Well my time in Melbourne is drawing to a close so it feels like a good time to write up my first blog entry.
Myself and the boys landed in Melbourne on the 13th April at around 1am. The flight was 22 hours long, 22 HOURS LONG! I watched 4 films in that time, that’s an insane amount of time to sit still and do nothing for. At one point the bloke next to me was so bored he tried to teach me a little bit of Arabic. Needless to say that didn’t work so well as he couldn’t speak English so the majority of the time I had to sit there smiling hoping he would get bored so I could get back to watching The Three Musketeers (and yes I know it’s awful but I’m not one for abandoning a film halfway through).
But yes finally the flight was behind us and Martin, Greg, Matt, George and myself headed into the city of Melbourne to explore this great city.
Now first thing that has to be said for Melbourne is it is beautiful. I know this sounds very cliché but the fact of the matter is that it is a sprawling city with some of the most beautiful parks I have ever seen as well as a fantastic seafront. Believe me laying down in the sunshine on that beach is about as close to heaven as you’ll get. Annoyingly the sea is still pretty cold, not as bad as the North Sea but still cold. I have been informed that this is unique to Melbourne and things will change when we move on to Adelaide.
But despite the cold waters the weather is fantastic. Mind you after leaving Newcastle during a heavy rain that turned into snow that then turned into sleet, anything is fantastic. But in all honesty I find it truly amazing that people manage to do anything other than just laze about all day. We’ve spent the majority of our time here throwing a ball around or just lying down and reading.
Mind you in the evenings there has been the odd boozy session. Not an insane amount but definitely more than a tipple. There was one night where Greg did have slightly more than a tipple, it ended in him rather hilariously vomiting in his trilby the next morning outside McDonalds. Deary me what a sight.
On the more Touristy side of things we have seen all the sports grounds including the Rod Lavers Arena and the Melbourne Cricket Ground, and they are enormous. We’re slightly annoyed at ourselves for letting the opportunity to see an Aussie Rules match at the MCG fall through our disorganised fingers, but we vow we will see one and soon.
We have all decided that we will follow and Aussie Rules team and actually understand how a game is played before we leave the Southern part of Australia (it’s apparently not as popular up north). However after catching a snippet of a match the other night I wonder how close anyone is to understanding the game as I sure as hell had no idea what was going on. I shall be following a team called Collingwood as they are more commonly know as ‘The Magpies’ and being a Geordie this has obvious reasons for drawing my support.
Keeping in the tourist vein but veering from sports we ventured to Melbourne city centre and went up to Skydeck 88, the tallest building in the southern hemisphere. Now this isn’t that big an achievement really considering the fact that the southern hemisphere isn’t famous for its tall buildings as it tends to build out rather than up due to the vast amount of land they have available. However it is still over 88 storeys high and therefore gave us an incredible view of the surrounding city. I had a terrible moment of vertigo and had to take very small baby steps around the place.
When we returned to earth we made our way towards a casino, we weren’t intending to gamble but we had heard it was something to see. We walked along the riverfront seeing all the fantastic bars and restaurants, but one thing that seemed strange were the pillars dotted along the way we walked. We thought they must just be decoration, but then we heard a hissing. That was when the pillars began to breathe fire. Now this wasn’t just a simple fire on top of a pillar, this was a series of fireballs. This lasted for about 10 minutes, each fireball bigger and more intense than the last, but then suddenly it stopped, and we made our way onwards to the casino.
The casino was very impressive, full of marble staircases, dazzling chandeliers and a fountain. We walked along the game floor and the roulette table nearly drew me in but I resisted the temptation, the phrase ‘the house always wins’ echoing in my head.
Returning to the present, we have only a few days left in Melbourne as we have booked a campervan to drive along The Great Ocean Road to Adelaide. It will be a whopping 8 days drive but we have heard it is a once in a lifetime trip. I just hope it’s worth sleeping in a small van with 4 other blokes for 8 days and eating nothing but tinned goods. I have the confidence if nothing else it will be an experience to remember.
This is Charles Stephenson, signing off.
