Melbourne

Over the weekend Sari, Ashley, and I made a trip to Melbourne-the 2^nd most livable city in the world! Ashley had a friend, Kate, who is from Melbourne so we were able to stay at her apartment for the weekend. Kate picked us up at the airport on Friday night, took us back to her place to get dressed, and then we went out to La di das. There was some “international event” going on that night and Kate had heaps of friends there. It was a lot of fun being able to meet lots of other local Aussies. On Saturday we walked around the city and did a little bit of shopping and sight-seeing. We were happy that Kate was with us, because she showed us all the hidden local spots that we would have never been able to see otherwise. We went out to a Chinese restaurant for dinner, and then to a few local bars and pubs. Again, Kate led us down side streets and alleyways to more local places that seemed to be pretty well hidden.
Sunday, we woke up early and went to a big market with lots of cheap, little stores to do a little more shopping. In the afternoon we had a barbeque at Kate’s apartment with a few of her friends before heading to the AFL (Australian Football League) game or “Footie.” It was such a fun experience to learn about the game, which is a mix between American football, soccer, and rugby, and see all the rowdy fans in the big stadium.
Monday morning we went to the Melbourne Aquarium. It was awesome to see all the different, crazy-looking fish. They also had the world’s largest stingrays and we were able to see them get fed by divers. Afterwards we met Kate for lunch and then had to head back to the airport. We were all sad to go, because Melbourne was such an awesome city with so many different things to do…we all wish we could’ve stayed longer!


Aquarium




AFL (Footie) game




Sari, me, Ashley




view of part of the city



the "container" bar...all old pallets and containers