practice trades and made a few thousand dollars!

I was excited the next day but not about anything Australian. Matt and I were going to see the Simpsons movie! Matt and Tom are both huge Simpsons fans but Tom was working so couldnt come along. In fact I remember joking around with Tom when we first met in Europe about one of our favourite lines: 'Potato Man.' 'Where the hell have you been?!”

I really enjoyed the movie, it was top class as I knew it would be. There was a showing straight after and we almost stayed in to watch it again! Later in the day I cooked dinner for Tom and Amy. Tom likes anything Irish so I cooked up a nice little Irish Stew, including a dash of Guinness of course. In the evening Tom taught me a card game called 500 and then I beat him several times at it!

The next day was Australian Rules Football (AFL - referred to as footie in Oz) day. I only had a rough idea of the rules, so Tom filled me in the night before. I picked them up really quickly, it is actually a really good sport - I enjoyed it a lot (the only rule I couldnt get used to is called a catch a 'mark'). AFL is undoubtedly the biggest sport in Oz, especially around Melbourne. Melbourne is undoubtedly the home of AFL, with about ¾ of the teams in the league from Melbourne and around Victoria.

Anyways, I call the day AFL day because I saw all levels of the game that day! Tom was playing in a local town so we drove out there and arrived to see the second half of the Juniors game. I then watched Tom play in the 2nds match and then a bit of the 1sts before we had to leave. Tom and I left Ballarat for Melbourne to watch his beloved Collingwood playing in the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) - but not before I managed to copy some Australian music off Tom, Australia has some great bands who are not so well known back home, such as The John Butler Trio.

I was very excited about going to my first professional AFL game though, I had waited to see an AFL game in Melbourne so that I could sample the atmosphere of the MCG. It is a HUGE stadium, used a lot when Melbourne hosted the Commonwealth games. It's capacity is around 100,000 and quite often it can be filled for AFL games - but that evening there were 'only' around 40-50,000 spectators there.

The game was good but not in terms of the result! Tom donated a Collingwood vest to me but I wasnt a particularly lucky charm for the team as they got absolutely hammered something like 150-36. Tom informs me that it's the worst defeat they have suffered in years and years!

Collingwood are one of the biggest teams in the AFL with a huge fan base - although it would seem they have completely sold out to McDonalds judging by the pre-match 'entertainment'. The atmosphere in the MCG was good - a little quiet, but then again the home team was getting hammered! As desolate as Tom was I enjoyed my first professional AFL game and the MCG. We had a low key evening bar hopping around Melbourne, as we were both quite tired (and Tom was still in shock!)...

In Melbourne we stayed at Tom's Grandparent's (Pat and Tommy) place. His aunt also joined us there. Pat cooked us up an awesome big Sunday lunch. Tommy got out a bottle of Glenfiddich and we enjoyed a few drinks together. I had an absolutely wonderful evening as we drank and discussed all things Australian (including their opinion on Australian politics, which I think could be summed up as 'John Howard (PM) is a twat.') and stories of travelling. I learned many new things about Australia that I didnt know, such as the fact that voting is compulsory there. Also Pat and Tom, who are very well travelled, agree with me that the two best (big) countries in the world are Canada and Australia.

The next day I flew to Sydney, my time in Victoria over. I had a great time there and it shows in the fact that there several things I tried in Victoria for the first time, other than Flake and watching AFL. At Tom's place I tried Vegemite for the first time. I'd been waiting to get to the Melbourne area to try it, seeing as how it is from here. It was ok, not as bad as Marmite anyway... At Tom's AFL match I tried Dim Sims for the first time - quite tasty as well - a kind of spicy sausage-roll-like-wrap from China. They had these in the fish and chip shop in Port Fairy but I was stuffed from the fish and chips so didnt try them (they also had 'Chicken Salt' which I also didnt try!). Furthermore, I also tried Melbourne Bitter (very good) and the very rare Ballarat bitter (good) at Pat and Toms.

In Victoria, as throughout my travels, I was lucky to have once again been treated amazingly well by some great people. Tom and Amy were amazing hosts and went out of their way to make sure I had a good time - I couldnt thank them enough. Tom's family were top notch and I enjoyed meeting all of them. Hopefully I will be back one day to visit again, or I'll see them either in Scotland or Poland (Tom and I are going to meet there for a weekend when we're both multi-millionaires 😉.

Leaving Melbourne, I jumped across to Sydney and out to Bondi Beach. Sadly it was night when I arrived so I didnt get a chance to check out the beach, but I did get to see a nice bar 😊 I was meeting my friend Hannah out there - Hannah is sister to Zoe, who I stayed with in Arkansas, USA earlier. I had met Hannah in Scotland a couple of years before. She came across to visit Zoe, so I took them both up north to the Highland games at Tomintoul and we had a great time up there.

Unfortunately I only had the one night in Sydney as my time was up in Australia, I was flying to Bangkok the next day. So I only got to briefly catch up with Hannah and she was good enough to put me up in her place. Even worse, they had just thrown a huge flat warming party and I had missed it!

Flying to Bangkok the next day I was very sad to be leaving Australia. But I know for a fact that I will be back - after one week there I knew this would be the case. For a start I didnt have enough time to see parts of the (huge) country such as Perth in the west. But more importantly I loved the country and think it is well suited to me and my tastes (as mentioned before: sports, music, not taking life too seriously and socialising!). For me, Australia sits nicely alongside Canada as my two favourite places on Earth.

And within Australia their attitude is best summed up in places like Victoria, hence why I believe it's slogan as 'The Place To Be'.

Mich

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Photos

Melbourne Waterfront
The waterfront on a lovely days walk around Melbourne.

Port Fairy
One of the crystal clear water lagoon-like -beach-areas in PF.

Port Fairy Again
Matt and I on one of the many wee Port Fairy beaches

Local AFL
AFL on the 'oval' about 2 hours from Ballarat

Collingwood - 'The Pie's
The Pies run out to take on The Lions at the MCG

At the MCG
Tom and I (I'm wearing Collingwood top) at the MCG - Tom is still happy as The Pies arent getting hammered...yet!

Melbourne at night
Looking back out towards the MCG and Rod Laver arena at night...

Tom's family
Left to right: Tommy, Pat (grandparents) Tom and Annie (aunt)- whom I had a wonderful evening with