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Published: March 25th 2010
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Having a job is a thorn in my side, I just don't enjoy the fact that I am working when I could be experiencing more excitement elsewhere. Working interrupts the frequency of my blogs. In fact I haven't blogged in a couple of weeks and would like to take this chance to catch up on my more structured, less exciting way of life at the moment.
Finding a place to live in Melbourne has proved to be difficult. I've taken time to find my way around the city, arranging viewings with people but things just kept falling through. I did live in share house for 10 days but then found myself back in a hostel. Eventually, I did find a place, in a part of town called Ripponlea. It is about 5 stops on the train from Flinders Station and is just a nice peaceful place to live. The main street has fruit stalls, a couple coffee shops, one bar and 3 Laundromats. It is just a cute little part of town that is an easy commute to the city but also quite near to St Kilda. The house has four bedrooms that I share with two Aussie girls and
one Kiwi guy. The back yard comes with a large fig tree that is home to really loud birds during the day and amazingly scary, huge bats at night (that can also be loud).
There are certain things that you just kinda half to do when you are somewhere, like eat pizza in Naples or go to the Eiffel Tower when in Paris. Here most people tell you to check out a footie match. Even my good friend Steph from Canada, who was here last year, had told me to check out a footie match. Now footie, as they call it around here, refers to Aussie Rules Rugby. I don't understand the original sport of rugby, but the Aussie footie is played on an oval pitch( the other rugby is on a rectangular pitch).There was a preseason game a few weeks back and I was invited along with my Irish friends Bobby, Jon and Mark. The Etihad Stadium is huge, I guess it holds around 50,000, and was the location for the St Kilda Saints versus the Sydney Swans in a preseason semi-final match. After getting our tickets, Jon reached in his backpack and pulled out two Sydney jerseys
(apparently Jon lived in Sydney for awhile and happened to be a Swans fan). Mark and Jon wore the Sydney jerseys and we decided to sit with the St Kilda fans (St kilda is a Melbourne team).
We mainly drank beer, chatted and soaked up the atmosphere. It was a preseason game so it was a no where near capacity crowd. The game of footie is fast and rough. The ball gets kicked and bodies are in the air to snatch it, then a quick pass followed by running, passing, tackling, grasping and more kicking. We didn't totally understand the game but still found ourselves getting into it. Our team did make a comeback and the game was very close in the final quarter. The final score was 79-78 St Kilda. The boys took off there Sydney jerseys before we left. It was a good first night of footie.
Now Melbourne has a reputation of being a bit off a must see food destination for foodies out there. Maybe I have just read to many Anthony Bourdain books in which he praises this city. Melbourne hosts a food and wine festival each year. Upon some research I found
some activities that I was excited about. My budget is low so some ideas had to go to the chopping block but I still had a few cheap jewels to explore. How about the micro-brewery beer tasting? Richie and I went and had a blast. Beers from all over Victoria State. Many different flavours and styles. Stouts, pilseners, ciders, and ales of all kinds. In less then two hours we had sampled nearly 20 different brews and ended up wandering Melbourne's streets a little on the tipsy side.
Street food is a big interest of mine and a glance through my Europe travel journal would expose stories of escargots, belgian waffles, haggis and other food items sold by street vendors. Street food is always a good honest fare, a no fuss way to use everyday ingredients and that's what I like about it. Part
of the food festival's cheap events was a street food festival located at the Queen Victoria Market. It was a warm Sunday and before turning the corner into the market I was greeted with the smells of fried calamari and the smoke from several barbecues. The place was crowded and some line ups were long.
Most stalls offered only a few items and many nationalities were represented. I enjoyed some fried bread with tomato chutney and chilli balls from the Delicious Mauritius stall, followed by some chorizo and some sangria as a refreshment. Some Cook Islands drummers played some traditional music with dancers in colourful costumes and they even had a dance off. All in all it was a great Sunday afternoon spent with my friends Bobby and Richie enjoying some different flavours.
So my days are more tame and structured and consist of daily commutes to work along with other more normal activities like grocery shopping and such. Melbourne is a great city that always seems to have a festival of sorts or other activities to participate in. And hey, if you can't find a festival well maybe just explore some of the little bars or coffee shops around the city. Find a new favourite watering hole or just meet some new people.
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