Steve’s Travel Blog

Hello all,

I know it has been a while since I updated you so here it is.

I am still in Melbourne and no I do not have a car yet but that is all going to change this week.  I have been very picky about the car and still have not found the right one.  I have now seen everything there is to see in Melbourne and it is definitely time to move on.  I also have travel mates for the first part on my drive and the would like to get going fairly soon as well.  My travel mates are Carlijn form the Netherlands (I met her in New Zealand while on the Stray bus, Meghan from Vancouver, yes the same Meghan that I traveled with in Tasmania and Julie a German girl that I met while in Melbourne.  We are all looking forward to getting on the road now I just need to do my part and get a car.  On that note, Norman and I are seeing a few in the morning and if nothing works out there we have another to see in the evening.

So what have I done for the past 2 weeks in Melbourne:

I was Good Friday the last time I blogged so here is the update:

On Saturday I had a awesome Skype conversation with all of my family.  For those of you who do not know what skype is, i can call anyone who has downloaded skype on their computer and the call is completely free.  Skype is also free to download and I have been using it to call a few friends backs home and for this call at Easter.  It was the first time in 6 months that i had  been able to see their faces and I loved it.  Everyone was there (except Nicholas), the kids were crazy as always and everyone looked great.  We talked for about 1 hour and got caught up with all that was going on.  I was on a high for the rest of the day and it was full of adventure.  I was in the downtown area real early to make the call so I toured around for a bit in the morning and then went to the Melbourne Cricket Ground for an afternoon tour and visited to Melbourne Sports Museum.  I was done that about 5pm and then tickets went on sale for the Aussie Rules Football game for that evening.  It cost me $20.60 for a ticket in the general admission seats where it is first come/first serve.  The seats were on the 4th level but I was able to get right up front.  The game was Essendon vs Carlton (the favorite) and I had some of both fans around me.  A group of older people (Essendon fans) were talking with me and took me under their wing and helped me with the rules and everything else I needed to know, like the tradition is to have a meat pie and a beer at the game.  The stadium holds around 90,000 people and it was pretty full with just over 70,000 in attendance.  I have never been in a stadium with so many and it was loud and awesome.  Essendon won the game in a big upset.  I could not have asked for a better day, one of my best so far.

On Sunday i went to Easter mass in the morning (the cathedral looked amazing), and then made my way to the Queen Victoria Market.  The market is the largest one in Melbourne and they have everything and anything someone might want (clothes, computers, hardware, food, etc…)  You get to barter for everything so now I am in my element. I didn’t need anything but food so that is where I went to work.  I worked over a meat vendor and got 5 burgers, 6 sausages, 4 steaks and 4 lamb chops for $8 (wow, i really did well there), then it was on the the produce vendors and I bought stuff from 3 different vendors and spent a total of $7.20 and came away with apples, grapes, peppers, onions, potatoes, mushrooms, plums.  Matt and I ate off all the stuff for a week.  This is also where I met Julie who is going to travel with me once I get the car.

On Monday i took the train out to Port Melbourne and toured around there and then walked along the beach to St. Kilda.  The beach in St. Kilda was really busy and I hung out there for a while and then went and booked myself into a backpackers.  I went back to the beach and watched the sunset and listened to a group of musicians that had set up there (they were very good).  I went back to the hostel and met my roommates for the night (a couple from England, Rich and Sarah) and we had supper together and a couple of drinks.  I was nice to have some new people to chat with again.  It was early to bed because the next morning was going to be early.

On Tuesday I was up a 6:00am and on my way to the pier for a fishing trip.  This is why I stayed in St. Kilda instead of Matts as I would have had to get up at about 4 to get there.  The fishing charter was bigger than what I wanted but it was the most reasonably priced ($75).  We had 20 people on board and it was a pretty big boat.  We were fed breakfast and lunch and they took really good care of us.  Now here is the problem, the fishing was not exactly great.  Of the entire group only 2 snapper were caught, none by me.  The rest of the fish that were caught were Flatheads.  the flatheads we caught were all very small and not worth keeping.  I caught 4 which was okay compared to some.  There were only 2 other people that caught more than me, and one was a grandma that out fished her son in law and her 4 grand children (they were so frustrated and all she did was laugh and catch more fish).  I had no fish to take home with me but over all it was a pretty god day.

The fun just kept coming as on Wednesday I was up early again and into the city for a wine tour. I only had 3 others on the tour with me but it made it for a great day.  We started off with a 1 hour drive to the Yarra valley region and a winery called Debartoli.  It was a good start and we got about 8 different tastings.  I bought a bottle of 2004 shiraz ($40) that tasted awesome (way over my budget but what the hell).  We then went to a winery called Train Trak, it is fairly new and we did about 6 tastings here and then we got lunch.  They gave us so much food and it ws all incredible.  We had a little extra time after lunch so I did some more tastings and bought a little bottle ($14) of the Merlot.  Our 3rd winery was Yerling and we got at least another 8 tastings here and the picture below is of the magnum of wine i wanted to buy, but it was $180 so I went for a $26 normal bottle.  Our last stop was for champagne and some Sparkling wines that were okay but not great.  I got back to Matts at about 7pm and pretty much went to bed for the night.

Thursday was a relax day and went to the mall for a bit.  It is really cooling of here and I have had to buy a pair of jeans (which were to long but I hemmed them myself by hand) but I got a great deal (regular $70 and I paid $20).  On Friday I relaxed in the morning and then went into the city in the afternoon and evening.  I toured along the river where there were tons of people around on a Friday night.  I ended up at the Melbourne Casino (there are only 12 casinos in all of Australia) and walked around there for a while.  I had some supper and then decided that it was time to do some gambling.  I found a slot machine that had a beaver and a Canadian flag on it and figured it was meant to be.  I put $10 into it and it was all gone in about 5 minutes.  Then I looked around some more and found another machine that had fish on it and said what the hell.  I put $10 into it and again it was gone in about 10 minutes, I did not give up on this machine and put another $10 in and now it was time to get paid.  I ended up with $49 out of the machine which ends up been a profit of $19, big winner if you ask me.  I took my money and headed for the exit.  I was walking back to the train station and past where the Comedy Festival is happening.  I got stopped by this female comic that had a show that was starting in about 1 hour and she was trying to get people to go.  As that finished I was walking away and a lady said that she had a free ticket for the show that was starting in the main theater. I was on it like a fat kid on a smarty and in I went.  The seat was fairly close to the stage and the comedian was Arj Barker. It was a 2 hour show and the actual ticket price was $35 (a real winner today).  The show was great and I headed home after.

Over he past week everything has been pretty slow, I have been hunting for the car and touring around some local areas.  I even listened to the Flames game on my computer the other day.  Nice to see they have themselves back in the series. I have been keeping up with the playoffs and yes my Bruins kicked the shit out of the Habs!!!  I am also keeping an eye on the WHL playoffs and the Hitmen as well as Baseball and what ever other sports I can find.  I have had some Facebook conversations with friends and family which is always nice.

On Friday Carlijn made it to Melbourne and we spent Friday and Saturday together roaming the city.  On Saturday it was ANZAC (Australian New Zealand Armed Corps) Day, which would be like Remembrance day in Canada.  They had a parade of all the veterans on the main street to the “Shrine of Remembrance” and then a ceremony after that.  It took about 2 1/2 hours for the parade and had marching bands as well.  It was good to see but I was disappointed with one part.  All the different countries that have fought with Australia were recognized as well and there own place in the parade.  THe US, Turkey, Italy, Netherlands, etc… with lots of soldiers form those countries, but when it came to Canada their was only a cardboard sign and no soldiers at all.  It was not cool and we should have had some representation there.  I plan to send a letter to the government of Canada and express my disappointment.  The rest of the time was great and Carlijn and I are ready to head out of Melbourne once I get the car (you getting the theme yet)(damn I need a car!!!)

Well that is it for now, and I will let you all know when I get my ass out of Melbourne.

Take care all, now time to find that car!!!

Steve

Happy Birthday to my sister Cathleen and cousin Linda both on the 25th, Matthews birthday was on the 17th and I sent him a note already, Uncle Richards was on the 20th and he got a note too, and mom’s is coming soon, I gotta make sure I don’t miss that.

Tags: Australia

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 26th, 2009 at 9:35 pm and is filed under Australia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.