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hi all,
here is my blog to melbourne ... but first of all, i want to thank everybody who writes email to me or leave a message on my board ... unfortunately i can't answer everybody, would be too time consuming ...
so, back to melbourne ... arrived there in the early morning, again with no accommodation booked in advance, so i had to look for one ... i found a real nice hostel in st.kilda which is the nightlife centre in melbourne and it's not far away from the beach ... but as there is only low season now, there is pretty much no nightlife ... but the hostel was really nice and cheap (only 18 bucks per night with private bathroom and toilet) ... arrived here on ANZAC day, on this day australia and new zealand honour their fallen soldiers in all wars ... it's public holiday here and big party .. we had free BBQ and as usual i met some english guys and started drinking beer in the early afternoon ;) i watched my first aussie rules football game in tv (after i saw the awesome CL match manu-milan last week in re-live) ... so the first day was pretty much party with english guys ...
the next day i went to the gaol with an english guy (Anthony) in melbourne ... the gaol is a closed prison from the early time of australia, and there were many people hanged (incl. ned kelly, who is an australian hereo because he was a revolutier) ... was quite strange and there were tough rules in the prison (like they weren't allowed to talk to each other, they had to stay 23 days in their really small cell, only one shower per week, etc), they had even a own building for women (were also hanged there) ... to read all the stories was a little scary ;) after the gaol we took the free city loop (a touristic tram here in melbourne) to get to the rod laver arena (for the non tennis guys here: that's the place where the australian open take place every year) ... we (Anthony, a german girl named Biene and me) just entered the stadium when suddenly a guy came quickly to us and asked us how we entered the arena ... we said: "through the door ... ;)" he replied we cannot be here, because there is a pink concert the night and so there are no guided tours ... who the f*** need pink? i want to see the arena!!! as i later found out pink had 3 concerts in a row so i had to wait till sunday to get my guided tour ... when we left the arena we also saw the first fans waiting in front of the closed gates ... i don't know how, but we found an other way to enter the arena before all the fans could ;))
as the last night was pretty tough, i went early to bed ... before i booked 2 tours for the next days, which cost me a lot of money ... who cares, i'm on holiday and want to see something!
the next day i met an german guy (i must say i met a lot of germans in melbourne, more than anywhere else by now) with whom i spent the day and the next ... he is also a big tennis fan and spent the last months in melbourne (with some breaks) ... but he visited the australian open this year ... one day, i will also visit this tournament! on saturday on the way in the city we saw some tennis courts and decided to play tennis when we go back ... so we arrived at 4pm at this courts and we rent a racket, balls and played tennis even we were not dressed properly for tennis ... this court was not any court, this was the court where the australian open first took place ... and in these days the actual tennis players also have their training on these courts as it is the same surface as in the rod laver arena ... as i mentioned we played in jeans etc. it was not a good game but we both enjoyed it very much .... the evening was quite unspectacular, i did my laundry and had few beers ... (i'm getting old, it's saturday night and i do my laundry!!!)
on sunday i finally got my guided tour in the rod laver arena, but thank to pink we couldn't really enter the main arena! i will never hear pink music again ;) ... but all the other places were also interesting and after my guided tour i went to the MGC (melbouren cricket ground) to see my first aussie rules football game in a stadium ... the mcg is a massive stadium, it's capacity is over 90.000 visitors, but on this game the stadium was pretty empty ... anyway we enjoyed it there (i went there with John and a friend of him - John just came back from a surfer camp) the evening was quite short, only had some english beers with john and went to bed early as i had to wake up at 7am on monday to catch my bus for the great ocean road tour ...
all in all, melbourne is much more better than sydney, the weather was quite nice, altough it's winter soon, it was warm ... melbournians are completely sports crazy, of course for their aussie football but also for almost every other sport in the world ... and there is very much culture and art in the city and on the street there are many street artists (painters, musicians, etc) ... it was the first city in australia, where i could imagine to stay for a longer period of time ...
the next blog is coming in a few minutes ;)
cu christoph
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