Weekend in Melbourne

First off, thanks to all my great friends and their beer recommendations.  I will ask that they include some hangover remedies next time.

 

I had an amazing weekend of being a tourist by randomly stopping in the middle of intersections and staring up at buildings.  That got tiring so I started asking strangers for directions to places I had already been.

 

I  started off the weekend with a long run along the Yarra River (pronounced Yarra).  I ran this trail last week and was amazed at all the bike commuters.  On Saturday, the trail was full of runners.  They were not quite as many runners as we see in Austin on Town Lake trail but there were quite a few of them.  The rowers though were another story.  There must have been 30-40 boats out on the river.  Their coaches would be riding on the trail with megaphones shouting out the drills and instructions.   Speaking of the trail, they run on the left side of the trail, just like when drive on the roads.  Some idiot forgot that for a short spell and I almost got ran over. 

 

I won’t go into the gory details of being a tourist, (you can thank me now) other than to say Melbourne is pretty amazing, lots to see and do.  Really nice place to visit, lot’s of history and there are many side alleys with little shops, pubs  and coffee shops in them. 

 

They Shrine of Remembrance is a monument to all the Australians who lost  their lives in war.  I was at the Shrine, on Saturday, the same day that they announced that an Australian soldier was killed in Afghanistan.  They had a moment of silence and it was pretty sobering to be there at that moment.  And that is about all I have to say about that.

 

My crazy magnet was in overdrive on Sunday.  I rode the tourist bus around town because the weather was a little bit on the nasty side.  Of all the seats open on the bus, Mr. Crazy Old Man sat next to me.   Yep,, that was the longest bus ride of my life.  Besides being somewhat incoherent, he was hard of hearing so having any conversation was near impossible.  I did not want to seem rude so I tried to carry on as close to a conversation as is possible.  I got off the bus about a mile shy of where I wanted to be, but it was away from where I did not want to be, sitting next to Crazy old Man.