Melbourne

Did you know that Melbourne was almost called Batmania..? Where do you live? In Batmania. How cool is that?! Inevitably Batmania would be called Gotham city…. How did this happen? Mister Batman was considered the “founder” of Melbourne. He was a man who came over from Tasmania (named after Able Tasman)  and bought a lot of land ( 500000 ha or so) where Melbourne is today, this was the start of Melbourne. When Mister Bourke (named the biggest street after himself) got round to naming the city and streets he thought about Batmania, but he decided to name it after some minister in the British parliament, Mister Melbourne. It is a shame though because Batmania sounds so much cooler. He didn't forget about Mister Batman because there is a Batman park, Batman street, Batman avenue and even a Batman train station.

Maybe it is because of this but I absolutely love Melbourne, I immediately felt at home! The pace and the people are so much more relax compared to Sydney.  There is a real chill vibe that goes round the city. There is so much to do and see, plus it is really easy to make your way around the city. Everything was decorated for Christmas which gave it this little bit extra. There was a huge lego Christmas tree on Fed square, Myers had their Christmas story on display in the windows, you could sit in Santa's chair at the Victoria markets and there were a lot of other Christmassy things all over the CBD. You don't have to worry about starving, you might have a problem deciding what to eat and where. CBD has a bit of everything, Carlton is mainly Italian, Prahran is a bit more the ordinary food, and St Kilda is close to the beach. And when you want good quality fresh fruit and veggies for a good price you go the Victoria markets, great place! Of course I had to visit Albert Park, home of the Australian Formula 1 GP in March. The park itself isn't all that special but it is just outside of the CBD and therefore nice and quite. And the 5,5 km walk around the lake is great for beautiful sunset pictures. If sport is your thing than Melbourne is your place if you like the sports that are there. We know there is Formula 1, the other two big sports are cricket  (played at the MCG)and AFL( Australian Football Rules, played at the Etihad stadium). Cricket is a very well known sport all over the world but not played all over the world. And I know why. First of all there is three sorts of cricket, the National “normal” cricket league, the 20-20 games also known as the big bash and there is the International “normal” cricket. When you are a player for the National league you don't play for the International league and vice versa. And when you play in the 20-20 league you don't play in the other two and vice versa. Now the problem with the “normal” cricket is that, a game can take 5 DAYS!!! You need to get 20 outs before you've won the game and that can take 5 days!! Why for the love of anything would you watch 1 game of sports for 5 days?!?!?!? It is not even an action packed sport, one guy (bowler) throws the ball in a funny way and the batter tries to hit it. And when he hits it, he and the other batter start running up and down between the sticks ( wickets) until the other team throws it back to the pitch. Some batters can be up there for an hour, you've got to be so bored when you are his team mate sitting on the side line. When you are the last in line you might as well go home for the day and come back tomorrow. Oh I forgot to mention that the have lunch and dinner breaks too. Now the 20-20 games are a bit more exciting, only a bit more. In this league they just hit the ball as hard as they can, apparently the “normal” cricket is more of a tactical game.. But they hit the ball as hard as they can so they can get as many runs as they can until they are all out. Then the other team starts batting and they need to beat that score, the team with the highest score wins. Pretty simple but still boring, at least this game is over in a few hours. The other big sport is AFL, or big in Victoria and a little less so in the rest of Australia. I have only seen a few matches and I don't know what to think of it. To me it looks like a bunch of grown men in short shorts, playing a game of catch the ball and see who can keep in the team the longest. Catching that ball must be harder than it looks because they drop it all the time, as if it is a slippery fish rather than a ball. Whenever they kick or throw the ball, it ends up in the one spot where there aren't any players. And occasionally they kick it between the polls, big polls is 4 points, big and small poll 1 point. It all just looks really clumsy. Luckily there is a sport that does make a lot more sense and that I do understand. tennis! Wild card games were on and on a hot day the shady stands were a great place to chill out.

I've always wanted to spend Christmas in the sun and the time had finally come. Funny thing is, it didn't really feel like Christmas. I went to the Botanical Gardens and met up with about 50 strangers, it turned out to be a great day with lots of food and laughter. But after one month it is time to see some new places and an other camp reunion. Of to Port Fairy I go! Don't worry Melbourne, I'll be back soon.

See ya,  Seabert