Melbourne!

Okay people, I have arrived in Melbourne! The overnight bus trip was interesting, but also quite tiring. I did an overnight to save on accommodation and that in itself was a good idea, although a good night's sleep is of course not possible when on a bus. It was quite good - I fancy I've seen a few nocturnal animals scurrying about near the highway (though I can't be sure of course). At 3 AM we stopped at a truck stop somewhere. I can't tell you where, even though the bus driver said it twice. To me it sounded like Hobart, but that can't have been it (I'd have noticed the crossing of water). Anyway, the truck stop was in the middle of nowhere. The stars were out, crickets were singing, there were massive trucks about and here I was, sipping at my bottle of Coke in front of an old building. I quite liked it.

On to the actual destination: Melbourne. I arrived at Southern Cross station at 7am, bleary-eyed and semi-confused (wait, where am I again?). After being helped by a map in the Lonely Planet, I made my way to the hostel, where I had booked a week. I figured it was time to stay in one place for more than a day - all that moving around hostels gets really tired really fast. Plus, weekly rates saved me $20. The hostel is definitely okay, though it's older than what I've been in. But it has a bed, showers and a good bar downstairs. But I'll get to that in a minute.

The first surprise of the day came right after I had checked in. There would be an organised tour to an AFL footie match. Yes! It's one of the things that was on my list and here it was, only five dollars. I signed up immediately. A couple of hours later we were driven to an oval to get a short intro on the sport, including some hands-on practise. Let's just say that kicking the ball and throwing it (that requires a technique somewhat akin to volleyball) is a lot harder than it looks. After the embarrassing display of n00b-ness we went to the Carlton FC - Western Bulldogs game. At first most of it went over my head, but as the game progressed, I understood more and more and I actually had fun (me, having fun watching sports! the world must be coming to an end!). I can cross 'see an AFL game' off my list, but I will definitely be doing that again. If possible something higher up the league ladder (this was a practice match).

We came back to the hostel and then it was time for comedy! Every Friday night is comedy night at the hostel bar. I went with an English girl who studies literature at uni here - we share the dorm. The comedy wasn't much good (though some did make me laugh, most of them only made me chuckle every now and then), but a couple jugs of beer quickly remedied that. Yup, Eric got drunk. But I had fun.

One last note about the room mates before my credit expires: I'm in a six-share right now and I've seen four of the five others. One of them is Random Asian Guy - haven't seen too much of him. The other's the English girl I talked about. She's cool. There's a Kiwi as well (love that accent too, by the way) and he's great too. They are both just about as nerdy as I am (Lord of the Rings, Monty Python, Sliders, Doctor Who!) The last is a presumably German guy who no-one's ever heard talking. Apparently he's a mute (though he does talk in his sleep). Of course I take that as a challenge!

Okay, the five-minute mark came four minutes ago, it's time to sign off. I'll upload the pictures of the AFL game later, assuming they're not all blurry or of one of the refs (sports photography is not one of my strong points).