Melbourne Park Hyatt, I've missed you so ...

Thanks to my wonderful parents, I'm back at the Hyatt! :D 

I think this means I'm officially no longer a backpacker (at least until my next trip).

I have one night here and I fly home tomorrow morning!! It's been an amazing ride and a great last week. My brain hurts and I can't wait to get to the gym and spa/sauna so I'm not going to write much but I just want to quickly fill you in on the past week. I went down to St. Leonards last Monday and spent a couple days hanging out with Richard and Diane. It was really nice and for the first time since I've been in Australia the weather in St. Leonards was warm so I finally got to spend a day at the beach.

I also got to go to work with Richard for a couple hours when I first got into town and I was able to pet some horses and play with some dogs; I also met two cute little Aussie boys (the sons of one of his clients) who play basketball and are big NBA fans -- one loves the Lakers and one loves the Heat haha

I had left a small backpack at Richard's house at the beginning of my trip and I took everything out of my awesome green backpack and put it into the spare and my big one (which is now weighing it at around 11 kg I think) so I could mail the backpack to the girl I met in Sydney who bought it from me. I was sad to see it go but I'm very happy thinking about her getting it in the mail and bringing it with her to Africa. Here's our very last picture together:

On Wednesday afternoon, I took the train back to the city (forgot my nalgene bottle on the train. boo) and met up with my friend Jon who I stayed with for the next two nights in Carlton. He's been doing nightly comedy shows for the Melbourne Comedy Festival so I went to his shows on Thursday night and Friday night. On Thursday night I brought my friend Emily, who I hadn't seen since before Christmas. We went for a drink before the show and on the way to the bar I found $10 on the ground! Sweet!! Jon's show was awesome and we had a really fun night.

I met Jon's friend who not only has a sweet beard but also a Jack Kerouac tattoo! Dreamy!

On Friday I played Nintendo (Mario Bros. 1 & 3, naturally), swam at the Carlton Baths, hula hooped (Jon's roommate, Kym, let me borrow her hoop! thanks Kym!) and went to my favorite spot in Brunswick -- A1 Lebanese Bakery. I got spinach and feta pizzas for me and Jon, and lots of baklava. yummmm :) Kym and I passed out fliers for Jon's show at Town Hall, which was an interesting experience, and then we went to the show. Jon and I stayed at the venue until about 3 am and then came home and played Nintendo till about 4. :D The next morning I was soooo tired. I got up early and met my friend Matt in Essendon so we could go watch his footy team, the Tullamarine Demons. He normally plays but he's out with an injury right now. They have two teams (A Team and B team basically) and both teams won by a lot! I think the B Team won by about 75-100 points and the A Team won by about 200 points!! During halftime we threw and kicked the footy and I was ... not great. But it was fun and a gorgeous day. Yesterday we went to the footy game at Etihad Stadium: Essendon Bombers vs. St. Kilda Saints. Matt's dad let me wear his brand new Essendon "jumper" (sweatshirt) and hat. When we got to the game, Matt got a new Essendon scarf for being a member (season ticket holder) and he gave it to me! I looked like a real Bombers fan :D which of course I am now.

                                               That's an E for Essendon :D

It was an awesome game and the Bombers absolutely destroyed the Saints. Final score was 136-84. It was so much fun! I loved listening to all the Aussies yelling at their teams, and I even learned a new thing to cheer: "Carn The Bombers!!" According to Urban Dictionary, Carn means "come on" and comes from the drunken crowds of Australian Rules Football. HAHA! After the game, me, Matt and Brett went to a bar at the stadium to have a beer and wait for the crowds to go home. While we were there, we met a very entertaining Aussie man named George who told us all about how he spent time in jail when he was young for being "naughty" even though he's really a "good bloke". Here's a picture of me, Brett and George:

This morning Matt's dad dropped us off at the train station and we rode the train into the city.

Matt went to work and I went to my beloved Park Hyatt. I figured my room wouldn't be ready for a few hours but I wanted to get checked in so I could go to the fitness center. But I was pleasantly surprised when they said my room was ready (at 9:30 in the morning!) and they'd even given me an upgrade!

Oh! I almost forgot. When Matt and I got downtown before the game, I told him I needed to go to the ATM to get money for my ticket. We went to Southern Cross station where I knew there was a Westpac ATM and I took out $20. I wanted to take out $40 but there isn't an option to take out $40 (just $20 or $50) so I did two $20 transactions. After the second transaction, I took my card and then pulled out my receipt and walked away talking to Matt about something (probably the list of Aussie slang words that we've been compiling on his ipad for the past couple days). We walked about 20 feet away from the ATM and then I heard someone call out, "Miss! You forgot your money!" HAHA! I had left my $20 sitting in the ATM machine. What an idiot. I can't believe no one took the money! Matt thinks it was because there was a line of people waiting to use the machine; if it was just the one guy by himself, he probably would have just picked it up and kept it. I felt so stupid, especially considering that's almost HALF of the money I had left for the rest of my trip, and I almost threw it away. So thank you Essendon fans (actually I didn't get a good look at them so they could have been St. Kilda fans or not even footy fans at all, but I'm just going to assume they were Essendon fans) for being so honest!

Okay, gym time. I'll try to post another blog (yay free internet!) tonight :D

Here are a couple more footy pics for ya:

CARN THE BOMBERS!