Day 16 - Melbourne

Today was a "day at leisure" on our itinerary, exploring the city of Melbourne on our own. It turns out there is a LOT to see in Melbourne and after leaving our hotel after breakfast we didn't return until 9.30pm. After a stroll across the river, we found one of several parks and visited the Shrine of Remembrance, the State of Victoria's war memorial to fallen soldiers, which was somber but also architecturally very interesting. The gallery also affords wonderful views back over the city and tantalizing view over into Albert Park where the Grand Prix was being held. Steve stared sadly at the grounds like a little kid with his beach towel hoping to get invited to swim in his neighbor's pool. Needless to say, no tickets were available for the event (much to Lauren's satisfaction).

Next stop was the National Gallery of Victoria (or NGV) which was running a special exhibit of the works of the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. Kusama emerged in the 1960s and 1970s and was a force in the cultural revolution channeled through her art. She struggled deeply with mental illness which actually was a major source of her creativity. The pieces ranged from small paintings to huge room sized or room filling displays, especially with her signature use of polka dots. Kusama believed the polka dots represented connection with each other and with the natural world and her huge displays represented the infinity of those connections. It was quite spectacular and very glad we went. While roaming the exhibit, Lauren thought of her cousin Susan often, knowing she would have loved the exhibit!

While waiting for our entry time into the Kusama exhibit we decided to roam through the other parts of the museum and were tickled to come across many paintings in the international art wing from some the greats including Dali, Chagal, Munch, Picasso, Renoir and Monet (just to name a few).

After a really delicious dinner at Tonka, an Indian fusion restaurant (also from the recommendation list from James/Raffa - thank you) it was off to our last stop.

Lauren had seen a documentary on Australian Rules Football (or Aussie Rules for short) on 60 Minutes and we were curious to see if we could fit a game into the trip. Turns out the Collingwood Magpies ("the Pies" to the locals) were playing tonight at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (the MCG) and we could get tickets so off we went. First observation the MCG is huge, actually the 11th largest stadium in the world and one of only 11 with over 100,000 capacity. Also shocking is the size of the pitch which I hope you can gauge from the photos but it is also huge. For most of you I'm sure Aussie Rules is unfamiliar but it's like a fusion of soccer, rugby and wrestling with no pads! Very free flowing and chaotic with no stoppages, timeouts or commercial breaks. And notice the 4 posts for the goals. Kicking inside the center 2 gives you a goal and 6 points, if it goes inside the outer 2 only 1 point. Also notice how many players are on the pitch, it's played with 18 players per side! The whole experience was amazing, we were slowly figuring some of the rules (they can only kick, punch or toss the ball). The crowd energy and noise was very loud. A definite high point for us both and it was a great finish to our time in Melbourne!

All in all we had a great 4 days here!