Victoria Market and Football

My hostel in Melbourne was near the renowned Victoria Market and the first thing I did on Saturday morning was to walk over to explore the stalls. Comprising a full city block with four massive aisles, the Victoria Market has been in operation since the 19th century and is a Melbourne institution. On Saturdays, half of the market stalls are filled with fruit and vegetable stands. Palau's fruit and vegetable supply is not very diverse, so walking the aisles at the market was an eye-opening experience. The smells of the different produce were great and it was a shame I didn't have my own kitchen to be able to use it all. I did buy a kiwi and a few apples and ate them on the spot and they were very fresh. There was a large crowd of people buying produce and I could see many people walking away with with hug bags under the arms.

The rest of the market had stalls selling all types of goods from clothes to electronics to leather goods. There was a lot of touristy junk that didn't interest me in the least. A couple stalls sold the Ugg boots that are made in Australia and were quite popular in Hollywood a few years back. There was also plenty of outback hats and kitschy boomerangs. While it was all interesting to look at, nothing interested me enough to buy anything.

I left Victoria Market and caught a bus south. Melbourne has made a great effort to help tourists and one of the ways is a free tourist shuttle bus that does a loop around the city. I got on the shuttle at the market and rode it south over the Yarra River and through the rebuilt Southbank area. On the eastern side of the southbank of the Yarra River lies Melbourne's sports area. Melbourne hosted the 1956 Summer Olympics and the Olympic stadium is just one of many arenas in the area.

After leaving the bus, I walked over to the tennis complex, home of the Australian Open one of the grand slams of tennis. The Open is in January and the courts were not in use, but as a tennis fan I was curious of their appearance. The main court is Rod Laver Arena named after the great Australian men's tennis player. The arena has a roof that can be closed, so it is used for events year round. As I approached the arena I could see that Disney on Ice had just finished a show and people were streaming out. I walked up and around the arena to the nearby outer courts. The second court, named after the great Margaret Court, was nearby and descended into the ground from where I stood and I could see it and that the net was up. Court three was also nearby and the rest of the outer courts were in the distance. While a nice facility, I must say that Wimbledon is a much more beautiful venue. Although, I'm sure it would be fun to see a match here when the tournament is in full swing. I walked back to the gate I had entered to find it closed. Apparently, it was only opened to let people exit from Disney on Ice. My only exit was to walk into Rod Laver Arena where they were preparing to let a new crowd in for the next showing of Disney on Ice. Inadvertently, I had bypassed the ticket takers and was about to be ushered into Disney on Ice. I'm sure seeing Nemo on skates would have been quite a sight, but I had other plans for the afternoon and walked around the arena until I found a proper exit.

The sports complex is also home to the Melbourne Cricket Grounds (MCG), one of the oldest and most famous cricket stadiums in the world. Is currently is not cricket season, but during the winter the MCG is also home to rugby and Australian Rules Football. The national rugby team had a huge match against New Zealand the previous weekend and the Wallabies finally beat the All Blacks for the first time in years. On this day, the MCG was the site of an Australian Football League match between Collingwood and St. Kilda's, two Melbourne suburbs. Going into the match I knew nothing about "footie" or its rules, but I wanted to experience a match. I bought a ticket for the upper decks of the stadium, which turned out to be a great seat because the partial roof shielded me from the rain that drizzled for the entire match. The MCG has a capacity of nearly 100,000 and even on a cold and rainy day they had a crowd of around 57,000.

The finer points of the rules of footie still escape me, but I was able to figure out the basics. There are four 25 minute quarters, but the clock runs continuously like soccer so there was about three minutes of stoppage time each quarter. There are twenty-two team members per side, which seems like a lot but a cricket field is a massive oval and there was plenty of field for the players. At the two ends of the field are four poles. By kicking the ball, which is a slightly fatter version of an American football, through the middle two posts you score a goal worth six points. If you kick the ball through the outside gaps in the poles you score one point. The ball is moved up the field through a mixture of kicking, hand passes, and running. When and how you can run with the play is still a bit of a mystery to me but I was able to follow the action.

The two sides were evenly matched and the gave went back and forth the first half. Collingwood had more supporters than St. Kilda's and a roar went up each time they scored. The MCG is over a hundred years old, but has undergone multiple overhauls and the latest version looks like a modern stadium. At half time I walked about the stadium, partially to explore and partially in an effort to warm up. St. Kilda's was down by 15 at the half, but after the third quarter they were up by 15. The crowd was not happy at the umpires and were booing them mercilessly. In the fourth, Collingwood rallied and to the roar of the crowd won by ten, 90-80. It was a fun match to watch and a great experience.

The rain persisted and I walked back to the central business district huddled under my raincoat. I wanted a nice hot meal, so I returned to Pellegrini's for lasagna and hot chocolate. Afterwards I stopped at a few shops before walking back to the hostel for the evening.

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