Spring has officially arrived in Melbourne, and the weather has improved drastically...finally! Apparently I have been here for the coldest, wettest winter Melbourne has seen in a long time. Talk about bad luck! When I first got here, everyone was talking about Australia being in the worst drought in history, but the constant rain has helped the situation a little. The problem is that it has rained nearly everyday for as long as I can remember, however when it rains, it pours. There was actually some pretty serious flooding a few weeks ago all over the state of Victoria. This means that the water catchments (where the drinking water comes from) are not able to catch all of the water because it accumulates too quickly. I heard someone say that they are only 45% full now even with all of the rain, crazy!
Now that the weather is getting better, everyone seems to be in a better mood. The weird thing about the weather though is it seems to know when it should be good, if that makes any sense. During the week when everyone is locked in the office at work, it can be rainy and cold. However on the weekends, there has been consistent sunshine and warm weather over 20 degrees Celsius! Living in St. Kilda is the perfect place to be on the weekends. People come from all over to go to the beach and every bar and restaurant is packed full of beautiful people.
I really do not understand where everyone gets the money to always be out drinking and eating here. It makes me think that Australians must have a lot of debt. For example, when I walk home from work every night, I walk down Chapel Street to get to St. Kilda, and there are always so many people out shopping and eating/drinking. Maybe I just notice these things more since I have decided to save my money so that I can travel again before heading back to the States...
Anyway, springtime in Melbourne is an exciting time (and definitely the wrong time to decide to save money!), and there is something going on nearly every weekend. Just a few weeks after Alyssa left, I decided to meet up with an Australian girl here who is friends with one of my friends in SF. It seems that almost all of my good friends here are actually friends of friends from back home (maybe because Australians are cliquey? Melbournians definitely are!), so I was excited at the prospect of another girl friend to go out with. She had just moved back to Melbourne from Queensland for her dream job, so she was excited to go out and get reacquainted with this city that I now call home. We met during the week after work for some drinks and planned to go out in a few weekends, we had a great time!
It was refreshing to meet an Australian who I actually felt that I had a lot in common with. Two weeks after being back in Melbourne, she was going to a Tim McGraw concert! May not sound like a big deal, but most Australians do not like country music (well the young city dwellers don’t...). Also, I came to find out she was a big fan of the TV show Glee, another sign that we would get along well. The only bad news though is that she had planned a trip to America and Canada for a month in October/November, so we wouldn’t actually have that much time to hang out before she left.
We planned to meet at her apartment for a few cocktails before going out and dancing. It was a very successful night, and we stayed out into the late hours. I apparently had a great time judging by the way I felt the next morning when I woke up, and I had a message from a mystery person that I did not even remember meeting.
Funny story, I went and met up with him the following weekend (in a public place of course!) and I still had no recollection of being introduced to him. He was definitely not my type, but I think we may actually be friends. He is what Australians would refer to as a “Wog” which is what Australians call guys from Greek or Italian descent. Similar to the American “Guido,” these guys have a slightly different Australian accent and are very confident. I realize that it’s probably not politically correct to refer to him as a “Wog,” but the description really describes this guy well. He lives with his parents (which is actually really common here even among the 25-year old crowd) and works for his parents’ business, along with working at his friend’s entrepreneurial venture. He spends Sunday afternoons at his “nana’s” house where she makes him homemade pasta and sausage. Since I also come from an Italian family, I appreciate these things and it actually makes me miss my New Jersey family.
Going back to the Sunday after I went out with my new friend, Renee and I decided to have Sunday lunch at Cutler & Co. which was rated the #1 restaurant in Australia by Gourmet Traveller Magazine. Also, a few of our friends are chefs there, so we knew we would be getting special treatment! Since winning the award from Gourmet, Cutler & Co. is constantly booked out, and we were able to sneak in for a Sunday (thanks Patrick!), the only day that they serve a set menu lunch. For $65, you get a few starters, a main, and a dessert. The food was really delicious, and Renee and I felt classy for the day drinking champagne and bloody mary’s among those that can actually afford to do that kind of thing on a regular basis.
Then three weekends ago, the AFL Grand Final was the big event in town. Comparable to the Super Bowl (except even more exciting because both teams playing were from Melbourne), the final is the championship game of the Aussie Rules Football season. I had been to two games in the season to watch Carlton (one with Alyssa and the other with Humme!), but unfortunately Carlton did not make it far in the playoffs.
The two teams playing in this Grand Final were Collingwood and St. Kilda. The week before, Collingwood beat Geelong to make it into the final game, which was a big deal as Geelong has played in the last 3 Grand Finals (and last year against St. Kilda). St. Kilda lost to Geelong in last year’s game, so they were excited for another opportunity to play in the big game. It had been many years since either team had won the Grand Final (the 1970’s for Collingwood and the 1960’s for St. Kilda), so both teams were training hard for the chance to make their fans proud.
Collingwood supporters can somewhat be compared to Oakland Raiders fans in America (they are even black and white colors) in that they can get pretty scary. They have a reputation for being “bogans” and seem to be the fans at the games that get into the most fights. If you are not a Collingwood fan, you hate Collingwood. This means that Melbourne was pretty much divided between those that were supporting Collingwood and everyone else was barracking (a new word I learned!) for St. Kilda. My boss is a diehard Collingwood fan, so of course I was going for St. Kilda. I also live in St. Kilda so I was hoping that they would win so that there would be a big neighborhood celebration that night.
For the game, we had been invited to our friend’s house out in the suburbs for a party (Thanks Matty V!). Renee and I had a great time figuring out the trains we had to take to get out to a place called Watsonia. It was nearly halftime of the game before we made it, haha.
We actually made it in perfect time to see history being made. Collingwood was beating St. Kilda going into halftime, but after the break, St. Kilda made an amazing comeback. Everyone who was watching with us hated Collingwood (most were Carlton fans, of which Collingwood is a rival) so we were all so excited. With just a few minutes left to go in the game, St. Kilda actually had a small lead for the first time in the game. Collingwood was favored to win the game, so we were all so shocked at the quick turn of events. St. Kilda actually had a chance to win the game, but unfortunately the game ended in a draw. Only the third in history!
No one quite knew what to do next including the players on the field. Apparently in the Grand Final when there is a draw, the game is replayed the following week. In the regular season of the AFL, the game would be played out in overtime, but for some reason this specific rule applies to the final game. Watching the faces of the fans at the game, realizing this was the case, was really a sight to see. From the TV it looked like the entire MCG stadium got quiet and no one was really sure what they were witnessing. The last time there was a draw in the AFL Grand Final was in the 1977 game (Collingwood lost the replay back then). The players were all laying on the field, exhausted and in awe. Apparently many of them had planned vacations for the week following that would now have to be rescheduled so that many of them could re-play the biggest event of their careers.
I could not believe that this rule existed and that everyone would be re-doing their Grand Final celebrations again the following week, then two amazing things happened. The first was the presentation of the Norm Smith medal (basically the MVP of the game) which I was surprised was still happening since the game ended without result. With the absence of fireworks and celebrating, it was really awkward for the player to be presented with an award. Lenny Hayes (St. Kilda player) went up to the microphone to accept his award, but he had lost his voice and croaked out an acceptance speech haha.
Then the next amazing thing happened when the camera cut to the news desk at the MCG for the post-show. For some reason, there was a lot of wind blowing on the announcers and it looked like an amateur production. One of the older guys definitely had a toupee which was flopping in the wind, and when they returned from commercial break, he was missing from the broadcast haha!
On our way back to the city, I took a quick nap on the train. It was amazing! No one thought that I would still make it out that night, but I delivered. I even had my own dance party and stayed out way later than I should have. This was also the night that the plan hatched for my upcoming travel plans! Always best to make quick decisions about traveling when you are not in a sober state...
In the week leading up to the Grand Final Replay, I was actually offered tickets from one of my TV buyers in Sydney to go watch the game. He had been flown down from Sydney for the Grand Final game but could not rationalize doing it two weeks in a row. It would have been great to go see the big game played live (in the Channel 7 hospitality nonetheless), however I already had tickets to go to Parklife, so I ended up passing the tickets to a client.
As Collingwood ended up winning the game by a mile, I was really glad I ended up going to Parklife instead. I didn’t even watch any of the Grand Final Replay, because I was too busy enjoying the sun and music. Highlights of the day were homemade aioli and avocado on toast for breakfast (thanks to our chef friends!), jaeger bombs starting at 10AM, and definitely the music (Too Many DJ’s, Kele from Bloc Party, Cut Copy, Bag Raiders to name a few). I never thought I would be able to say that I have been to a Missy Elliot show, but now unfortunately I can as she played at Parklife too. To be honest, I wasn’t really that impressed with her performance, but I was pretty mesmerized by her Michael Jackson shirt and amazing dancers!
The day went by entirely too fast, but it was really one of the best spent in Australia so far. The weather was perfect, the music was great, and everyone was in a really good mood. We spent the entire next day recovering by the beach eating greasy fish and chips and getting a few drinks at the Espy. I could not believe this was the same Melbourne that had been rainy and freezing just a few days before!
As I said in the beginning of this post, I was excited for Spring in Melbourne because there was something going on nearly every weekend. That being said, the weekend after Parklife was actually pretty low-key for me. I ended up going to a dinner party at a co-workers house and ran the 5.7km in the Melbourne Marathon. (Natalie, don’t read this!!) I was actually planning to run the half marathon, but one of my coworkers forgot to sign us all up so the event sold out. The furthest distance available was the 5.7km so I thought I would just do that. Even though I did not get a great sleep the night before, I ended up doing pretty well!
The next weekend was pretty crazy - on Friday night, I went to one of my first open bar parties for work in Melbourne (thanks Becky!). Even though the party was open bar, we somehow ended up buying tequila shots and the night just went downhill from there. That being said, I woke up the next morning without a cell phone and could not reach my roommate because she had lost her cell phone too! When we finally managed to reach each other, we collected our cell phones and her purse (minus $400!), along with our dignity from the Precinct.
We were meant to be going to a champagne breakfast that morning to pre-party for the Caulfield Cup (spring in Melbourne=horse racing season!), but we did not end up even leaving St. Kilda for Caulfield until 1:30PM. What a disaster...
And to make it even worse, the weather was not ideal for a day of horse racing. We tried to make the most of the moments when the sun was actually out, but then the rain clouds would appear. During the rainy times, everyone ran and hid under the tents and it was freezing. I placed a few bets on some horses but did not win any of them (probably because I chose my bets on the names I liked). I really just enjoyed all of the men in suits - probably 20 men to every girl - and decided I would have to go to Melbourne Cup in a few weeks to really get a taste for this Spring Racing thing.
I was starting to realize that it was definitely going to be hard to save money leading into summer, especially now that I had a plan for my next travels! One of my friends here (Nashy) has been planning to go to S.E. Asia over the holidays, and I decided I was going to join him! I had been planning to head to that part of the world before I headed home, and the timing actually worked out for me. I chatted with my boss about whether or not I would extend my contract for work from October 20th (my original end date).
I decided to take 2 weeks off (because my mom would be visiting from America starting October 21st!) and then go back to work for one more month so that I could even afford to travel more. The plan after that is to fly to Malaysia December 8th and return to Melbourne February 1st. Other than that, I have not really had time to sit down and start planning out the specifics of my trip, but I am very excited for what the uncertain future holds!!
So now, I am off to Sydney to meet my mom for a whirlwind two weeks that will take us all over Australia, including Sydney, Cairns, Port Douglas, Alice Springs, Ayers Rock, and finally Melbourne. It has been over 7 months since I have seen her, and even though we talk regularly, it will be so great seeing her in person. This is the longest time I have gone without seeing her EVER, and I know she is really excited about her trip to Australia. I cannot wait to show her the sights I have already been to as well as explore new things together!
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