March 10th, 2006 – Playing Tourist

This was our first long weekend in Melbourne and although we all contemplated doing something fun and exciting with a rental car, decided that we were better off renting a car over Easter weekend in April over 4 days. It worked out remarkably well since some old roommates of ours from Sydney popped in for a few days and we were having such a good time they decided to stay an extra night to see an AFL game with us. The game was everything I thought and more. One of two Australian sports played in an oval pitch rather than a traditional rectangle, and with four upright poles, the game is substantially different from anything I’m accustomed to. I suppose it’s a combination of rugby, soccer and ultimate Frisbee. Players have to move the ball up the field by running with it or kicking it to their teammates. While running they have to bounce it every ten yards, if their player catches a kick further than 10 yards then they’re marked and the other team has to back off, otherwise its fair game to tackle. Hand passes are punched out of one hand, not thrown and points are scored by kicking the ball through the uprights. The middle pair is worth 6 points, while the two outer poles give you a single point.

Sunday morning after our guests left, Laure, Ben, Amy and I sat down and followed suit of Dave and Kristy by making a list of all of the things we had left to accomplish in Melbourne. Some of them were small and local and some required a bit of a travel to get there, so we decided to do a bunch of local tourist things. First was the Old Melbourne Gaol. The gaol is the remnants of the oldest in Australia and is renowned for holding the most idolized criminal in Australia – Ned Kelly. Being the first gaol that I’ve ever visited, it was really neat to see the size of the cells and a little freaky seeing the death masks of the old cell mates created just after their death and preserved with their stories in their old cells. Three floors of small concrete entries and the history of the most notorious condemned men and women in Victoria along with rickety old steel stairs connecting the floors, a hanging platform complete with trap door and a whipping harness at the far end, gave the gaol an atmosphere of how brutal life can be.

Monday after waking up to a cold rainy morning we cancelled our plans to go to Geelong and Torquay beach for the day and wandered into the city to get some ideas. Being Labor Day we stumbled across a parade down Swanston Street and watched all different cultural groups and themes pass by. Not the most elaborate parade I’ve ever seen but entertaining and well-done none-the-less. Then it was off to a cosmic bowling alley for a mid-afternoon rain shower. Finally, we wandered down to Port Melbourne and walked the waterfront until we came across the London pub and decided to celebrate the fact that Laure was accepted into the University of London.