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Published: February 4th 2006
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Baby Jaws
Tiny guy looked a lot bigger 3 feet over my head... It’s not easy to leave a close friend whose been living in such a remote part of the world as Western Australia. Nor is it easy to leave an entire crew of expatriates with whom I’ve had such a good time with. But one can only stay in the WA when the land of Oz’s big two cities awaited.
It was probably not a good sign, landing in the middle of a lightning storm, and then having to wait out the storm to recover your bags because even the grounds crew wouldn’t be caught dead outside. But the only lingering negative aspect of the wild storm that greeted me in Melbourne was the humidity. Now dorm hostels can be nice. Operative word in that last statement is CAN. The Hostel Bakpak was not nice. It was massive, I’ll give it that, hundreds of nomadic youths wandering around at all hours of the day and night, but nice it was not. Seldom can I remember being so hung-over during the day without having drank a drop of alcohol the night before. True, there were some of those insomniac weeks in college, but those were of my own doing. Mix 95 degree
temperatures with 100% humidity, open a window directly onto a busy alley, don’t even think about a fan, and add 7 bunk beds. I didn’t give Melbourne a fair shake because my days were spent recovering from my nights.
Hence the Aquarium:
There were a few other attractions that appealed to me, such as the Stanley Kubrick exhibit at the uber modern Film Institute, but seeing sharks in a controlled setting while walking around in air conditioning was too much to pass up. Royal and I actually split up for the day because I attempted an afternoon nap, to no avail. So we parted and apparently he was in as much of a daze as I was because he left 2 hours before I did, and I caught up with him at the second exhibit in the Aquarium.
In all honesty, I expected much more from an Aquarium in Australia. For a country whose lifeline is the ocean, there was relatively little exhibits that left a lasting impression. Jellyfish, ok, Sharks, cool, Massive Sting Rays, nice, Giant Squid frozen in Ice? Please!!! I’m going back to the Baltimore Aquarium or even the Camden Aquarium before I give this
one my endorsement.
The only saving grace for the day was that we went back to the hostel and moved across the street to a room with 6 more windows and 5 less beds, that and we then spent the night at the Australian Open’s Beer Garden. If I’d been writing more and had read a little Hunter S. Thompson lately, I would have attempted to create a blog in his honor because we did something that he would truly have loved. Three of us went all the way to the Tennis grounds where the finals were being held and did nothing but sit outside, drink beer and watch a big screen TV. At least I did watch the match, with the exception of most of the second set when I wandered the grounds looking for cheaper beer and an open court of which I could take pictures. I found no cheap beer, Heineken, sponsored by American Express was all that was served but I did manage to sneak some pictures of one of the preliminary round courts.
The most exciting part about the entire event was the absurd amount of Grecians attending the event. The underdog, Baghdatis,
who was from a country within close proximity, united an entire nation living in Melbourne to near delirium. The first set, if you didn’t watch it, (as I’m assuming most Americans didn’t because Tennis is just about as popular as lawn bowling in the states) was won by Baghdatis igniting the crowd. But the first set was all he could win as he dropped the next three in a row in front of an entire Beer Garden fill of dejected Trojans. On that night, Roger Federer was just too good. Watching how he toyed with Baghdatis throughout the first set then hit the afterburners in the following three made me think back. Could Roger Federer beat John McEnroe? Could he beat Pete Sampras? Could he beat Superman? Could he beat JAWS?
Odds on all 4 of those dream matchups are as follows:
20:1 over McEnroe
10:1 over Sampras
4:1 over Superman
Even Money against JAWS
I pick JAWS in a landslide…
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