I am in Melbourne

Sadly, NH stole my favorite picture of Melbourne for his post, so we’ll have to struggle along with this one.
After my long-ass flight, and seemingly days of travel, I arrived in the land down under. First stop, Melbourne. Science is what brings me here, but I'll save you from those details. It's cold in Melbourne, and I am not prepared. Having lived all but the last 9 months in New England it amazes me how inflexible I am with the weather now. I am unable to determine appropriate outfits for a climate based solely on the temperature I can find online. Needless to say, I did not pack well. I was cold much of the time, and wore the same grey sweater every night.

As a city, I did not fall in love with Melbourne. It was a generic looking city – I’d easily believe that I was somewhere in the middle of Ohio, maybe Michigan – and the weather was crap. Also, we had the damnedest time finding food. Everything closed around 9pm, and we rarely could make up our minds on what our plan was in time to get anywhere before they kicked us out. It made for a lot of walking. We did find this sweet arcade, with the drum game, and air hockey. We had a tournament, the results of which are inconclusive and require a rematch, but I could have been the winner.

Wednesday, mid morning, was my moment – it went well, but it was during a very crucial beantown moment. I did manage to sneak away during lunch, even convinced a few friends to run across the street to the casino with me, to watch the end on the big screen. We got there with about 6 minutes left in the 4th quarter. And, all I can say is – WOW! Amazing. What a year for Boston, what a season for the Celtics. It was nice to be so far away and still be with a crowd, pumped for the game. It was nothing like watching it at Little Woodrow’s with a mish-mash of displaced Boston and LA natives, but for being in Australia, I guess it will do!

On Thursday morning a few of us decided to venture out for breakfast; we found this place and headed off. It was the cutest little place, with the best breakfast I’ve had in a long time. That afternoon, while it poured buckets outside, we spend a few hours at the Melbourne Museum of Moving Images, mainly at the Game On exhibit, playing loads of video games. (btw, Austinites – I am ready for Rock Band, BRING IT!)

Thursday night we found a band playing at the Ding Dong Lounge in Chinatown. And when that place was closing the very nice bar tender wearing a Celtics jersey drew a map for me, to the Pony Bar, which didn’t close until 7am. This sounded like the place for us. We headed there, and found a group of native Aussies to hang with. We hung, and drank, with them for far too long, until far too late, and made it back with far too little time before our VERY early morning flight to Cairns. The end of that story is, I did make it on the plane – with little to no assistance from anyone – and that was a major feat.