MCG & the Melbourne Fringe

It's amazing how quickly you form an opinion of a city! I don't know if it's what I've read or just the general feel of the place but I loved Melbourne the minute we stepped foot out of the hostel! I think it may be the familiarity yet with subtle differences to a European City.

It certainly has a European/Cosmopolitan feel to it and this is summed up perfectly by the cafe culture here! You read that it's the coffee capital of the world and this is evident everywhere you look! Every other shop is selling coffee, either as a cafe, bakery, stall or a purists coffee only establishment. As we walked through town they were all full of commuters bustling around on their way to the office. I love it!We had breakfast at Cumulus Inc. Two of the Australian girls that we met back in Vietnam live in Melbourne and kindly sent us a long list of places to eat and drink. We're hoping to catch up with them on Saturday.

Brunch was one such place that they recommended to me. With a full day ahead I opted for a full English and Carly had granola with yogurt and rhubarb compote. The food was delicious and my first Melbourne coffee was very good too! After our food we headed over to the MCG.

For a sports fan (and cricket in particular) the MCG is one of the great stadiums in the world. At full capacity it can hold over 100,000 fans and has been a very intimidating place for English test teams to visit over the years. In comparison Lords can hold only 30,000, it's a pretty impressive place!

We were shown around the stadium by Brian, an MCC member at the ground. They are linked to the MCC at Lords but with different coloured stripes in their blazers! It was fascinating to see the stadium and hear about the history but I wasn't a big fan. It's used an AFL ground in the winter (we're back here tomorrow) so it was set up for football but compared to Lords it has none of its charm!

I'm definitely biased and it's a very impressive stadium but it feels more like Wembley than a cricket ground! The "Long Room" isn't a patch on Lord's and even the changing rooms feel very sterile. Lords is in fairness very old fashioned but I love it! The MCG does have a lot of its own history; afl, cricket and the 1956 olympics were staged here!

Melbourne is very much the sport capital of Australia and the view from the top stand shows you why. Within a small area stands the MCG, Rof Laver Arena, national football and rugby stadiums and a few other arenas. The guide claimed Melbourne is the sporting capital of the world but I would beg to differ with Lords, The Oval, Wembley, Wimbledon, Twickenham and the 2012 Olympic Park all in London!

Following our tour we headed to the national sports museum which is excellently put together. The cricket section and in particular the MCC archives were very interesting. There was a very well put together piece on Shane Warne where he appeared as a 3D hologram talking about his career. I'm not 100% sure Carly enjoyed the cricket section as much as I did!

Carly did however share my passion for the AFL interactive section! We had a 10 minute window between school groups and got to play with everything l. Kicking and passing the footballs aswell as a cricket runout, reaction tester and archery simulators! We had a very energetic time being kids before continuing around the museum.

By the time we emerged from the museum the rain had set in for the afternoon. We'd initially planned to take a look at the botanic gardens but instead decided to head back into the city for lunch. We wandered towards the tram station and gave our raincoats a proper test!

Central Melbourne Trams are all free of charge within an area. I'm not 100% sure why but it seems to be encourage tourism and the 'oyster style' system here is overly complicated! Anyway it works great for us. The conductor on our tram was there to help tourists so we asked him about the fringe festival. His blank look suggested he was unaware of the fringe and told us everyone was really only interested in the football finals at this time of year.

I believe there are six afl teams that are situated in Melbourne and it appears to be their main religion. Our conductor told us that it borders on fanatical this time of year, they even have a state holiday the Friday before the grand final! He was impressed we had tickets for tomorrows game. He was down to be working but felt that an oncoming soar throat meant he may have to call in sick!!

For lunch we headed to another recommendation, Seven Seeds in the north of the central district. We ordered a sandwich and burger to share and I had my second flat white of the day. Carly, feeling left out of all the coffee drinking ordered a hot chocolate! I've never liked chocolate drinks but this was amazing! It came with a stick of melting dark chocolate! More dessert than an accompaniment to a meal!

I haven't worked out why yet but doughnuts seem to be a staple here in Melbourne! On another recommendation we picked up a couple on our way to enquire about fringe tickets. Compared to Edinburgh this is on a very small scale but there were a number of acts to chose from. We settled on two shows at 5:30 and 7 giving us a quick rush across town.

The first show, Rent (is due), was two female singing guitarists with a light hearted comedy show about being a young female adult in Melbourne. We were both fans. The second act, She Dances, was slightly more highbrow. It reminded me of a show we saw in Edinburgh but didn't flow as well. The second half was very good and it definitely made you think.

We headed for a quick beer at a Beer Hall in central and getting hungry again headed for a quick bite. Our last recomendation was a small burger fast food joint called Bit8, think five guys but I'd say probably better. The fries with cheese, bacon and spring onion were particularly good. 

Finished the day back in the hostel as I finished today's blog and Carly continued with wedding and hen do planning for Hannah. Walking tour tomorrow morning and Afl semi in the evening.