Melbourne: Phase 2 (May 17-19)

Well our adventure in Melbourne continued. After our super good times with Andy we were transported at 9:30am to Adam's place after going to bed at 6am the previous evening...but we were determined to not let our lack of sleep and electrolytes hinder our time with Adam. So after a much needed happy nappy we were off to our first Aussie footy game.




It was raining but our seats were under cover. What a cool game, thankfully we had Ad's to explain all the rules and the 500 people on the field. One of the pictures shows the "Melbourne Cricket Club" seats which have 20+ year waiting lists for seasons tics. Apparently these are the creme de la creme of Aussie footy seats. People actually put their babies on the list so they can get seats when they are adults. They are crazy about their footy alright. We spent the rest of the day watching matches and highlights on Adam's gi-normous TV, and enjoyed a fab Vietnamese dinner in tribute to our travels together in Vietnam.









The next day we went on a mission to the mall (biggest one in Oz we think) and discovered SMIGGLE!!! What a fun store, full of stationary and gadget like office products in every color you could imagine. Very addicting. By the time we were done we had completed at least 9 transactions as we kept going back for more, and dropped 2 hundy between the 2 of us. Restraint was only shown due to the already-over-weight status of our suitcases. Fun fun fun! Did we mention its called Smiggle?!




Our next mission was to locate the former residence of one 'Joanne Nichols', who lived in Melbourne last year-ish. And so we did; pictured above and below is Jo's former digs in South Yarra near the very fab shopping strip, Chapel Street (pictured in Melbourne Phase 1). Props to Keeks! Bonus points to anyone who noticed we are doing the 'footy goal indicator' on the steps.















Next we made our way through Melbourne and took photos on the way of the original condos, these victorian apartments. They were all over the place and apparently go for a lot of money even the lesser restored ones, (and the ghetto ones) and depending on location of course, we are talking millions here people.






So that brings us to our next destination, Port Melbourne and St. Kilda. We had a late lunch at Adam's friend Ian's restaurant who cheffed us up a gorgeous meal and then joined us later that evening at the bar. We rolled into St.Kilda a beachy-trendy-backpackery area in search of the Ritz hostel that young Katie Matson, long time friend of T, resided at for over a year. That day was all about trying to relive a small part of our friends lives in Australia, cuz we never got to visit! Better late than never. Talk about off the tourist trail, we know we are weird, but after travelling for over a year, you get kinda tired of just checking the must see site boxes. (Although, that is pretty much all we did in Sydney).






A gorgeous shot of Melbourne City at dusk



So after our big day out, we dolled ourselves up and headed out to yet again storm the neverending bars of Melbourne. We ended up on a shuttle bus of sorts which took us to apparently an oldie but a goodie, Star Bar. Well turns out there was a wicked live band playing all night and we had grand ol time. If you look closely below, you can see Jodi's appearance on stage through the smoke and lights. Tawnya was soon to join her of course, but it was pretty much Jodi's band if you didn't know any better. Well that's enough about that...you get the picture. After the jager-bombs, there's not much to tell!



















And so our time in Melbourne came to an end, here are some pictures of our drive out to Avalon airport and some Aussie countryside. Sydney here we come!!