The Machines Will Always Win.

Apparently gambling is a big thing here. I've fallen in love with all the bulletins and billboards that Australia has to stop people from doing certain things. For instance, the "drowsy drivers die" is awesome. Yesterday I saw one that said "if you drink and then you drive, you're a bloody idiot". The bathrooms around here at clubs (yeah...strange place, but..) all have these pictures of ice bergs (you know, Titanic style). With about 1/100th of the berg above the water line, and apparently it's supposed to represent meth. And it says "99% of what you get, you don't see, because it's below the surface". So I guess, don't do meth? Duh... And then, my recent favorites, are anti-gambling advertisements. They have pictures of super sad, depressed looking people with random captions like "the machines always win" or "it starts once, and continues to spread". Some of the captions don't even make sense...but then they show the gambling help hotline. Anyways, I love the ads here and I'm trying to take pictures of them.

So so so, we're in Melbourne. We got in Monday night, and we just hung around the hostel and met some cool people. I went into town and got my camera battery charged at Sony (my charger is broken). They charge 120 bucks for a charger here, but they offered to charge my battery for free, and then told me once I get into Sydney I can get it charged again at the Sony in Sydney. (Yay!) I did "meet and greet" with one of our room mates, Tom, from Leeds, England...and it was pretty lame, except we got a free glass of champagne (which is always a benefit).

Tuesday, Annelise and I went to Queen Victoria Market, which is 8 hectares...I have no idea what a hectare is, but it was like 6 blocks by 6 blocks of open air markets. They had the freshest fruits and veggies that looked sooooooo delicious, and so cheap. We bought a container of strawberries for 2 dollars and ate them as we wandered around. Annelise bought a hoodie, and I bought a pair of gloves (because my poor fingers felt like icicles). It was raining/windy on and off all day, so it wasn't the best conditions, but it was still a lot of fun. We had lunch at the cafeteria style place across the street, and I had wonton noodle soup and dim sims (both of which were poorly flavored and made me very sad).

When we were in Adelaide, we had one crazy night out at PJ O'Briens (where my friend Sarz met up with us), and I was feeling the effects of it the next day. I don't drink that often anymore, and I didn't drink a lot that night, but it was just more than I was used to, so I was a sad shannon the next day. Anyways, that day we had gone for sushi for lunch (which I didn't eat because I felt like sushi and a hang over would not be pleasant), but apparently the sushi was amazing, and ever since then I've been craving good sushi. Well! We found it here in Melbourne. The sushi here is phenomenal. They have these sushi walk-in shops, where you just walk in and get a handroll (not cut into pieces) for 2 dollars. And it's difficult to find raw tuna here (all most places have is cooked tuna, so it's liek a tuna salad wrapped in rice/seaweed). However! Here in Melbs, they do have it, and it makes me very happy. So for the last two days, we've had sushi for lunch (and I'm having it again today!).

Anyways, back to the story of lunch on tuesday -- it was so bad, that at 4 pm when we wandering around the city, I found an amazing sushi place (which I will hunt down again today) and had a tuna (not cooked!) handroll for 2 dollars. Best food price value around for sure. Everything here is so expensive. I am not looking forward to going home and paying my mom back for everything I've bought! So anyways, we wandered around the city, in the CBD (central business district), and I had all my camera stuff with me (camera, battery, charger), because I wasn't sure if it was the charger that wasn't charging, or if the battery couldn't hold a charge. So we went into one camera place, who was nice enough to test my battery and my charger for me. My dad taught me well, and I wasn't about to buy a new battery (or charger) without knowing which one had the problem. So we tested two batteries in my charger (mine and one brand new one at the store), and my charger didn't charge either of them! (Hooray! Problem located!) The next problem, as I was afraid of, was the fact that most digital cameras/chargers are sold together, and rarely are chargers sold by themselves. The guy at the camera store told me about the Sony store just up the street two blocks, so I was pretty pleased. I then walked to the Sony store, and they had the chargers! For 120 dollars. :( Lucky for me, though, the guys at Sony asked me how long I was staying in Oz for, and I said about a week, 4 days left in Melbs, and 3 in Sydney, and they said that they would charge my battery for me, and then when I get to Sydney, the guys at Sony there could charge it again. !! Yay!! So I stayed around, and when I saw my battery was taking a charge, I left my contact info with the guys at Sony and went around the city for two hours, while my battery charged!

We found a couple bookstores, which were nice to read in, because it was so cold outside, and we went to a couple ticket places to try and book a haunted night tour of the Old Melbourne Gaol (jail...), but unfortunately the one for Tuesday night was all booked, and the next one was Friday (which we already have plans!) So we decided to just do the day tour of the Gaol, which we did yesterday. After getting no luck with the night tour, we asked what else there was to do -- comedy clubs, music lounges, etc, and we were told of a Jazz Lounge, called Bennets Lane, and we decided to do that Tuesday night.

Well, Tuesday night rolled around, and we hopped on the tram to go to the lounge, based on directions and instructions given to us at the front desk of the hostel, but the tram stopped halfway there and said that the hostel was mistaken, this was the last stop of the night. I returned home, and Annelise decided to walk the rest of the distance to the lounge (which she never found). I returned to teh hostel, and entered in a pool competition. I made it to the semi finals (the only girl to do so), and then lost on a shit shot where I pocketed the black ball. The balls here are slightly smaller and are just red/yellow as opposed to spots/stripes. I'm not sure if it's considered "billiards" if it's smaller balls, but I always considered pool and billiards to be the same. Dad, maybe you could clear this up for me? Either way, regardless that I lost, it was a lot of fun. I won 3 rounds, and the guy that "beat" me (I prefer to think that I beat myself) ended up losing in the next round. Annelise finally got back from the city, and it turned out she had the wrong directions the whole time and wound up at a comedy place for amateur night. She said she still had a good time, and some of the acts were good, but some were just plain bad.

On to Wednesday (Finally!)

It's amazing how much teh days here blend in together. Yesterday we went back into the city with our new friend Andy, and Annelise and I went to the Old Melbourne Gaol. I was already excited to go, but it was even more awesome than I expected. THey had the main jail cells (three floors) open, and in each cell there was some sort of informative stuff, including, torture tools, hangmen's ropes, beds, linens, hundreds of informative posters that talked about different inmates. THe third floor was dedicated to women/children in the gaol, as well as commemorating war soldiers who went AWOL and wound up in the Gaol. It discussed, in detail, the politics surrounding the time, as well as controversies surrounding certain aspects (such as public v. private hangings). It also had a whole wing dedicated to Ned Kelly and his gang of badasses. Ned Kelly (apparently) is Australia's most notorious bad guy. We met up with Jim (a Korean guy who was on our Adelaide - Melbourne tour), and he and annelise walked around some more, while I went to the Watch Guard House (which was the holding jail for people before they were admitted into the main cell area). It was a half hour tour where we went through the process of being booked and admitted into the jail. The Watch Guard house was active until the 1990s, when it became too small for the purposes Melbourne needed, and was turned into a tourist thing to do. We were yelled at a lot and put in these cell blocks, locked in, and had the lights turned out on us. I got to see the white padded rooms, the exercise areas, the eating areas, and the showering areas. Like a true tourist, I even got my mug shot taken, and believe you me, my 10 minutes locked in jail made me never want to be locked in one ever. No more mug shots for me, thank you. But it was an amazing experience, and I really enjoyed doing the tour.

We met back up with Andy (who had already done the jail tour) and grabbed lunch -- Sushi, as I already explained, and we walked around Fitzroy (a section of Melbourne north east of town, I think). We walked up Brunswick Street, which is like the hippy/strange stores area of town, and it was pretty neat. I had this crazy scoop of ice cream, which I guess is based on some Australian dessert. Unfortunately I can't remember the name, but it was coconut ice cream, with a topping of strawberry jam with chocolate shavings. (SO GOOD!)

Annelise went back into the city, and Andy and I caught the free tourist shuttle back towards our hostel. We proceeded to watch a few episodes of the show, Scrubs, and then I made an amazing pasta dinner with fresh italian sausage mixed in. Then last night, Annelise had gotten a call from two girls who were also on our Adelaide - Melbourne tour, and they were going to a bar, and wanted to meet up with us. So we did. We walked to this bar, where maybe there were 10 people inside, and met up with them. Annelise and I had bought a box of goon earlier and had drank some of that before leaving, so we wouldn't have to spend much money on drinks later. Goon is this boxed wine here that comes in different flavors/varieties. We then walked across town (twenty minute walk) to this club that Annelise had read was "the place to be in Melbs on a Wednesday night", and there was a line out the friggin door. More like hoards of people standing around the door. It reminded me of USC with the big huge frat parties that were registered parties. Unfortunately, what the paper didn't say, was that this club was having an organised function for Uni students in Australia. Annelise could get in, because she had her school ID card, and I tried saying that I studied with her, but left mine at home, but the guy wouldn't let me in, so she was a pal and left with me. We said goodbye to our friends, and headed home. It was an 8 dollar cab ride, which was worth it to me, because my feet were killing me.

Andy had met up with a friend who lives in Melbourne, and they came back to the hostel (after being at the casino! -- I guess they don't know that the machines always win?) and we played pool for a little while, before I headed to bed around 2.

Today will probably be much of the same. We're planning on walking around federation square and take some pictures of awesome buildings (they are architectural marvels). I need to find a cheap (if cheap exists in Australia) bag, because I got a hoodie on that tour, and now I can't fit all my stuff in my backpack. I've still done pretty damn well though with keeping my load light and small! All you men would be proud.

A little preview of what's to come! Tonight Annelise and I are doing a bar tour of Melbourne (5 bars, 4 hours, 2 free drinks, free tapas) for 35 bucks, which is pretty awesome. Plus one of the bars we get to go to is the Chill On Ice Bar, where we get all bundled up in coats, and boots and furs and drink drinks out of ice cups, sit on benches and chairs made of ice, and order drinks at a bar made of ice. It should be pretty neat, especially since entry into the ice bar is 30 dollars on it's own. So we think its a pretty good deal.

Tomorrow night, Annelise and I are going to an AFL game (aussie football). I watched a game in Cairns, and it is nothing like American football. No pads, no touch downs, and all the points are earned by kicking the ball through a series of poles. No points are awarded for any catches. Anyways, it should be fun, and definitely a new experience.

ALright, this was a seriously long blog. I come back on Tuesday, and I'm quite excited to return home (at least for a little while). Wednesday I take apart all my furniture and load it into my awesome rental budget truck, and then Thursday, my aunt peggy is meeting me and we are driving the load up to her house in Nor Cal to store it for the year. Then I fly back to LA on the 18th (thursday), early in the morning, and spend a coupel days saying good bye to people, and then probably the 21st or so, I'll begin the drive to Michigan.

Next month I'll be traveling around Europe. First a ten day cruise through Scandinavia with my mum and aunt, and then I'll spend two weeks or so, backpacking around on my own. I plan on going to Amsterdam, Switzerland (because I went there when I was around 11 years old and always vowed to go back! well now i am!), and Italy (because, again, I went thre when I was 14 or 15 and didn't really appreciate it). So now that I'm older and wiser, I think it will be awesome.

Alright, I am off to the city. Love you and miss you all. My spider bites are healing (thank goodness).