(Australia) Friday, March 26th

Friday, March 26, 2010

MARK:

Last night after coming back to the Bed and Breakfast to rest our feet we decided to have a late dinner because the first “Footy” game of the season was kicking off Thursday night and our location is directly across from the stadium.  It’s like going out on Saturday night when you live across from Tiger stadium, so we waited until after the game started to go to dinner.  We tried to find a cooking school restaurant on the edge of the city that wasn’t too far away and looked fun but that fell through when we found out they had a private party and somehow we were routed to the wrong place for our reservations.   We’re getting pretty good at leaving restaurants we don’t like, so we left again and headed out for the Greek District.  We were told that Melbourne has the second largest number of Greeks outside of Greece than any other town.  So they should have great Greek food!  And they did.

On the way home I detoured us through the park where the stadium is and we went inside to watch the last 15 minutes of the game (no one was guarding the entrances).  The stadium is huge, about twice the width and length of an American football stadium.  The game is a combination or soccer and rugby.  Each team has 18 men on the field so it looks hectic and never stops, like soccer, unless the ball goes out of bounds.  Points are scored by kicking the ball, not running it, through the goal post.  As you can see in the photo there are four posts to kick through and the two in the middle give you the most points.  It was fun to watch the fans, many who came to the game right from work and were still in business suits or dresses, all the way to the other end of fans decked out in the colors of their teams.  We noticed that they haven’t caught onto tailgating yet! 

 

Friday morning we explored Melbourne’s farmer’s market.  The pictures below will show you some of what we saw.  One lady was really trying to sell us a  kangaroo tail for the “barbie” but it wouldn’t fit our backpack. 

 

 

 

 

 

This next picture is a possibility for a new venture in Baton Rouge if we can find the financial backers.  It was at the Queen Victoria’s Market but may work better closer to LSU, maybe Perkin’s Road.  It’s called “Re-Wine”!  You buy your first bottle and then come back for refills from barrels straight from the vineyards.  Kind of like refilling your propane tank after you buy the first one.  Any investors?  You never know, it may be like the description we read about the meat market at Queen Vic Market, which used to sell meat in 10 lbs cuts only.  Then some crazy butcher started cutting his meat into “small” pieces to sell and everyone knew he would go broke.  We all know how that story ended. 

 

We are back at the B & B resting and listening to the sound of the Grand Prix in the back ground.  This weekend is the Australian Grand Prix which is held in Melbourne.  We took a tram to see if we could get close to it but they wouldn’t let us in without paying $50 each, so we decided against it.  Not a high priority on Freda’s list for sure!!!  They are just practicing until Sunday’s race but you can hear the roar of the engines all aver town.  The race in actually held in a park about 1-2 mile from the downtown area, say like City Park in N.O. is to the downtown, so it sounds close by.

 

We keep seeing expressions that are different but funny and wanted to share them with everyone:

A Hamburger with the “whole lot” – in other words, fully dressed.

Alight from the train – get off of the train

Refuge island- median

Breakdown bay – pull off area on shoulder of the highway

Entrée – Appetizer (we found this out when trying to order at a restaurant)

 FREDA:

We slowed down a little today – thank goodness.  After having breakfast with the Bashams, we sat at their breakfast table and talked for an hour or so.  It is so different staying with someone from the place you are visiting versus staying at a hotel.  We learned so much about the country from it’s politics, financial situation in the world, environment, culture, and of course it’s wine! 

We could see that Jennifer was on Skype this morning so “talked” to her through the computer for a little while.  The camera allows us on the computer allows us to see each other while we are talking.  This is such a wonderful technology that anyone that doesn’t know about it needs to investigate it.  There is a 16 hour time difference and we are 10,000 miles away, but we were talking and seeing each other with no time delay.  Anyway, Jennifer asked how the weather was going to be today and when I told her it was another “black t-shirt day”, she suggested we find a place to wash clothes.  So I do want to report that we washed clothes today and feel totally refreshed!!!

We forgot to include in yesterday’s post about our trip to the Healsville Wildlife Sanctuary which we visited on Wednesday.  You all know how much of an animal lover I am, and are am a sucker for cuddly things, so Mark indulged me and took me to the Healsville Wildlife Sanctuary between wineries in the Yarra Valley.  We did get to see koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, and some other marsupials up close.  Well, that satisfied my itch, so unless we see another dead one on the road, I think my kangaroo viewing is over.  Mark didn’t hesitate to comment to me that we were the only people at the wildlife sanctuary with out children or a stroller!  Okay, I’m satisfied. 

 

We could get used to this life.  We’re sitting with our feet propped up – Mark is investigating what we are going to do, see, eat, and drink tomorrow, and I’m on my second glass of fabulous Tall Tale Sauvignon Blanc! 

 

Tomorrow we’re off on Leg 3 of our trip.  We drive south into the Mornington Peninsula and visit wineries along the way before we end up at the seaside town of Sorrento.  We’ll try to post tomorrow if we have internet service.   Bye for tonight.