It's Saturday afternoon in Melbourne, and I just wanted to post a quick update here to let folks know how things are going now while I'm still filling in what I've experienced over the last month. The daily journal entries cover the ship's travel, but I think the stuff for Australia itself will probably cover a few days at a time.
Thursday night, I found myself back at The Drunken Poet for open mic night. Mostly, it consisted of musicians singing with their guitars, but some guy went up a little later in the evening and tried to put on a hypnotist show. He got these two people to sit and relax in their chairs, then told them there was a helium balloon on a string tied around their wrists, and kept telling them it was getting bigger and bigger. I think the idea was that their arms were supposed to go up, but it didn't work.
I met three lovely Irish ladies at the Poet that night: Sissy, Emma, and Steph. Sissy and Steph came over together from Ireland together, 19 years ago. Sissy said she flew out on her 30th birthday, but I think she must have been exaggerating, because I don't believe any of them were pushing 50. They encouraged me when I told them I was thinking of heading north for the winter. "I've probably seen more of Australia than most Australians," declared Sissy. "Just be sure, when you're driving across the outback, that you keep at least two liters of water in your car for drinking. Whenever you stop for petrol, be sure to top off your car's water and oil as well."
I had a bit of a scare Thursday night at the YHA, when I tried to extend my stay and they told me they were booked full up Friday. I checked again yesterday morning and they'd had a few cancellations, so I was able to extend my stay a week. My first room I shared with two French guys. I got moved into an 8-bed mixed-gender room which I like much better, especially since I'm on the bottom bunk closest to the door. One of my roommates is an Italian named Fabio. He's a freestyle bartender by trade (the kind that flips the bottles around as he pours) but he's been working farms so far because his English isn't good enough to take drink orders yet.
Yesterday, I ventured back downtown and decided to check out Flinders Street, which runs along the Yarra and marks the southern boundary of the Central Business District. There's a big park in the middle of it, Federation Square, offering several different attractions. I spent several hours touring Game Masters, an interactive exhibit on the history of video games. Notably, some of the most popular games were the early arcade machines, even among spectators. Over and over, I kept hearing different people at different machines yelling "Look out! There's a guy behind you! Get him!" There was also a free exhibit on the history of motion pictures, going all the way back to the so-called "magic lanterns" of the pre-cinema era.
There was a footie match (Australian rules football) last night, but I was too tired to go, and I turned in about 8pm (I'm going to try to catch this afternoon's game). Today, I bought a Myki card - a prepaid bus/train/tram pass, and filled up my phone account. I had a bit of a scare yesterday when my debit card was declined, but I've learned since that it works when you run it as credit instead of checking. Weird. I also found that I can take money out of Westpac ATMs without a fee using my American debit card, but I'm planning instead to finish setting up my local account (also with Westpac) Monday morning, and transfer funds to it from my bank in the US.
There's a brass ensemble concert tonight at Fed Square. If I go, I'll try to post some pictures. Until then, g'day!
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