Weekly Review – 28/10

Well another week has passed in this beautiful country although I wish I could say the same about the weather.  The weather has been awful really with cloudy rainy days averaging around 14 degrees.  It’s been the coldest start to November for twenty years!Last week’s article didn’t seem to go down too well; barely anyone read it.  Only 36 people.  It doesn’t matter too much however as these articles are simply to keep family and friends up to date.  My top article happens to be the one of my photos of Prague which has gone crazy thanks to StumbleUpon.  We’re both starting to feel as though we should get out of the city now.  Melbourne is incredible but we’re ready to explore now.  The search is on for a campervan as well as Airbnbs.  We’ve booked two nights in Sydney for New Year’s Eve which I’m really looking forward to.This week was quite quiet due to the weather as well as the fact that Stranger Things 2 was released.  No spoilers here don’t worry.The main activities this week were a tour of the Melbourne Cricket Ground (known locally as the ‘G’ or MCG) and a trip to the Sealife Aquarium.

Wednesday

Melbourne is known for it’s love of sport whether that be AFL, cricket, Formula 1, horse racing or tennis.  A kilometre east of the city lies the sports precinct which houses at least seven impressive stadiums including the MCG, the Rod Laver Arena and the AAMI Park.  The Rod Laver Arena is the equivalent of centre court at Wimbledon for the Australian Open.  The AAMI Park was built for games that required a rectangular pitch such as football (soccer over here!) and rugby.Since an early age I had grown up watching test cricket and have always wanted to visit the MCG.  In fact, watching a Boxing Day Test at the MCG is on most sports fans bucket lists.  It just happens to be the Ashes in Australia whilst we are here and I had to get hold of tickets for Boxing Day.  We decided to go on a stadium tour this week and paid $33 each although this included entrance to the National Sports Museum.   Being midweek there were loads of school trips but luckily we managed to get a tour without any kids.The MCG was first used as a cricket ground back in 1853; less than twenty years after the settlement in Melbourne was founded.  The stadium is now used for both AFL, cricket and concerts.  It can hold an unbelievable 100,024 people and is the 10^th largest stadium in the world.  You don’t really appreciate the size until you are stood pitchside with the stadium looming over and all around you.  I’d say it’s even better than the mighty Deepdale!The tour was excellent and well worth the money.  The National Sports Museum was also interesting although the best bit was the ‘Game On’ section.  Here you could have a go at different sporting activities.  I tried my hand at AFL, football and cricket.  I think we were the only adults in there.[easy-image-collage id=578][easy-image-collage id=592]

Friday

With the weather resembling England, we decided that today’s activities should remain indoors.  That meant heading down the road to the Sealife Aquarium.  We researched the prices beforehand and decided to pay $99 for a 12 month Merlin pass.  This gives unlimited access to a number of different attractions including two rainforest treetop walks and to the Sydney Tower Eye.  You only have to go to two/three attractions once to get your money’s worth.  The aquarium was good although I wouldn’t pay full price to go just once.  The best bits were the sharks, manta rays and penguins.  We used our GoPro properly for the first time and the QuikStory app is a good way to eliminate the need for editing day to day footage.  Check out the video below! 

 We made the most out of Happy Hour and had a few drinks on the riverside at BangPop.  I’m still getting used to drinking two-thirds of a pint of beer for £5.  On one of our other Happy Hour sessions (it’s the only time we can afford to drink) we’d found a Lebanese restaurant on the other side of the river.  We decided that we should return to Byblos but this time for food.  We hadn’t eaten all day and decided to try the Mezzat Banquet for two.  It was only $60 each for an enormous amount of food.  I was full after the flatbread, dips and salads.  We still had to get through seven more plates of meat and dessert.  The food was excellent but I think we have to stop ordering so much food.[easy-image-collage id=587]

Saturday

I felt a little hungover all day and it didn’t help that we managed to win tickets to Billy Davis’ album launch.  Hip-Hop/RnB isn’t my usual style of music but we thought we’d might as well go.  We arrived at about 8:30pm, paid $19 for two drinks before realising the headline act wasn’t on until 11:15pm!  Back in England, the curfew for bands is normally 11pm so it was strange to think that we wouldn’t really be getting started until after this.  It was as though we had been transported back to the 90’s but the music was good fun and catchy.  We had a good night in the end thanks to Royal Stacks!This coming week should be more exciting with the Melbourne Cup horse racing on Tuesday.  Over 100,000 people will be heading to the racecourse and it will probably be quite lairy!  The state of Victoria declared a Bank Holiday specifically for the horse racing.  For the last few weeks, you could really sense the excitement was building.  We’ve also got a Chicken Nugget festival to go to as well as a House of Vans pop-up (skateboards and pop-punk) next Saturday.As always, thank you so much for reading and checking out my blog!