well i’m on my way…

On Friday I had the best/worst breakfast of my life (after the avo and cheese of course) today: pancakes and berries smothered in maple syrup and vanilla ice cream.  Yum!-although I did feel a bit sluggish for the rest of the day.  Cameron and I made it down to the city around 1 and wandered, although not aimlessly.  We went to the Art Gallery, through the shopping district, saw the state library, though the Queen Victoria Markets (well just the bread, cheese, and olive part) and bought lunch there.  We took our feast of ciabatta bread; avacado, sun dried tomato, and eggplant capsicum (red pepper) dips; an antipasto salad, and octopii for Cameron.  The food was delish, though very rich.  After we both had stomachaches, we headed for the MCG-Melbourne Cricket Grounds.

Cricket is kind of like baseball, except the bat is flattened out, the batter runs back and fourth (like in running bases), the field is a circle, the pitcher is called a baller and runs toward the batter before pitching…OK it’s nothing like baseball.  The rules aren’t too hard to follow, but I’m not going to bore you.  I’m pretty sure that for 95% of the game, I was the only one paying attention.  The crowd is the real entertainment at a cricket game.  When I walked into the grounds, it already smelled like the garbage pit (what’s it called Em?) at the end of a show at the Tweeter Center: stale beer.  The Aussies were already incomprehensible, not only for me, but for Cameron as well.  I had one beer to get into the culture, but that was it. 

People were blowing up beachballs and throwing them around, not unlike at a Jimmy Buffett concert (or any show for that matter).  When the cops or security would take them away, the entire section would chant “You are a wanker!”  It was great.  The crowd started going crazy in another section, and we noticed a blow up doll getting thrown around.  It was then that I noticed the crowd was mostly male-and you could just imagine what they were doing to the doll besides throwing it around.  I’m not sure who reads this, so I’m not going to get too descriptive.   After playing keep away with the cops for about 15 minutes, they finally got a hold of her, and the crowd was quiet for about an hour.  Until everyone in the place started going crazy and our attention was turned toward the field-there was a man streaking across the field!  The screens intantly flashed to a warning of $6000 for going on the playing field (and who knows how much for indecent exposure!) and the guy was tackeled in the middle of the field, handcuffed, and taken out of the audience’s eye, but not after someone else ran out with a towel to cover him up.  Not long after, another clothed guy ran out, didn’t get nearly half as far, but skipped in between the cops with a shit-eating grin on his face as he was taken off the field.  Stupid drunk people are so entertaining!

The game was between Australia and New Zealand.  New Zealand won, which made the ride home interesting.  The tram car was split between Aussies and Kiwis.  The Kiwis were drunkenly boasting, telling the Australians that they sucked, whatever…until one of the Aussies bleated like a sheep (there are 140000 people in NZ, and 40 million sheep).  The Kiwis laughed (thank god) and remained good humored. 

The next day Cameron had to work, so I had the day to myself.  I got to the city after takign the train the wrong way for 20 minutes and realized I had stepped into an oven.  The mercury reached 47 C on Saturday, which comes out to 117 F.  Even though I was being cooked, the heat was dry and I kind of enjoyed it.  I found Starbucks and had to indulge-I haven’t had any in two months!  I went to the free Immigration Museum, which was very informative, but a lot of it was repeated from the Fremantle Museum (the excellent exhibit) and the heat had made me inattentive.  I walked around, looking for some relief from the heat, but I didn’t want to go in any shops I may be tempted  to purchase something in.  I suffered the heat most of the day.  The skies were very hazy, not from the heat, but from the fires not too far away.  The wind was terrible too, which was not helpful for the fires as well.  I had Subway for lunch/dinner-I’m a little ashamed that I consumed American brands all day, but it’s cheap.  I headed back to the apartment around 730, showered and read for the rest of the night, when I wasn’t glued to the TV learning about the damage the fires were creating.  Guess I do have some of my mom in me! 

Today, Sunday, we went to the St Kilda Festival.  St Kilda is the cafe/beachy/clubby district.  They shut their streets down, set up a ton of food and ware vendors, and 4 stages where very different bands were playing.  We saw a few bands, sampled a lot of food, and people watched.  St Kilda is known for their cake shops, so you know I indulged-I had a lemon square (Amazing) and a peppermint square (eh…).  After seeing pretty much all there was to see short of stupidly drunk people and a few more bands, we left and checked out the Botannical Gardens, which were very brown-a lot of the trees are starting to die, the grass is brown, and the flowers are all wilted.  They’re in a massive drought right now and could use a bit of rain.  The crazy heat isn’t helping either-yesterday set a record for Melbourne.  When we got back to the apartment we prepared for the week-Road Trip! 

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