The easy part of my trip is over... Within another 13 hours I'll be in South America! The bridge has been fun, our team in the SWPT did quite well, just 1 VP off equal 8th place (8 to qualify) which we were very happy with. We even got a trophy for about a minute before we had to give it back!
So with any luck, the blogs will get a bit more interesting from here. Santiago, here I come!
One week in Australia is now past. It's been a nice way to start my trip... In a country where everything seems "normal"!
I spent two full days in Melbourne, enjoying the warmth and wandering around the city a bit. On Thursday I did a tour of the MCG, which is impressively huge! I then wandered into Melbourne Park, being the area around the Rod Laver Arena where the Australian Open (tennis) is being held at the moment. Last week they were doing a qualifying tournament for the main event, and it was free entry, so I enjoyed wandering around and watching a few games (of some still very good players) and soaking up the atmosphere. High quality live tennis was very interesting and quite different to watching it on TV.
I spent the evening catching up with an old friend who'd moved to Melbourne a few years ago, had dinner and a couple of drinks at some local bars. I have to say I loved the vibe of Melbourne, it seems like a very liveable city. I can definitely see me living there one day.
On Friday I spent some more time at the tennis with someone I met from the hostel at breakfast, and also visited the old Melbourne Gaol, which was quite interesting. That evening there was a BBQ put on at the hostel, and afterwards I joined a group of 12 or so having a few beers in the courtyard, hearing about everyone's travel stories, providing advice for people going to NZ and getting advice from people who've been to Peru.
Since Saturday I've been playing bridge at the Australian youth week: http://abf.com.au/youth/events/ayc/2013/results.asp. The bridge hasn't been all that fantastic but it's been fun. This weekend we play a test match against the Aussies and then next week we play the South West Pacific Teams Championships. After that... It's on to South America!
