November 5-7
I know, I know. It has taken me a very long time to write this post. My lack of dedication to cranking this out is not representative of our experience in Melbourne. We had a blast, which is no surprise since we were still hanging with Leigh. We flew into Melbourne on Sunday evening and had a chance to see the city by night.
First stop, the oldest pub in Melbourne for some cards:
Then a bit of wandering around. The train station:
With its famous clocks:
This beautiful church:
This building that looks like The Eiffel Tower:
And two of my favorite guys walking down the street:
The next morning we rented a car and headed out to Mornington Peninsula for wine tasting.
As luck would have it, two of our buddies from Chicago, Phil and Kate, just happened to be in Melbourne at the same time as us and their plans exactly coincided with Leigh’s plan to take us wine tasting.
How random is that? We had a great time catching up with two other travel-loving Chicagoans.
The views were stunning and the wine was delicious!
The next day was the big event! When Michael and I were waiting for our delayed disaster of a bus ride from St. Petersburg to Helsinki, we popped into a gyro place for dinner and met a couple from Melbourne. When they found out that we were going to be in Australia in November, they told us that the Melbourne Cup was an event that could not be missed. So we reached out to Leigh all those months ago and no surprise he made it happen.
The 158th annual Melbourne Cup!
Leigh wasn’t the only person that had to do some prep work for the cup. I had to do a bit of fascinator shopping.
The day is quite the event. Melbourne has a public holiday and most of Australia shuts down during the main race of the day. This year it was a bit quieter due to torrential downpour throughout the first half of the morning. We got a bit wet on our commute out to the tracks and after 12 months and 5 days on the road, my trusty sandals got tossed as I changed into heels and we walked into the building.
Adios sandals. You’ve served me well.
Michael and I had been carrying around fancy clothes ever since we left Bangkok and Vietnam, respectively, for this exact day. The fascinator was purchased in Sydney, but the rest of the digs were handmade in Hoi An.
This was my first time to a horse race and I’m pretty sure I was spoiled.
Our table overlooked the race track (specifically the finish line) so we could stay dry and comfortable for the entire day. Plus they served us champagne and wine all day along with an incredible meal. And second lunch:
Much of the day had a very British feel to it – especially once we got to these tea time snacks. Far left is a meat pie, if I recall properly. Very fancy.
Leigh taught us the cool kid way to keep track of the races in your race book by tearing off the corner as a race is completed. Genius.
The above bet was in honor of Colette who’s only 11 months so she won’t know that Zizis is spelled wrong.
An StL bet that would have been cooler if the horse had placed:
And here are our handsome hosts:
During the halftime show, Sam Smith performed!
And then it was time for the main event!!
Michael made all of the bets.
Michael’s bet on Prince of Arran to place was a big win and that covered all the other bets we lost money on, so we are still going to have to find jobs soon. But we had an amazing time! Look at this great photo of Leigh and me with Michael creeping in the back.
We did see the sad part of horse racing. Michael’s horse, Cliffs of Moher, broke his leg during the main race and had to be put down on the course. It is one of the most heartbreaking things to see. They slowed the horse down and put a curtain around him before putting him down. It was just horrible.
We also saw the other sad part of horse racing: when older women have too much to drink and fall down steps.
This isn’t a great shot because I didn’t want to be too obvious, but the hand on the ground belongs to a woman who fell down the steps and broke her arm. We know because the bone popped straight out of the skin. It was disgusting and we felt bad, but we also made quite a few jokes about them hanging a white curtain around the area and having to put her down.
The rain had subsided, so after the main race we went down to the track to get a closer look.
And then off to a bit more schmoozing in the club which gave me a chance to snap a few more fascinator shots of the crowd:
And that was it! We won a few bets and lost a few and ended up basically even. But we ended our year+ adventure outside the US with a bang! Our week or so with Leigh in Sydney/Melbourne was basically just one big party. We are so lucky to have made such a good friend all those months ago in Antartica. Would you look at that?!? Just look at it!! We can’t wait to reciprocate when Leigh comes back to the US, hopefully really soon! We miss you already!
And now it is off to Hawaii to meet up with Mike’s mom and dad for a few days of relaxation and catching up before heading back to the real world. Don’t worry! There’s still one more post coming about our re-entry to USA.
