We start out by walking (because the weather is perfect) on over to the Melbourne Cricket Grounds (MCG - http://www.mcg.org.au/) which is next door to Rod Laver Arena (arena to a tennis major http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Laver_Arena) and to all those other tennis fans, seeing Rod Laver Arena is pretty cool.
So upon walking up over a hill, we stumble up the "bullpen" of one of the professional cricket teams warming up (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uQfL0UPZF0) watched that for a bit considering we were stunned to actually be there. We walked over to the ticket office having no idea what the ticket prices were going to be or what the crowd was going to be like...the tickets were $5 each (general admission) and inside this 100,000-seat stadium a game of Cricket would be played in front of no more than 300 people http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cquEiTmOYi0.
As exciting as it was to be there...cricket has to be the most boring sport ever invented. It technically lasts all day with a few different sessions and depending on what style of cricket...it can last up to 5 consecutive days without any thrilling moment...we thought we just misunderstood the game so we asked some locals in attendance and they agreed that if you didn't grow up playing it, it was quite boring to watch. My assessment = a game that should be played in no more of an organized setting than P.E. in school.
Leaving the MCG (genuinely thrilled to have seen the match despite it being devastatingly boring) we took a walk through the park and ran across some youth catholic festival with stage and singing and kids everywhere going crazy...singing along to songs i've never heard of and jumping up and down as if the Beatles circa 1964 just took the stage.
Leaving the park we decided to eat and grabbed some sushi at a sweet little spot on Elizabeth street (I know some of you are thinking, "Why have sushi in Australia...you can get that in the U.S.?"). There is quite a bit of Asian influence in Australia, especially with Asia lying directly north.
We walked back to the hotel to rest up and watch the 24-hour sports channel that plays nothing but rugby, Australian-rules rugby, soccer cricket and the occasional NBA game. Yes, random NBA games. I actually got to see the third quarter of the Wolves vs Suns game via FS Wolves TV.
After we left the hotel we were excited to now be heading over to the Melbourne Aquarium where we got to see up close LOTS of penguins, sharks stingrays and numerous other cool animals. I tweeted about going there and the Melbourne Twitter account responded wishing me a good time. (http://twitter.com/melbaquarium).
In the aquarium we were able to see lots of penguins http://www.flickr.com/photos/30796964@N02/4444128668/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/30796964@N02/4444126540/and many other very cute animals that everyone would like to just take home...it was pretty cool. :)
After the aquarium, we set out on Melbourne DETERMINED to dominate this abroad St. Patrick's Day. We ended up hitting 4 different pubs and I even did some Irish jigging with people at Bridie O'Reilly's (http://ltcollinsst.bridieoreillys.com.au/).
FACT: I have not seen ONE Fosters beer nor have I seen ONE advertisement for it.
FACT: Melbourne has the best modern architecture of any city I've ever been to. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9D_ANkgFUk, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XerBLHMWb-E)
I will have videos of the Kids festival and me Irish Jigging on my youtube page: http://www.youtube.com/user/caseycornett
and photos on my Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30796964@N02/
I have all the videos and photos already on my computer but the internet connection is slow at the spot i'm at that while writing this entire blog (finding and adding the links) Youtube only uploaded ONE video and Flickr 17 photos....I'll try later. They are great videos and definitely worth viewing so stay tuned.
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