What's There to do in Melbourne, Australia?

[DieHardCubbie]

Thanks for the report Yikes....

Glad you had a great trip.....

[LBJackal]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. It was a pretty fun and interesting trip to Australia.

Some things I learned on the Trip:
1. Victoria Bitter is a pretty good beer, much better than Fosters. Fosters is kinda the Budweiser of Australia - a beer that isn't that good but proclaims to the be a national beer.

Always good to add more beers to your repertoire

6. Australia pretty much tags along with the US in all the wars (e.g. Vietnam, Korean, Iraq) because it views the US as a strategic ally. The government seems to be concerned with the possibility that Indonesia will invade Australia (i.e. the AUS embassy was just bombed in Jakarta last week) and it hopes it is building a credit with the US armed forces. Many locals disagree with AUS military actions because it see the AUS gov't treating the country like the 51st US state.

I think every country feels that way (51st state, I mean).

7. The most popular sports there is Footy, Rugby and Cricket. Nobody there has ever heard of the Australian baseball player Geoff Jenkins

By footy do you mean Aussie Rules? Because I thought they called soccer "soccer" out there. And I got the Aussie that was here for one semester hooked on baseball last year. Now he's keeping up-to-date with it, and even eMailed me at the shock of the Yanks getting A-Rod

10. People there are very friendly. Everybody was just real kind and generous.

That's been my experience with Aussie's too. I only know a few (from Canberra though) and they were both pretty nice. Hopefully I'll be able to make a trip out there someday. Germany is on top of the lsit for the 2006 World Cup though.

Good to hear that the extra weekend was worth it

[Madison]

Glad to hear you had such a great trip Yikes.

6. Australia pretty much tags along with the US in all the wars (e.g. Vietnam, Korean, Iraq) because it views the US as a strategic ally. The government seems to be concerned with the possibility that Indonesia will invade Australia (i.e. the AUS embassy was just bombed in Jakarta last week) and it hopes it is building a credit with the US armed forces. Many locals disagree with AUS military actions because it see the AUS gov't treating the country like the 51st US state.

Hmm......Australia as our 51st state? Doesn't sound like such a bad idea.

[thetongueofire]

Glad to hear you had such a great trip Yikes.

6. Australia pretty much tags along with the US in all the wars (e.g. Vietnam, Korean, Iraq) because it views the US as a strategic ally. The government seems to be concerned with the possibility that Indonesia will invade Australia (i.e. the AUS embassy was just bombed in Jakarta last week) and it hopes it is building a credit with the US armed forces. Many locals disagree with AUS military actions because it see the AUS gov't treating the country like the 51st US state.

Hmm......Australia as our 51st state? Doesn't sound like such a bad idea.

yea but they play cricket.

[NZF]

Thanks for the update Yikes, I'm glad you enjoyed yourself. You didn't watch any footie (Aussie Rules)?

Also not suprised they have never heard of Geoff Jenkins from the Brewers since he was born in Washington. Dave Nilsson ex Brewer would have rung a few bells with them. Only seem to be Aussie pitchers in the bigs these days and with Grant Balfour the best of them it doesn't say alot does it Luke Prokopec, Graeme Lloyd, Damian Moss

Makes you wonder how they could make it to the gold medal playoff at the Olympics